HOW TO GET THERE
Typical pathway
A typical path is to finish secondary school with courses in math, computer studies, and communications, then build skills through a college, university, or private training program in network administration, computer science, or networking and security. Some people start with a diploma, certificate, or degree, while others learn through related work experience and on-the-job training. Early experience such as helping with school or small-business networks, hardware setup, troubleshooting, backups, or user support can be useful. Requirements can vary by employer and province, so some roles may ask for different combinations of education and experience.
THE WORK
What you may do
Legacy duties
- Maintain, troubleshoot and administer the use of local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), mainframe networks, computer workstations, connections to the Internet and peripheral equipment
- Evaluate and install computer hardware, networking software, operating system software and software applications
- Operate master consoles to monitor the performance of computer systems and networks and to co-ordinate access and use of computer networks
- Provide problem-solving services to network users
- Install, maintain, troubleshoot and upgrade Web-server hardware and software
- Implement network traffic and security monitoring software, and optimize server performance
- Perform routine network start up and close down and maintain control records
- Perform data backups and disaster recovery operations
- Conduct tests and perform security and quality controls
- Control and monitor e-mail use, Web navigation, and installed softwares
- Perform shell scripting or other basic scripting tasks
- May supervise other workers in this group.
SKILLS TO BUILD
Skills used in this Career
Computer SkillsProject ManagementTeam project work