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Senior network consultant vs network administrator

The differences between senior network consultants and network administrators can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a senior network consultant and a network administrator. Additionally, a senior network consultant has an average salary of $98,825, which is higher than the $71,357 average annual salary of a network administrator.

The top three skills for a senior network consultant include visio, firewall and project management. The most important skills for a network administrator are switches, windows server, and troubleshoot.

Senior network consultant vs network administrator overview

Senior Network ConsultantNetwork Administrator
Yearly salary$98,825$71,357
Hourly rate$47.51$34.31
Growth rate5%5%
Number of jobs39,175106,886
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 71%Bachelor's Degree, 55%
Average age4343
Years of experience22

What does a senior network consultant do?

Senior network consultants manage office infrastructure expansions, relocations, and establishing disaster recovery sites. They should be their clients' contact, advisor, and primary advocate with the help of their peers and the entire organization. They help clients understand implementations while encouraging them to focus on their business goals using modern technology to gain an advantage over their competitors. A senior network consultant should have the capability to see beyond technical expertise, ensure their client's needs are met to the best of their abilities, and involve them in coming up with solutions.

What does a network administrator do?

A network administrator is responsible for managing an organization's computer systems, ensuring its smooth operations and highest efficiency. Network administrators' duties include inspecting network malfunctions, troubleshooting unresponsive programs, improving system processes, analyzing client's specifications, upgrading existing applications, coordinating with the technology department, and creating a report of network issues resolutions. A network administrator should display a strong command of programming languages. Extensive knowledge in the technology industry and analytical and problem-solving skills to manage network problems immediately is also necessary.

Senior network consultant vs network administrator salary

Senior network consultants and network administrators have different pay scales, as shown below.

Senior Network ConsultantNetwork Administrator
Average salary$98,825$71,357
Salary rangeBetween $71,000 And $136,000Between $56,000 And $90,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaWashington
Best paying companyAmazonGoogle
Best paying industryTelecommunicationFinance

Differences between senior network consultant and network administrator education

There are a few differences between a senior network consultant and a network administrator in terms of educational background:

Senior Network ConsultantNetwork Administrator
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 71%Bachelor's Degree, 55%
Most common majorElectrical EngineeringComputer Science
Most common collegeNortheastern UniversityMassachusetts Institute of Technology

Senior network consultant vs network administrator demographics

Here are the differences between senior network consultants' and network administrators' demographics:

Senior Network ConsultantNetwork Administrator
Average age4343
Gender ratioMale, 90.1% Female, 9.9%Male, 88.6% Female, 11.4%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 8.0% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 11.7% Asian, 13.8% White, 61.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%Black or African American, 8.8% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.5% Asian, 9.6% White, 63.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage9%9%

Differences between senior network consultant and network administrator duties and responsibilities

Senior network consultant example responsibilities.

  • Manage design of DNS gTLD architecture.
  • Lead and supervise team of 15 staff members through complex-wide efforts to port-map network switches in over 100 residential dormitories.
  • Excele at managing major network-wide upgrades; improve speed and predictability of multicast and order-routing data.
  • Configure NAT solution's on Cisco IOS routers.
  • Monitor and troubleshoot the protocols EIGRP, OSPF and MPLS.
  • Implement Infoblox DDI (DHCP, DNS & IPAM) for proof of concept and migration in corporate environment.
  • Show more

Network administrator example responsibilities.

  • Lead and manage desktop standards project.
  • Manage backups using EMC Networker and Avamar.
  • Manage Solarwinds to monitor servers and networks for all locations.
  • Manage all provisioning and technical issues for new customer IP blocks.
  • Deploy and manage storage (windows file servers and NetApp NAS).
  • Manage all technology: Novell, Microsoft, Cisco, email, library, labs, dorms, programs
  • Show more

Senior network consultant vs network administrator skills

Common senior network consultant skills
  • Visio, 10%
  • Firewall, 4%
  • Project Management, 4%
  • BGP, 4%
  • Nexus, 3%
  • Switches, 3%
Common network administrator skills
  • Switches, 7%
  • Windows Server, 6%
  • Troubleshoot, 5%
  • Network Hardware, 5%
  • Routers, 4%
  • Lan Wan, 4%

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