>> I would say as far as a type of degree that you should get, you definitely want
to look into, you know, a bachelor's in information systems,
network security, something along those lines.
And, you know, you want to make sure that your curriculum is going to be focused on, you know,
learning computers, learning different aspects of technology.
So, you know, 85% of the world's internet goes through Cisco devices.
So, you know, if you want to be a networking engineer, that's kind of--
you want to look at Cisco, or you want to look at Juniper, their competition.
You want to start to make sure that your curriculum aligns with that.
Certifications are huge in the IT world these days.
I would definitely say look at the different vendors.
So even, you know, in your summer months when you're, you know, between classes,
start looking into like a boot camp or another class
that can help you work towards a certification goal.
That will make you more competitive so when you do graduate, you have not only your degree,
but a few certifications under your belt to show that, you know, you have focused experience,
specialized experience in the field.
But also like build a home lab.
You know, the lab equipment-- the equipment that you want to use
for lab purposes is not expensive.
You can find most of it on Ebay, you know, do your research,
make sure that you, you know, build out a lab.
You can break everything in there and rebuild it so that you've seen all the error messages,
so you're familiar with, you know, how to troubleshoot something.
It's not as new to you if you were to see it in a production or enterprise.
But those are the main tips I would say.