How To Hire a Network Engineer
Complete with job descriptions, skill profiles, and interview templates. Use this Network Engineer hiring guide to help you make the right decisions, fast.
Network Engineer Recruitment Guide
What does a Network Engineer do?
The role of a Network Engineer can be summarized as designing and planning networked environments for organisations. Through this planning they will get the required physical hardware, proceed to install it and then manage these devices in order to create a functioning and highly optimised networked environment. Once they have the network up and running their duties turn into ensuring performance, security and uptime of this network.
Day to day tasks of a Network Engineer
- Designing upgrades to existing networks
- Installing and configuring network equipment
- Configuring and managing firewalls
- Ensuring maximum network performance
- Interacting stakeholders to understand their needs of the network
Network Engineer definition
Network engineers overlook the design, implementation, on-going support and managing of networks for organisations. They will make sure the network is working as intended and strive to optimize where they can in order to get the best performance out of their infrastructure.
HIRING PROCESS
Network Engineer Hiring Process
Build the ideal candidate profile
Skills needed for a Network Engineer
Network Engineers must be very good problem solvers and have good communication skills because often they will need to explain networks to non-technical people. Network engineers will also need a wide range of knowledge of different components in a networked environment as they will need to decide between them when designing a network.
- Troubleshooting
- Networking
- Communication
Pro Tip
Focus on the analytical ability of candidates as this will be a key indicator of success due to the nature of the role. This will allow you to distinguish candidates between a skill which is highly important when designing networks and managing them.
WRITE A JOB DESCRIPTION BASED ON SKILLS
How to write a Network Engineer job description
Once you’ve determined the skills required for the role, you can write the job description to advertise for your position. Here’s what to include in your Network Engineer job description:
Job Title: What position are you hiring for?
Summary: What makes your company unique? What would it be like to work for you?
Responsibilities: An overview of the role’s day-to-day activities, and how the position contributes to the organization
Requirements: Skills a candidate must have to perform the job successfully
Benefits: Details of compensation, benefits, and any perks on offer
Pro Tip
In building your candidate profile, remember you’ve already identified what skills are needed to succeed in the role. Here’s where to list your “must-have” skills and maybe a couple of “nice-to-have” skills. For example, a Network Engineer must be an expert at using the ‘tcpdump’ tool in order to trace the route of packets.
SELECTING THE IDEAL CANDIDATE
Sample skill tests for a Network Engineer
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Question 1
Communication
Question Type: Audio
You are working as a part of a wider team of engineers, one of which isn’t picking up tickets or collaborating with the rest of the team. This has meant a larger workload for you. How would you manage this?
Question 2
Troubleshooting
Question Type: Text
Why is the “show ip arp” command not showing the mac address of the p2p address of the next-hop connected via the serial interface?
Question 3
Networking
Question Type: Number
How many bits is a subnet mask made up of?
INTERVIEW TOP PERFORMERS
How to interview a Network Engineer
Once your Vervoe skills assessment has surfaced the most qualified people for your open role, you can focus on interviewing these candidates. The interview should focus on any skills that require development that were highlighted from the skills assessment.
Now you know that candidates can do the job, the interview becomes more of a relationship building exercise where you can get to know the candidate on a more personal level, understand their motivations, and how they would fit in with the team.
Making An Offer
How much does it cost to hire a Network Engineer?
In the United States the salary of a Network Engineer is reported to be $97,481 by Indeed.com, whereas Glassdoor USA reports it as $85,123. The lowest ten percent of Network Engineer are paid $51,000, whereas the top ninety percent earn up to $75,000 with the median of these salaries coming in at $108,000 according to Payscale.com
Network Engineer Salary United States
In the United States the median salary for a Network Engineer is $75,000 USD. This salary will be heavily dependent on the skill of the employee and the type of work they will be working on.
Network Engineer Salary United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom a Network Engineer can expect to have a salary around £40,000 GBP. There will be a few factors which affect this number, which include seniority, location of the organisation and the industry the organisation operates within.
Network Engineer Salary Australia
As a Network Engineer the salary within Australia comes out to be $90,000 AUD a year. The factors which make this salary come down to a couple of main factors, location of the organisation and skill of the developer.
