(Part 2) DO NOT Follow The Outdated Roadmap into IT "A , Network , CCNA, MCSA" - Do This Instead

In a previous video, I have strongly advised against the road map, the traditional IT road map as I like to call it, the A+ network plus and then CCNA and then CCNP and get into a networking career from the start. I didn't say anything about cyber security. I was very focused on networking as a career for beginners and for those who are changing into an IT as a career.

I have received a lot of attacks. I don't want to waste time on that. They are in the comments if you'd like to read the comments of the other video.

And here is the link of the video. The reason why I'm making this following video is to provide more evidence and to show you statistics and insight about the hot trolls and what people are talking about in terms of techs that they are seeking and are in high demand. And also we'll make a comparison to the networking SD1 SD access using AI.

So you are more clear and this is not based on me or my interest. This is based on what is on the internet and you can check it for yourself and also based on AI and you can replicate the same questions to get the same answers. So stay with me and you will get the full details on this.

All right. So what are the proofs or evidences that I am bringing and these are not mine. They are available on the internet.

Anybody can check them. Skilloft the company that acquired global knowledge few years ago and they come up with a salary report every year. So I went through it and there are some pages I would like to share with you.

You can go to skilloft or you can go to the internet and just search skilloft salary report 2024 and you can get the report. Just click on this. They will ask you for a business email and you can download it.

So you can have the same thing and global knowledge has it as well. All right. So what are the highlights of this report?

Let's go through the pages and of course I mean feel free to go through all of it but I want to show you some a few things. Since they are a training company they have a huge database of professionals, executives, CEOs and directors and all that. They just survey them.

They send them the survey and then they get the responses. They analyze them and then they put them into into this report. So in North America, what is the top three highest paid functions in 2024?

So in North America, the third one was cloud. In Latin America, there was no mention of that. In Europe, Middle East, and Africa, cloud was number two.

And in Asia Pacific, it was more on the business analysis. So you wouldn't see networking anywhere on that. And of course, IT, architecture and design made it into North America and made it into also Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Then we head to page 18. Certifications. Certifications are important to overall IT job security compensation and professional development.

And without building new skills while training for certification, IT professional skills can become stagnant or worse obsolete. and IT professionals agreed to the importance of the certifications. Then we jump into page 33 and here it shows where the executives are going to invest in IT.

47% of the respondents are going to invest into AI and machine learning. 42% cyber security, information security, 36% in cloud computing. Then when we go to networking, you'll find 18% they will invest in networking and wireless land.

And this follows what we discussed in the previous video that I talked about and I told you that spending on cloud computing is going to grow to about $1. 6 trillion by 2028. Whereas the revenue of a company like Cisco per year is about 50 60 70 billion.

So we're talking about 20 times per year. So in 2028 it will be 1. 3 trillion.

The year before it's going to be about 1. 1. The year before is going to be about 950 billion.

So 20 times 18 times 16 or 15 times and so on. So imagine the amount or the number of jobs created into these areas. Cloud computing is only one.

I did not mention AI and machine learning and MLOps as opposed to new generated networking jobs. When you look at data science, data management and analytics, 25% are going to invest in this area. So more people are thinking about the hottest areas compared to networking and wireless and SD1 and SDX and all that.

Last page I would like to look at this report skills gaps how hard it is for the executives to find the skills they are looking for and you'll find that networking and wireless it comes into so this is 1 2 3 4 5 6 seventh rank after cyber security after cloud computing after analytics big data and data science after AI and machine learning and governance risk and compliance DevOps made it a little lower. So more people are getting into DevOps. But as you can see, you are in the seventh in terms of shortage and hard to find skills.

The top ones are going to be the ones where salaries are going to be higher. All right, enough of this. Let's look at the next one.

Predictions for the tech job market in 2025. And this is by Forbes, as you can see. And you'll find them here talking about AI and software towards AI initiatives.

Software, you know, AI is the buzzword right now. And when they did the analysis, they based it on a report by a company called Karat and Harris Paul's latest tech hiring trends report. Let's look at that.

And we are going to jump to page 10, hiring trends. The page is about hiring trends. AI and the future of tech hiring among the area the roles that are being prioritized in hiring AI engineers saw the most growth year-over-year.

