College Crunch

Today, we are seeing a fundamental shift in video from traditional forms of media delivery to streaming, IPTV Internet video. As the media landscape shifts to an on-demand model, there are a growing number of career opportunities within networking and engineering fields for today’s graduates.

An ideal major for students looking to work in cutting edge video delivery, from established players like YouTube to startup companies, will find a major in network communications to be ideally suited to their career path. A growing number of universities offer majors in this field, which helps provide the skills for professionals in managing a wide array of networks from IPTV and VOIP to firewall security and ad delivery technology, all crucial to providing next-generation media delivery.

Top universities develop their curriculum along with industry leaders in networking such as Cisco to ensure their educations are based on real-world experience with networking equipment. Finding a school that offers a program with a certification track can help provide additional training that may open additional job and career options upon entering the workforce. Cisco offers a graduate scale of certifications starting with the entry level Certified Entry Networking Technician (CCENT) to associate network certifications with specialties in security, voice and wireless implementations. Students who earn a certification in their specialty are able to begin working with high level organizations, and can begin working toward their professional Cisco certification, often in conjunction with a graduate degree.

Graduates with networking majors have over a 90% placement rate within their primary field with starting salaries of nearly $50,000, well above the average for a new major and even higher for students who excel. The opportunity to work with growing companies such as Nortel, Revision3 and newly emerging startups, places networking majors in the center of a rapidly growing field.