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IT CAREER TRACKS:

Wireless Specialist

A Wireless Specialist, also known as a wireless engineer, is an IT professional who designs and manages an organization’s wireless infrastructure. This includes choosing the wireless hardware, protocols and systems, locking down those systems to non authorized users, and staying focused on keeping those systems flexible for users yet secure from predators.


wireless specialist

DUTIES

Duties of a wireless specialist include the analysis of an organization’s wireless requirements, rating the tradeoffs of available solutions, choosing a solution, and implementing, configuring and maintaining that solution. This role has overlap with that of a network engineer and information security specialist. It is a high level role that requires a very good understanding of networking, both hardware, and operating systems, as well as the growing options in the wireless world.

Strong interpersonal skills are also needed, as a wireless specialist must be able to convey to management both the benefits and risks of introducing a wireless network to the organization. A wireless specialist must also be able to work well with network administrators and network engineers. As application developers think of new applications to tie in with wireless networks, some knowledge of application development serves as a bonus to prospective candidates.


PREREQUISITES

A person may consider entering this field after attaining a Computer Science or Computer Engineering university degree or a one or two year computer diploma from a local technical institute. However, some candidates may excel at this role through dedicated self study and certification as it’s such a new field. As well, this person should be proactive when it comes to planning and testing the wireless network to ensure that only appropriate users can access the network. Candidates for this job role should also be good troubleshooters in order to debug problems in the wireless network as well as be creative in terms of finding solutions in this burgeoning field.


ADVANCEMENT

A wireless specialist often starts out as a network engineer and may move on to specializing in security across all networks, not just wireless ones, or else move towards IT management or even technical training. Whichever path they take, these professionals tend to be at the high end of the IT pay scale.


Certification Examples Include:

CWNA; CWSP; Wireless Sharp