Throwaway for privacy reasons

I always find it amusing to hear a 3D1X2 refer to themselves as a network engineer. An engineer? The typical 3D1X2 Airman does not even qualify for an entry level job doing networking. Have you passed your CCIE written exam? Do you have CCNP or even CCNA? Oh, you're a Juniper guy? JNCIA/JNCIS/JNCIP, etc?

If you're calling yourself a network engineer I hope you can build an enterprise network, including Data Center and Collaboration from the ground up, and I don't mean copying/pasting out of a configuration template.

And of course you should be the master of simple networking concepts, and able to describe the BGP best path selection process by memory, describe how OSPF neighbors are formed, how Spanning Tree elects the Root Bridge, basic hierarchical network design (access, distribution, core) and how to configure each. OS Hardening and security best practices?

I don't mean to be abrasive, though this is definitly a confrontational post, but I've worked for the DoD for 15 years as a network engineer, and over the course of this career met many young arrogant 3D1X2 enlisted folks who strutted around talking about the six-figure jobs awaiting them on the outside and how advanced they were, that couldn't describe basic troubleshooting practices or configuration principles. Each of them would have utterly bombed an entry-level technical interview.

So that is my rant. I'll slip back into the shadows. If you are part of that 1% of your career field who actually understands your job beyond simple port activation and copypasta, then more power to you, feel free to flip me the bird and ignore this post.

But if you're part of that 90%, just know you're not as good as you think you are, and the AF doesn't lose much of value when you guys jump ship. most of you end up in jobs where you'll never touch a console terminal again, and making considerable less than six figures.