Routing & Switching
Also written as Routing and Switching, Network Switching, Layer 2 Switching, Layer 3 Routing, Cisco IOS, Juniper, Junos, Arista
The core of network engineering. Switches connect the devices inside one site's network (layer 2); routers move traffic between networks and sites (layer 3). Cisco is the most common vendor, with Juniper and Arista in larger and data-centre networks.
Think of it like
Switches are the corridors inside one office building; routers are the roads between buildings and cities.
Junior or senior?
Table stakes for any network role.
Junior sounds like
Configures ports and VLANs from a change ticket.
Senior sounds like
Designed how sites connect and has fixed an outage caused by a routing problem.
Ask them
“Tell me about a network outage you fixed. How did you work out whether it was a switching or a routing problem?”
Reading Routing & Switching on a resume
- Table-stakes
- Most people in this field list Routing & Switching, so its presence tells you little, and opening a screen with it can make the call sound junior. Ask what they built with it instead.
Sourcing for Routing & Switching
Every way it's written
("Routing & Switching" OR "Routing and Switching" OR "Network Switching" OR "Layer 2 Switching")Paste into LinkedIn Recruiter, Naukri or your ATS. Combine with a job title and location.
Wider net, with accepted substitutes
("Routing & Switching" OR "Routing and Switching" OR "Network Switching" OR "Layer 2 Switching" OR "Layer 3 Routing" OR "Cisco IOS")Includes skills a hiring manager would usually accept instead. Use it when the exact search runs dry.
Job titles to search alongside it
Network Engineer · Network Administrator · System Administrator · IT Infrastructure Engineer · Network Security Engineer · NOC Engineer · Windows Administrator · Linux Administrator
Where this talent works in India — Networking & IT Infrastructure
Target companies that build networking gear or run large networks and data centres themselves: equipment makers, telecom operators, data-centre operators and infrastructure-services firms. Help-desk-heavy outsourcing contracts use the same titles with far less design work, so ask who designed the network, not just who kept it running.
For example: Cisco, Juniper Networks (HPE), HPE Aruba Networking, Arista Networks, Extreme Networks, F5, Infoblox, Nokia.