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The differences between network designers and network consultants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a network designer and a network consultant. Additionally, a network consultant has an average salary of $89,303, which is higher than the $84,818 average annual salary of a network designer.
The top three skills for a network designer include network design, PC and OSPF. The most important skills for a network consultant are appeals, firewall, and windows server.
| Network Designer | Network Consultant | |
| Yearly salary | $84,818 | $89,303 |
| Hourly rate | $40.78 | $42.93 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 66,415 | 58,194 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 57% | Bachelor's Degree, 60% |
| Average age | 43 | 43 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
Network designers are the people in an organization who assess a company's network requirements and design a network that meets the needs. The responsibilities of this position are designing and submitting plans for the network to management, making updates and upgrading the software and hardware where needed, incorporating security features into the design, configuring multiple types of connections, e.g., printers, servers and supporting specialized services like specific point virtualization through cloud computing.
Network consultants are information technology (IT) professionals who are responsible for designing, setting up, and maintaining computer networks for an organization or at a client location. These consultants are required to meet with the manager of an organization and network engineers to discuss their networking requirements. By supervising a team of IT professionals, these consultants must administer technical issues and fix infrastructure issues onsite. Network consultants must also maintain documentation for IT infrastructure as well as coordinate network documentation with account managers.
Network designers and network consultants have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Network Designer | Network Consultant | |
| Average salary | $84,818 | $89,303 |
| Salary range | Between $62,000 And $115,000 | Between $60,000 And $132,000 |
| Highest paying City | New York, NY | Mountain View, CA |
| Highest paying state | Connecticut | California |
| Best paying company | AT&T | Dell |
| Best paying industry | Telecommunication | Manufacturing |
There are a few differences between a network designer and a network consultant in terms of educational background:
| Network Designer | Network Consultant | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 57% | Bachelor's Degree, 60% |
| Most common major | Electrical Engineering | Computer Science |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between network designers' and network consultants' demographics:
| Network Designer | Network Consultant | |
| Average age | 43 | 43 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 87.0% Female, 13.0% | Male, 87.0% Female, 13.0% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 8.0% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 11.8% Asian, 13.7% White, 61.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 9.0% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.7% Asian, 11.3% White, 61.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 9% | 9% |