u/ToluAdeniji

I'm an IT student currently studying for my CCNA and am trying to think of what I can do networking-related after I'm done. The goal of this is to simply gain experience to put on my resume, not to make money. With that said, I'll be doing this for completely free.

The idea is that I can help friends, family, and, later down the road, homeowners, small businesses, and non-profits. I could Wi-Fi troubleshoot, set up things like access points, QoS tuning, Dual-WAN Failover Systems, etc. To make it official, I can even make a LinkedIn profile.

I, of course, would have to learn how to do all of this beforehand. I really don't know if I'm in over my head.

As usual, asking AI makes me seem like I'm a genius, but I'm assuming I'll get a different answer from real people.

A common approach I hear people talk about is working help-desk while in college. I'm just wondering how people land these jobs and manage them.

Are you working full-time? Do they let you have a flexible schedule so you can go to your classes? Are you taking the degree online? Is it common to hire someone who can't work full-time? Was in an internship? So on and so forth.

In my final year in college, I'm only going to be taking 3 classes total, so when the time comes, I'll be looking to take advantage of that spare time.

I'm an IT major in Atlanta who is aspiring to be a Network Engineer, but nearly everyone at my college is a CIS major and is into cybersecurity. I tried going on LinkedIn to connect with others at my school, but I've only found one person who's actually trying to follow the same path as me.

When I go to job posting websites, there is an abundance of cybersecurity internships, but on the other hand, there are barely any that have to do with administration, engineering, or infrastructure.

There is a Cyber Security club filled with CIS majors that has over 800 members, which I still plan on participating in, but an IT club with 23 members that seems to have closed down.

I could go on and on, but I think I've made my point. I'm very passionate about learning the network side of the industry. People even say these roles are more mid-level compared to cybersecurity. But I keep second-guessing myself on whether this is really the best path, especially since I'm already behind in college.

I'd greatly appreciate any advice and feedback.