My top advice to someone starting is to build a strong foundation in the basics of IP networking. Spend time thoroughly understanding the fundamentals by reading and revisiting classic texts like those by Tanenbaum and Widjaja—they pay dividends throughout your career. Depending on whether you’re working in the control, data, or management plane, go deep into the details and truly understand the bits and bytes of how a feature works and the problem it is solving. Be open to taking on all kinds of work; no task is insignificant, as even seemingly small pieces often support critical components of the system. Especially in a small team, every member pulls their weight, and each contribution matters—both for the product and for your own growth.

Soft skills are as important as hard skills. You need to be able to build stories, to be convincing, to keep adapting, etc. However, do not neglect hard skills and select an area where you could go deep in expertise.