The shares of US engineering leaders that I hiring for AI engineer roles is 60% compared to 35% last year. And priority roles for US engineering leaders. Why am I talking about the US?

Because it's the biggest IT market whether we like it or we hate it. And this is where the technologies and trends emerge and then they spread across the globe. So if you are well positioned to the US market then it's a matter of time.

If it's not yet available in your country, it's a matter of time before it will hit you in your country or in the areas nearby. So you would prepare yourself for the future and not prepare yourself for the traditional IT that is dominating your country. if that's the case.

So, priority roles you'll find AI engineer, full stack developers, back-end developers, data analysts, software generalist, devops engineers, systems engineers, front-end developers, machine learning engineers, data engineers, data scientists, blockchain engineers, cloud architects, mobile app developers, and prompt engineers. And that's it. So, you can read through it again.

You will not find a mention of infrastructure. you'll not find a mention of SD1, SD access or networking. That's the fact.

That's what's happening. So, it's better to be flexible and absorb the fact that there are changes happening very quickly and you start to adjust before it's too late and then you ride the wave while it's still going up. or you wait in your position like the mainframe techies in the 1990s where things were going from centralized to distributed and they were into denial and they said no there is no way this is going to change the main frame can do this and can can do that and now you will find main frames in very specific industries.

So that's why you you need to leave the denial away and you need to get into action and work on yourself. And if you are a beginner, please do the same research for yourself. If you are shifting into it, do the same research for yourself and then you will find out the truth.

Now it's time to get AI into the ingredient because it can search much more efficiently and effectively and quickly than I can do. And also you can replicate the same questions and they are fair questions. So let's go ahead and look at that and that will conclude this discussion and and there will be no way for anyone to deny this.

And if you would like to disagree with me that's fine. Please prove your point of view. These are facts documented available on on the internet by big companies and big research institutes and this is what they are saying.

That's the fact of the market. Whether you accept it or not it's up to you but you can't deny it. So let's look at the AI part.

All right. So my friend Chad GBT, anyone can do it. I didn't even log into my account when I did the search.

So anyone can get the same results as I have explained before and they are in several videos. One video about the best path to get into AI engineering and also another video about the best way to get into machine learning and MLOps and here is the link. Both of them they were talking about when you are working on a career plan it's good if you have milestones once you reach them you can start applying for jobs you and I none of us would like to sit for two years or three years to study to shift a career without getting bread and butter or working on odd jobs or maybe working on something that we don't like and we cannot do the change until the two or three years lapse.

We would like to jump on one milestone, apply for a job and then take it from within into the career until we reach the top. So I asked is cloud and devops adoption or is it saturated already? What are we doing exactly globally?

So some sources on DevOps and cloud adoption worldwide in 2025. And as of 2025, both DevOps and cloud adoption have experienced significant global growth driven by technological advancements of evolving business needs. And here's an overview.

DevOps adoption worldwide in 2025. Market growth 24% growth annually. It is projected to reach 20% by 2025 this year.

global adoption North America appro approximately 75% of organizations have adopted DevOps practice. So still 20% of the organizations and the new companies that are coming into the US which is one of the largest if not the largest market worldwide they are still did not adopt the devops automation so this is coming more jobs more demand Europe 55% of adoption with significant uptake in the UK Germany and France so three hot countries where devops are in demand Asia-Pacific, India and China lead with over 60% adoption rate. Still 40% did not.

Middle East and Africa 40% adoption while countries like UAE and Saudi Arabia leading the trend but 60% or more did not yet adopt it. So if you are in one of these countries or if you are looking at jobs in these countries, it's a good thing to get into. Key trends of course AI and machine learning integration infrastructure as code devstick ops and serverless computing cloud adoption so that was about devops cloud adoption global spending worldwide spending on cloud services is expected to reach 1.

3 trillion in 2025 I was talking about 1. 6 6 trillion in 2028. There are some sources who are suggesting that no, this is going to happen sooner.

Let's take the least of the two. So, let's stick to the 1. 6 trillion by 2028.

