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I am looking to get back to work after illness. At present I am trying to work out whether to pursue a career in ???¡é?¡é?????¡­?¡°Wi-Fi???¡é?¡é???????? or just stay with my previous field of satcom/microwave/networking.

Perhaps someone could help me with the following:

1. As far as ???¡é?¡é?????¡­?¡°Wi-Fi jobs???¡é?¡é???????? are concerned, how are these usually advertised ? Do the ads say ???¡é?¡é?????¡­?¡°Wi-Fi network adminstrator required???¡é?¡é????????, ???¡é?¡é?????¡­?¡°Wi-Fi site survey engineer needed???¡é?¡é???????? , ???¡é?¡é?????¡­?¡°Wi-Fi commisioning engineer needed???¡é?¡é????????

Or

Do most of them say something like ???¡é?¡é?????¡­?¡°Network admininistrator needed, Wi-Fi a plus???¡é?¡é???????? ?

2. As regards the salary surveys posted on this site, how are the figures broken down ? In other words, If it says ???¡é?¡é?????¡­?¡°CWNA certified folks earn $x,000???¡é?¡é???????? what other qualifications/experience do they have [ I know that is quite a big question ] ? Was that taken into account in the analysis. ?

3. Where do you find ads etc for ???¡é?¡é?????¡­?¡°Wi-Fi???¡é?¡é???????? jobs ?

4. I live in Orlando, FL. If anyone knows of someone in the Central Florida/Tampa area whom I could contact for employment, I???¡é?¡é?????¡é???¡éd be most grateful. Am prepared to do anything ???¡é?¡é?????¡é?€?? pull cable, sweep floors, whatever.

Tks

Dave

Dave,

Indeed has a good list of wifi related jobs:

http://www.indeed.com/q-Wifi-jobs.html

I have seen quite a few from Orlando/Tampa area listed in the past so you should not have a problem in your area.

Ken

Ken,

Hey that's great! I'm not looking for a job at the moment, but I know what a hassle it is without a site like this.

This site has more listings for CWNA and CWSP than Monster and Dice combined.

And to Dave, don't waste your time putting in search terms like "wireless" on sites like Monster or Dice. Use 802.11, etc. "Wireless" will (almost) only get you listings for cell phone sales.

Many thanks guys. It has been so difficult for me to find the right location on the Internet to look for Wi-Fi jobs, as most are for cell phone work as you were saying.

If anyone knows of anything else, please let me know.

Cheers

Dave

Every now and again I browse the vendor's sites looking for postings that I can share here on the forum. Motorola is often looking for RF folks and many of the Wi-Fi vendors do from time-to-time as well.

I would agree. Always check the manufacturers websites. Usually though, field positions are SEs or the like. If you're not interested in being an SE, then you'd most likely need to be in the company's headquarter town.

I've found in the past that searching on the CWNA, WLAN, WiFi, 802.11 keywords help to narrow down those networking jobs where WLAN experience is needed.

I'm not sure of your qualifications, but I will say it's harder for an RF/SatComm guy to move into a WLAN position than it is for a network guy to move into a WLAN position. Even though 802.11 is a lot of RF and that knowledge is handy, it's still mostly Networking 101.....VLANs, spanning-tree, routing, etc..etc...

So if you are really wanting to make the jump from RF to networking, then you'll need that base of knowledge too.

Good luck with it.
Brian

Tks Guys

Although my main area was satellite/microwave, I have done a lot of work on routers and switches for many years. I worked for a long time for a company called Cable and Wireless and you were usually dumped in a remote part of the world and expected to look after everything on site from switches and routers to telephone pbx???¡é?¡é?????¡é???¡és and diesel generators. We usually just had to get the manuals out and try to figure out how things worked. Very stressful at times, but it did ???¡é?¡é?????¡­?¡°cement???¡é?¡é???????? things in your head. You were expected to be able to trace a fault all the way from the customer's LAN through the backhaul [ usually radio ] link, to the satellite station and across to the other end.

Dave

Just thought I???¡é?¡é?????¡é???¡éd put a quick summary of my background here in case any kind soul can help:

Education: BSc [ Hons ] Electrical/Electronic Engineering. Various manufacturer courses: Alcatel, Harris etc.

Experience: Design, testing, commissioning and troubleshooting of satellite, microwave, LAN systems. Experienced with cisco routers/switches, SDH, IP multicasting, pbx???¡é?¡é?????¡é???¡és, data switches [ Alcatel etc ], UPS systems.

Locations: Bahrain, North Yemen, Falklands, Belize, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Diego Garcia, Nigeria, Grand Turk, Bermuda [ NASA comms support ], Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, China, Norway, Canada, Chile. Have travelled to or worked in around 100 countries and territories.

Military: 15th Scottish Volunteer Bn The Parachute Regiment [ Reserve Forces ]

Satellite systems is my specialty area, but have been involved with general LAN/WAN networking for most of my career.

Tks

Dave

Also, some Cisco AP and WLC work. Lot of frame relay work.

Here are a few ideas.

Of course start local and look for companies that will do a wireless install and then apply.

Next I would.

1. Start with your vendor of choice then the others
2. When searching the large boards use certifications like CWNA / CWSP / CCIE Wireless, etc.
3. Linkedin has a special wireless jobs group.
4. www.wirelessjobs.com
5. Contact Vendors and get their list of VAR's and contact the VAR's.

~K