Hi there!

I’m planning to have a change in career shift from a systems engineer (jack of all trades, master of none, in my country) to a specific career of systems administration / network security.

I had been a senior technical support engineer / junior systems administrator for a local ISP until it went bankrupt then a webmaster for a Macintosh-based company during my early 20s until it met the same fate and I ended up working for another IT company as a systems engineer focused on training newly hired employees on the basics of the Internet and developing Internet applications (open-source).

Since last year, I’ve been yearning to get back into going back into systems administration and would also like to venture into network security. Unfortunately, eventhough my current employers have networking-related projects that would require a certain level of systems administration; I wasn’t given an opportunity to be involved with it probably due to my limited or outdated skills/know-how.

Early this year, I’ve enrolled myself in the Cisco Networking Academy at our local university. Currently attending my 4th semester and with great hope that I would be able to take the CCNA exam by the end of this year or early of next year to be certified. With hopes that this would enable me to have an opportunity to take part in networking-related projects.

Now, the question is what other course of action (training, opportunities and even reading materials) that can be suggested to assist me in shifting from a systems engineer to a systems administrator or network security specialist?

I would really appreciate to hear from you, guys. Thanks.