94% of enterprise organizations use or utilize cloud computing. So, building these skills is going to definitely benefit you. Middle East around 90% of companies have moved beyond basic cloud strategies focusing on modernizing applications and creating cloud native solutions and this is from PWC price waterhouse coopers that means now it is a fact so you need to get yourself these skills as opposed to Cisco routers and switches and SD1 and SD access get into the core.

If companies are moving and building new applications in the cloud, guess which one will be more critical to them? Cloud and cloud skills or Cisco skills in the data center or SD1 access to connect the branches. Key trends multiloud and hybrid cloud strategies.

So you are not going to throw away what you know about on premises about your data center skills whether it is networking or server or whatever. It is going to be hybrid and it's going to be multiple clouds. It's going to be AWS for a few things, Google for others and Azure for others connected to your on premises.

So you build on top of your skills. You are not throwing away or abandoning your skills and then building from scratch in an in a different role or a different field. So don't get defensive.

That's the message. Cloud native ecosystem and cloud first principle. 85% of organizations worldwide are anticipated to adopt a cloud first approach by 2025 and again PWC is one of them the future of cloud adoption in the Middle East for example here so these trends highlight the increasing importance of DevOps and cloud computing in driving digital transformation digital transformation so that's an initiative existing to to transform it to transform careers are going to be transformed with the infrastructure transformation which means new skills are going to be required not A+ not plus not CCNA and not CCNP think about it when you go to the cloud 90% of the knowledge that is behind the scene you will not even get to know it ask anyone with cloud knowledge about the type of routers that are in the cloud or about the devices they are using is software or hardware.

I don't believe anyone would know the answer to this. How do they connect? Are they fiber optic connected or are they copper cables connected?

Nobody knows and nobody cares because it is abstracted and that's why it is it is attractive because companies do not need to have the full stack where they own and manage from the nuts and bolts all the way to electrical signals and cables and all that. You don't you don't even know where it is let alone knowing the brand and vendor. Organizations are leveraging these technologies to enhance efficiency, scalability and innovation.

So if this is what organizations are doing, you will not be able to stop it. You can't as an individual, as a network engineer, you not go to the CIO or CEO and tell him, you know what, I think cloud is a bad idea and let's stick to the old stuff. Nobody's going to listen to that.

the companies and the vendors and the big tech organizations are pushing towards new trends and they're going to be adopted. They come to your CIO and CTO and CEO every day talking about business benefits of migration of transformation of this of that and when it comes to make sense on the numbers on the sheets these top guys are not going to look at your skills. they wouldn't care even if they shift everything to the cloud and you lose your job.

You are just a number. So make yourself a number in demand as a person or skill set in demand as opposed to being obsolete and not required or maybe in the group that nobody knows what they are doing or nobody cares what they are doing. Okay.

Now I went into a question that I have received. Is networking, SD1, SD access a good career road map compared to cloud, DevOps, cyber security, AI, machine learning, data science and analytics. Take into consideration jobs, growth, demand and supply of talent, gaps in available resources, pay scale, return on investment, duration that it takes for for a beginner to reach a good pay and skills position.

Very clear, unbiased question and I'm not trying to direct it this way or that way. Okay. So it went through that and it analyzed all of that job market and demand growth across the different ones.

So for networking SD1 access as well and SD access moderate to high. So that's the demand growth rate steady 5 to 7. So DevOps and cloud are going by 20% or 19% or maybe more 24% and this is only 5%.

Cloud demand extremely high moderate to high extremely high. and growth 15 to 20%. Reach is universal not only enterprise focused.

DevOps high. So this is still better than moderate to high. Growth very high reach global.

Cyber security extremely high. Talent shortage very high. Growth rate global government and private and everything.

AI to machine learning exploding but competitive very high. And it's more into the enterprise and research and development. Data science high but saturated in some regions and growth is high enterpriseheavy.

So summary networking is stable and foundational. Nobody is denying that. But what is the demand?

How would the salary curve go up or steady or go down with time with less jobs and more qualified resources? The past 25 to 30 years people have been building networking skills. So how many are you competing with?

