Network engineer : Employers and vacancy sources

Network engineers can find work in any organisation with large, sophisticated IT systems. Examples of typical employers are banks, building societies, retail groups, large government departments, schools, hospitals, utility companies, local authorities, transport providers and management consultancies.

Some organisations, including many local authorities and other public sector bodies, now outsource all their IT systems to specialists, so these specialist companies often have vacancies for people with networking skills.

Network engineers can be employed by a large IT company to manage the firm's own systems or work in their contract services. Large companies, such as Microsoft, provide an extensive range of installation and customer support services and they recruit graduates and experienced staff into all areas of IT support.

There are also many small consultancies that work by setting up and managing systems for organisations that are too small to warrant full-time IT support.