nanog mailing list archives
Re: Programmers with network engineering skills
From: Lamar Owen <lowen () pari edu>
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2012 14:35:49 -0500
On Monday, February 27, 2012 05:14:00 PM Owen DeLong wrote:
Who is a strong network engineer Who has been a professional software engineer (though many years ago and my skills are rusty and out of date)
Owen, you nailed it here. Even the ACM recognizes that a 'Software Engineer' and a 'Computer Scientist' are different animals (ACM recognizes five 'computer related' degree paths with unique skill maps: Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Services, and Information Technology; see https://www.acm.org/education/curricula-recommendations for more details). A true 'network engineer' will have a different mindset and different focus than a 'Computer Scientist' who has all the theoretical math skills that a Computer Scientist needs (a reply to one of my recent posts mentioned that math, and was somewhat derogatory about engineers and timeliness, but I digress). Coding and development can bridge across the differences; but it is very useful to understand some of the very basic differences in mindset, and apply that to the position being sought. It boils down to whether the OP wants strong engineering skills with the accompanying mindset, or strong CS skills with the accompanying mindset. Given the other clearance issues, I would be more inclined to say that the OP would want a 'Software Engineer' with some network engineering skills rather than a CS grad with some network guy skills. It's a different animal, and software engineering teaches change control and configuration management at a different depth than the typical CS track will do (and that sort of thing would be required in such a cleared environment). On the flip side, that same 'Software Engineer' isn't nearly as steeped in CS fundamentals of algorithms and the associated math.
Current thread:
- Re: Programmers with network engineering skills, (continued)
- Re: Programmers with network engineering skills Owen DeLong (Feb 27)
- Re: Programmers with network engineering skills Michael Hallgren (Feb 27)
- RE: Programmers with network engineering skills Holmes,David A (Feb 27)
- Re: Programmers with network engineering skills Randy Bush (Feb 27)
- Re: Programmers with network engineering skills Michael Thomas (Feb 27)
- RE: Programmers with network engineering skills Holmes,David A (Feb 27)
- Re: Programmers with network engineering skills Daniel Schauenberg (Feb 27)
- RE: Programmers with network engineering skills Holmes,David A (Feb 27)
- RE: Programmers with network engineering skills Brandt, Ralph (Feb 28)
- Re: Programmers with network engineering skills Owen DeLong (Feb 28)
- Re: Programmers with network engineering skills Lamar Owen (Feb 28)
- Re: Programmers with network engineering skills Jay Ashworth (Feb 27)
- Re: Programmers with network engineering skills Doug Barton (Feb 27)
- Re: Programmers with network engineering skills Doug Barton (Feb 27)
- RE: Programmers with network engineering skills Jared Newell (Feb 27)
- Re: Programmers with network engineering skills William Herrin (Feb 27)
- Re: Programmers with network engineering skills Rodrick Brown (Feb 27)
- Re: Programmers with network engineering skills Jason Bertoch (Feb 27)
- Re: Programmers with network engineering skills George Herbert (Feb 27)
- Re: Programmers with network engineering skills Robert E. Seastrom (Feb 29)
- RE: Programmers with network engineering skills Jamie Bowden (Feb 28)