So don't start don't move into an area where competition is fierce and if you are into that area what if you get the pink slip tomorrow how many other opportunities will you have offers from and then you will pick and choose so think strategically don't be defensive don't take it personal pay scale and ROI return on investment field here Here's the networking part. So average global salary mid-level. So not the beginners a little bit higher.

Networking 70 to 120 entry to good salary timeline. So from entry jobs until you get a good salary timeline 3 to 5 years. Cloud 90 to 150 that is about what 25% 20 25% higher and it is faster to get into the higher paid jobs.

DevOps 100 to 160 very comparable and much higher than networking cyber security AI and machine learning data science all of them are better than networking so why get into that and I'm talking about 2025 it is going to get worse for networking with time AI and machine learning they pay very well but it takes longer to get skilled due to the complexity and competition networking pays pays well but generally grows slower. So high paying very well and well very clear talent supply versus demand skill gaps networking it's moderate shortage and this is specific to SD1 and SD access as well not in routing and switching routing and switching is going to be low to moderate competition level moderate because these are the new areas and upskilling difficulty is medium cloud major shortage devops major shortage cyber security severe shortage age AI and machine learning shortage at the expert level. So if you want to get and and be in demand, you would need to spend more time learning and more time doing projects and all that before you get to the right level.

Data science over supply in juniors gaps at senior level competition level high and high very high and high upscaling difficulty is high cloud and and devops medium medium to high. So these both have major shortage. You can learn them faster and then you can take them as a landing or a jumping stone to get to AI and machine learning while you are in the IT paid high compared to networking.

And if you are happy that's it cloud and devops continue but if you are not happy and you still want to go to get to AI machine learning and data science that's fine continue your road map while you are paid and it is relevant to what you are doing and most probably organizations that have cloud and devops they are going also to have machine learning data science and analytics departments. So you can shift internally after you prove yourself in wherever you are in the cloud and devops part. So think strategically don't take it personal.

That's my message. Time to scale up. Networking two to three years.

Duration do a decent job 0ero to two years. Fastest entry roles and these are the traditional ones that I'm telling you please do not waste your time on them. Cloud one and a half two two and a half years and you have AWS and GCP certification and hands-on devops two to three years CI/CD Linux and GitOps duration to a decent job.

This is not to entry level or to start your role. Final verdict is networking SD1 access a good career pros clear structured learning path needed in all enterprise networks especially telos and banks less saturated than data science and AI at the beginner level emerging technologies like intentbased networking zero trust and softwaredefined network are opening new doors so this is focus but if you go traditional networking which is routing and switching this is going to be less Cons it has lower growth rate compared to cloud AI and cyber security and devops less crossindustry buzz nobody's talking about it not as cool or in demand for startups so startups are not going to be looking for SD1 or SD access or networking person they will throw everything on the cloud they will be looking for someone to manage the automation and cloud and devops and they will be looking for people to work on MLOps they were looking for people to do the AI engineering and to connect the new apps to AI resources That's what they will be looking for not for a Cisco guy since they have done everything in the cloud recommendations you are if you are interested in infrastructure networking an enterprise system okay fine take networking and SD1 for maximum ROI many professionals can now combine networking with cloud so even if you want to go down the networking don't take it alone combine it with cloud then I asked which path would you recommend for an absolute beginner that has no preference. So I'm assuming that you are not biased to networking as a beginner or someone getting into it.

Maybe you have heard some advices from people who are in this field for 10 years. They started like 10 years ago and they have reached good positions and they think this is what the industry is whereas it is not. So if that's the case and you have no preference but you want to do an investment and effort and you would like to spend money on certificates and training and all that but then get the maximum ROI and a futurep proof career that will continue to be in demand for years to come that's the right investment correct if that's the case then to get into cloud and devops that's what the AI believes and there are so many links on the right hand side that you can use in order to validate what is being said here.

So they said cloud and devops is the way to go. Why? It's the fastest entry for high paying jobs.

The fastest cyber security is very good. AI is very good. Machine learning is very good.

MLOps is very good. But they will take longer to learn that and I have explained in the videos and you will find the description box links to them. The shortest path to AI and machine learning, the shortest path to get into data science and analytics, it passes through cloud and DevOps.

