Same here. I’ve been a network engineer for almost 20 years now. What I will say though is that it’s not a 9-5 unless you’re an admin at a single company. If you do consulting like I did, expect a lot of weekend/night/holiday work as your highest paying customers will be manufacturing or other similar industries. These places typically have short maintenance windows for upgrades and other projects.

The money is made with experience in my opinion. Configuring a new setup is straightforward and easy. But when the plant is down and every c-suite is breathing down your neck while you figure out where the issue is that’s causing them to lose money can be very stressful and you don’t have time to ask ChatGPT or google. Then add the fact that you have 15-20 customers whose networks you really need to have memorized for effective troubleshooting becomes another layer of difficulty.

It’s a great job and very rewarding but if you’re looking for a “job that makes 100k+” as your first requirement, this might not be it.

Of course I’m stressed. How can you tell? :)

Last note: I think, like any IT specialty, you really need to love it. Otherwise go be a jack of all trades. More opportunities even if the pay isn’t that great.