Essential Career Info

Job Duties

A computer network engineer designs, constructs and installs computer networks for organizations. In this position, you could work on local area networks (LANs) or wide area networks (WANs). Networks might be as small as one office or as large as multiple international locations. Network engineers must also have a thorough understanding of an organization's business goals in order to design networks that help meet those specific needs. Some of your daily duties could include coordinating equipment installations, developing network designs, conferring with management or building prototypes.

Salary and Career Outlook

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), network architects, information security analysts and web developers as a group earned a median annual salary of about $78,000 in 2011. However, the BLS noted that Robert Half Technology, a professional provider of information technology personnel, reported that network architects earned between about $96,000 and $137,000 in 2012.

From 2010-2020, the BLS predicted a faster-than-average growth rate of 22% for the group of network architects, information security analysts and web developers. It was stated that job prospects were expected to be strong for network architects due to an industry-wide lack of qualified individuals. However, it was also reported that cloud computing technology could reduce the demand for network architects in the future, because such technology could result in a decreased need for networks.