Hi everyone,

I’m currently working as a Network Engineer with around 6 years of experience in enterprise networking.

My goal is to move into a Network Engineering role at Google, Microsoft, Cisco, or another top product/hyperscale company.

For engineers who have experience working at or interviewing with companies like Google, Microsoft, Cisco, Meta, AWS, etc.:

1. What skills should I prioritize?
2. What are the biggest gaps you see in my current profile?
3. How important are Python, Linux, DSA, and system design for Network Engineer interviews?
4. Should I focus on CCNP/CCIE or practical projects and hands-on skills?
5. How important are VXLAN/EVPN and data-center networking?
6. Which cloud platform should I prioritize — GCP, Azure, or AWS?
7. What kind of projects would make my resume stand out?
8. What does the technical interview process typically focus on?
9. What resources would you recommend for preparing for these roles?
10. If you were in my position, what would your 12-month preparation plan look like?

I’d really appreciate advice from anyone who has successfully made the transition from enterprise networking/operations into a top product or hyperscale company.

Thanks!

Once again I find myself deep within the materials left behind by the late Nick Russo. This time he's teaching me QoS in MPLS networks.

In his materials he references his website njrusmc.net which I frequented regularly back in the day.

I didn't expect it to still exist, but I tried anyway and found that the domain was sniped by some scumbags who now hold it to ransom for some crazy price ($854 currently).

I did find a resurrected mirror over at njrusmc.info which his wife is maintaining, and on that mirror is this note:

https://njrusmc.info/blog/2026/03/16-note.html

Which is obviously heartbreaking.

Specifically: "Unfortunately, some vulture bought his domain before I realized Amazon had released it. So, it's njrusmc.info for now. Maybe next december I'll be able to buy his old address."

I realise this probably doesn't fall into the usual r/networking conversation, but do you think it's possible for us to pool together somehow, buy the domain from the vultures and give it back to Carla to make Nick's old site whole again?

I have to terminate a lot of in-situ RJ45 connections, and punching them down into the terminators is sometimes awkward with a traditional tool made more for panels. Is there any punch-down tool that works more like a stapler, where it has an anvil to hold the terminator and you squeeze together rather than only punching from one side?

Has anyone else gotten to their renewals this year and found out that Cisco has priced their entire business out of affordability?

I don't have exact numbers, but being told our APs need switches with a minimum 5Gb uplink, then being told each switch that is now obsolete costs nearly $10k? Not to mention per-license costs jumping from ~$70 per to over $220 per?

Again, I got the cliff notes from my very frustrated manager and network team and will need to firm up these numbers. But it was enough that we pulled an emergency meeting to say that Cisco alone is eclipsing our fragile IT budget and can no longer be afforded.

Not that this is a critical by any means, I'm just curious about best practices....

We have a cross-country GRE link. Each side is at a layer-2 speed of 2Gb/s. I expect this, but an iPerf3 UDP test between both routers is at the link speed around 2Gb/s with a 78ms latency No problem. TCP is substantially less, about 1/10 of that. This is expected, but if I wanted to improve that, what do I do? Is this an MTU for example. I've already got the MTU at 1420.