What Does a Network Engineer Do?

In this section, we take a look at the annual salaries of other professions. Take network operation technician for example. On average, the network operation technicians annual salary is $19,285 lower than what network engineers make on average every year.

While the salaries between these two careers can be different, they do share some of the same responsibilities. Employees in both network engineers and network operation technicians positions are skilled in switches, troubleshoot, and network infrastructure.

There are some key differences in responsibilities as well. For example, a network engineer responsibilities require skills like "firewall," "eigrp," "network design," and "ios." Meanwhile a typical network operation technician has skills in areas such as "network operations," "customer service," "routers," and "trouble tickets." This difference in skills reveals how truly different these two careers really are.

Network operation technicians tend to make the most money in the retail industry by averaging a salary of $74,614. In contrast, network engineers make the biggest average salary of $90,927 in the technology industry.

Network operation technicians tend to reach similar levels of education than network engineers. In fact, network operation technicians are 4.2% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.

The next role we're going to look at is the network support analyst profession. Typically, this position earns a higher pay. In fact, they earn a $364 higher salary than network engineers per year.

Not everything about these jobs is different. Take their skills, for example. Network engineers and network support analysts both include similar skills like "switches," "troubleshoot," and "network infrastructure" on their resumes.

In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences that are worth noting. For example, network engineer responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "network design," "f5," "nexus," and "asa." Meanwhile, a network support analyst might be skilled in areas such as "routers," "problem resolution," "network security," and "vpn." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.

Network support analysts may earn a higher salary than network engineers, but network support analysts earn the most pay in the technology industry with an average salary of $98,644. On the other side of things, network engineers receive higher paychecks in the technology industry where they earn an average of $90,927.

On the topic of education, network support analysts earn similar levels of education than network engineers. In general, they're 2.3% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

The third profession we take a look at is senior network administrator. On an average scale, these workers bring in higher salaries than network engineers. In fact, they make a $5,612 higher salary per year.

While looking through the resumes of several network engineers and senior network administrators we discovered that both professions have similar skills. These similarities include skills such as "switches," "troubleshoot," and "network infrastructure," but they differ when it comes to other required skills.

Some important key differences between the two careers are a few of the skills necessary to fulfill responsibilities. Some examples from network engineer resumes include skills like "juniper," "network design," "ios," and "f5," whereas a senior network administrator might be skilled in "routers," "network hardware," "vpn," and "network security. "

Interestingly enough, senior network administrators earn the most pay in the finance industry, where they command an average salary of $93,129. As mentioned previously, network engineers highest annual salary comes from the technology industry with an average salary of $90,927.

When it comes to education, senior network administrators tend to earn similar education levels than network engineers. In fact, they're 0.9% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.0% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Now, we'll look at senior infrastructure engineers, who generally average a higher pay when compared to network engineers annual salary. In fact, the difference is about $34,208 per year.

While both network engineers and senior infrastructure engineers complete day-to-day tasks using similar skills like switches, troubleshoot, and network infrastructure, the two careers also vary in other skills.

Each job requires different skills like "ospf," "juniper," "eigrp," and "network design," which might show up on a network engineer resume. Whereas senior infrastructure engineer might include skills like "cloud," "aws," "customer service," and "powershell."

In general, senior infrastructure engineers make a higher salary in the hospitality industry with an average of $123,360. The highest network engineer annual salary stems from the technology industry.

The average resume of senior infrastructure engineers showed that they earn similar levels of education to network engineers. So much so that the likelihood of them earning a Master's Degree is 0.4% more. Additionally, they're more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.2%.