What do you need to be a good network engineer?

What do you need to be a good network engineer?

If you want to be a good engineer, real world experience is a must. Studying certs is fine, but the experience is what makes a good engineer.. You will never forget the hard lessons.

A few traits I think makes a good engineer.....however keep in mind, in my opinion what makes a good engineer may not make a good architect, or a good operational support tech. Those roles all require unique traits, even if they all share several in similar.

Attention to detail - that is our bread and butter. Outages are bad.
Ability to multitask - you rarely only have one task on your plate.
Can learn on the fly. The world you operate in changes quickly, you need to be able to keep up.
Creative thinking - because if it was easy - you wouldn't need an engineer.
Can follow process and procedure, because in our industry that can save the day.
Can actively be a contributing member of a team - nobody knows everything. Even Scott Morris doesn't try to go at it alone! (although once he finally takes over the world, he may try). There is power in numbers.
Can accept constructive criticism. Everyone can learn, and grow. If you cannot take that from your peers, you belong in a different industry.
Try to check Cisco Learning Network, www.networkworld.com, etc
Puts the task/project/customer before their own ego. Your solution may seem the best to you, but does it fulfill ALL of the requirements long term?

And this list can go on and on..

As you could see, there are different things to take into consideration :

Be customer focused. You will interact with customers with mixed networking experience

Have the ability to roll with the punches. In a provider environment, try to introduce new ways to provide services to customers on almost a daily basis.

You better be versed in IOS, and CISCO SONET transport, JUNOS, Alcatel, TL1, and ADVA CLI. And of course these "little details" :

A good understanding of Change Management process and documentation is a must.

Remember that your internal customers are just as important as your external. The engineers that work well with our group find their jobs much easier, as we handle a lot of break/fix before it gets to them, or with slight hints from them as to what needs fixing. Not all of our Engineers are good at this.
Finally I would say enjoys a challenge - because that is what engineering is.