Shared NOC Engineer for CRMS Cisco
Pros
I’m a red badge in Cisco’s Shared NOC (CRMS), and it’s honestly one of the best learning environments I’ve been in so far. The Cisco blue badges really know their stuff — they’ve been super open to questions and are always willing to explain things if you’re curious and pay attention. It takes a bit to get your footing because there’s a lot going on, but once it clicks, you start to realize just how much there is to pick up here. The pay’s solid — right now it’s $40/hour for new folks, especially since it’s tough to find people with clearances willing to move here. Most of the team is from out of state. Some of the older guys are stuck at $36/hr since they started before the pay bump, but anyone coming in now starts higher! Careful, they might try to get you at the old rate if you’re not paying attention. Smh.
Cons
It’s kind of a weird setup sometimes — the IG (Insight Global) managers are basically invisible. They work from home in other states and mostly just send webex messages or emails. And don’t even think about asking to work from home — Insight gets annoyed fast. It’s all on-site, no exceptions.
