That seems to be the case. You might try a local community college for some basic network engineering courses. That'd be a good start nowadays, I think. What I know about network engineering comes from years of doing it. And reading those dense and convoluted manuals. Try cruising the Cisco site for a good example. You'l lalso find that most of the real power in device configuration occurs at the command line. Even though outfits like HP and Cisco offer nice, friendly web interfaces, the real work occurs at the CLI. I'm convinced thatit takes a special mindset to operate comfortably and efficinetly in those environments. Some have it, some don't.
Funny, I’ve asked 3 or 4 networking pros the same question and I get a similar answer although the comm college idea I’ve not heard but it’s a great suggestion. I might do that.