Should I learn programming or networking?
Programming has the benefit of being a higher paid position when you have the skills they want or need.
Does networking pay well?
You don’t need a four year degree in computer science to develop networking skills. It is often an associate’s degree or even a one year internship.
And pay rates tend to correlate to your certification level. Which one is harder to learn?
A lot of people can teach themselves programming. Networking is harder.
Only because it is so hands-on.
On the other hand, networking can’t be outsourced to a code monkey in India or China. The guy might be from those nations, but he has to be here to install those new server blades.
Which career do you think is harder?
Programmers have to stay up to date with changes to the languages, like C to C++ to C#, whereas networking is more stable. LAN and WAN networking hasn’t changed much except for the routers and such getting smarter.
Two words: wireless and wi-fi. Or is that three?
As the networking components get smarter, they don’t need as many networking people. But routers and cables still can’t install themselves.
What do you think of the working conditions?
Programming tends to have a high burnout rate. Companies like to push programmers to have high productivity levels, though they can’t handle it for a long period of time.
Then again, having to scoot around in crawlspaces and thread fiber through the walls is a challenge. What is that worth to you?
Start out in networking, and you may make 30-50K depending on skill sets. For programmers, it is anywhere from 30K to 70K depending on what you can do.
But I don’t know if anyone has a networked hardware example they can cart into a job interview, whereas they can send demonstration executables or website links to perspective employers.
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