And that will be a good landing to apply for jobs, get into it and then continue your path. So what are the certificates? AWS certified cloud practitioner Azure fundamentals to a junior role within 6 to9 months.

DevOps tools like get CI/CD, Docker and Linux will help massive talent gap and great ROI for time and cost and flexibility to pivot. So this is you can start earning 60 to 80 US,000 per year within one to two years even from scratch if you are an absolute beginner. Flexibility to pivot from cloud and devops it's easy to later shift to cyber security AI machine learning data engineering or even networking and and cloud security.

So cloud and networking for on premises and for what you have right now beginner friendly learning curve. So it's not hard to get into them and you don't have to have CS degree or advanced math just basic problem solving curiosity and consistency. Suggested beginner road map you have here the suggested and an and outcome by 12 months you will be in the 60 to 90 remote or office job and that's an entry one.

I always suggest people to go in their preparation and study to a higher level so they can earn more money and usually they get into the 90 to 100 range. I'm talking about USA. Now a visual comparison and that was based on the US.

So they put everything now in a visual chart to make your life much easier. But now we are focusing on the US demand average entry salary time to job ready learning curve certification needed ROI flexibility to pivot cloud very high demand. And here's the average entry salary now 70 to 100K.

Time to job ready six to 12 months. Learning curve easy to medium and certification ROI excellent because it's fast. Flexibility to pivot very high.

You can go into other fields from there. DevOps demand is high 75 to 110,000 9 to 15 months to be ready. I think it's a little shorter.

Get and docker and ROI great and flexibility pivot is also high. So networking on demand moderate entry level less the time it takes learning curve and certificates and here it was excellent great and now we're getting into good and flexibility to pivot is low because now when you get into AI or machine learning it's a completely different bull game with a completely different skills as if you are starting in that path from scratch you have to learn Docker, you have to learn Linux, you have to learn Kubernetes, you have to learn Terraform, you have to learn Anible. Many skills that you don't touch as a networking person, data analytics and then AI, machine learning and so on.

So key insights, best for beginner with no preference. This is number one. Best for security focused, best for traditional IT is networking is stable but is slower and less combined with cloud or security.

If you want to be in networking or if you are in networking, add the cloud and the cloud security skills because they are going to make your salary jump and will make you in demand and relevant will keep you relevant if you do this suggested combo pass more valuable together cloud devops and cyber security networking plus cloud. All right, I hope this is clear again. I apologize for a long video but everyone can replicate the same questions get the same answers.

You can look at the links and the reports that I have shared and you can look at the analyst what the analysts are saying about the focus of hiring. And if you are a beginner in IT or you are shifting into IT or trying to upskill from wherever you are in IT, think about best ROI, maximum ROI and the fastest path to get to the first milestone and then take it to the second and third and so on. And that's how we should think.

If you are about high salaries, being relevant, job security, and future proof careers, it's very clear what you need to do. All right? I hope the message is clear.

Now, I don't want the ones with denial, the ones who are are still going to say that I am a scammer with all these evidence and with all these proofs that can be reproduced, don't please send me these negative comments. I don't need them. And if you have a good argument with evidence and proofs, please share it.

I will make a video and I would say I was right on that, I was wrong on that and here is the evidence that such and such person shared with us. All right, please consider subscribing to the channel, activating the notification and I would appreciate a like and share so it can spread and it can enlighten other professionals about what's happening in the industry and the shifts. I will see you in the next video.

Probably I'm going to put a cloud and DevOps road map. What are the skills to learn? How long will each step take you and where to start and where to head and what certifications you should consider along the path?

Because as you have seen cloud and devops looks like it's a nice milestone in your career and it's a fast entry into the IT career at a point that is in high demand and the ROI is going to be very high and then you can take it from there to wherever you like. Cyber security, AI, machine learning, data science, analytics, it's up to you what you want to do next. All right, thank you so much and I apologize again for the long video but I wanted to even stress on facts that are obvious and available on the internet so everyone would know it and trust me there is nothing better than being flexible in today's extremely fast changing it software and AI are going to make significant changes in very short periods of times and and the best is to be flexible accommodate and embrace that change and move with the waves as they go as opposed to standing in front of the waves.

I'll see you in the next video. Thank you.