Keep the wires, Wi-Fi and firewalls running so everyone else can work. A 2-year diploma and one big certification get you in.
Click through it
Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $75,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $44,000 at the lower end to about $114,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
2 to 4 years after high school, on the usual route.
$1,200 to $24,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
No. There is no licence to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Moderate demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$75,000
Lower end
$44,000
Upper end
$114,000
Job Bank's national median is $36 an hour, about $75,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower end ($21) and upper end ($55) are the bottom and top of the wage range for everyone in the group. Many people start on a help desk and move to the network team once they have a certification.
$39.16 an hour
The median in Nova Scotia, the top province, about $81,000 a year
Alberta is next at $38.67. British Columbia's median is only $31.25. Moving from running networks to designing them is the usual way up.
Roughly, all in
$1,200 to $24,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is somebody who starts on a help desk, studies at home using no-cost network simulators and a little used gear, and pays only for the CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) exam. That route is common and real, but it takes longer to be taken seriously. The high end is a two or three year college diploma, which is what most employers still ask for, plus exam fees on top. Exam fees are priced in United States dollars, so what you actually pay moves with the exchange rate, and many employers cover renewals once you are hired.
Employers often pay for certifications once you are hired. The college diploma is the main cost.
Pension and union
Hospitals, school boards, universities and governments employ a lot of network staff, with union contracts and defined-benefit pensions that pay a set amount for life.
Health and dental
Standard almost everywhere.
On-call pay
Carrying the pager on evenings and weekends usually comes with extra pay or time off.
Paid certifications
Common, because vendors retire certifications every few years.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A college diploma plus one recognized certification is the standard route. No degree needed.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Math, computer science and any technology courses. Set up a home network and learn what every setting does.
College diploma
2 to 3 years
Computer systems or networking technology at a public college: 2 years for a diploma, 3 for an advanced diploma. Co-op terms give you the work experience employers want.
Certify
During or right after college
The CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) is the certification most job ads name. CompTIA Network+ is a good first step. Many students pass one before they graduate.
First job
1 to 2 years
Help desk or junior network technician. Expect to do a year or two of tickets and cable runs before you touch the core routers.
Network administrator
Year 3 onward
Running the network on your own, planning upgrades, and mentoring the juniors.
Computer science or computer engineering technology
Programming and hardware basics.
Math
Binary and subnetting are daily arithmetic in this job.
Physics
Signals, cables and wireless are physics.
English
You will write documentation and explain outages to people who are not technical.
No licence or professional body controls this job. Vendor certifications do the job a licence would: the CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) is recognized worldwide and lasts 3 years, then you recertify or take a higher exam. Because nothing is provincial, you can move anywhere in Canada or abroad without re-qualifying.
BC (British Columbia)
BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology) Computer Systems Technology, 2-year diploma.
Alberta
NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology) and SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology) run networking and IT (information technology) diplomas.
Ontario
Seneca Computer Systems Technology (3-year advanced diploma), Algonquin, Conestoga, Mohawk, Sheridan.
Atlantic Canada
NSCC (Nova Scotia Community College) and NBCC (New Brunswick Community College) IT programs, with strong local hiring.
Quebec has two school routes: a vocational DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) of about 18 months, or a 3 year CEGEP (public college) program.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
Or be 16 with Secondary IV language, second language and math for the DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies). The CEGEP (public college) route needs Secondary IV Technical and Scientific or Science math.
Short route: DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) in IT Support (5385)
About 18 months
1,800 hours at a vocational centre, taught in English under code 5885. Network administrator is one of the jobs it leads to.
Longer route: Computer Science Technology DEC (Diploma of College Studies, 420.B0)
3 years
3 years at a CEGEP (public college). Pick a college with network options: servers, routers and switches, monitoring and automation. No tuition for full-time Quebec residents.
Certifications
During or after school
Vendor certifications work the same as in the rest of Canada and are where employers look first.
Mind the title
Any time
Only members of the OIQ (Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec, the Quebec order of engineers) may use "engineer", so "network engineer" needs membership.
You can get the Computer Science Technology DEC (Diploma of College Studies) by having your experience assessed instead of taking classes. Champlain Saint-Lambert runs this for the network and security administration option, online, with evening and Saturday sessions. It takes 5 to 24 months for the technical part, plus 12 to 24 months of general courses, and costs at most $575 for Quebec residents.
Things you don't need, but that help.
CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional)
The step above the CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate). Marks you as a network engineer, not a technician.
Cloud networking
AWS (Amazon Web Services) and Azure networking credentials, because more of the network now lives in the cloud.
Security
Firewall vendor certifications (Palo Alto, Fortinet) and CompTIA Security+. Network and security jobs are merging.
Wireless
Enterprise Wi-Fi design is its own specialty with its own certifications.
A home lab
No-cost network simulators plus a couple of used switches. Employers ask what you built.
Scripting
Python and PowerShell to automate repetitive changes. Networks are increasingly managed by code.
Driver's licence
Managed service providers send you to client sites.
Calm under pressure
When the network is down, everyone is watching you.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Check the monitoring dashboard first thing: any links down overnight, any alerts? Then tickets: a floor with slow Wi-Fi, a new office that needs switches configured, a vendor's system that needs a firewall rule. Afternoons are project work, like replacing old switches or rolling out a new wireless network, done in a test lab first. Big changes happen after hours or on weekends so users are not affected. Once in a while, an outage takes over the whole day.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
The CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) is a single 2-hour exam with no prerequisites, and it is the credential most network job ads name. It costs US$300 and is valid for 3 years.
Canada's job statistics put network and systems administrators in the same group (NOC 22220, the National Occupational Classification code): about 40,800 people in 2023. In small organizations one person does both jobs.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Security and networks first, then the rest of the field. See every career in tech.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
Tell us about this page. A person reads every message.
No email app on this device? Use Gmail instead: report a mistake in Gmail or say what you like in Gmail.