What needs to be learned before learning mikrotik, networks?

Question

Computer networks

The essence of the administrator seems to be +/- I have been working for 7 years + 4 of them enikey semi-admin. Now I am a general administrator:
Windows Server
hyper-v
1c + DBMS MS SQL Server mainly
network administration and in particular equipment mikrotik
asterisk + elastix
* nix
At the very top, respectively, what I know more tolerably in relation to what is at the bottom of the list. I want to get deeper in certain areas of knowledge. Starting with networks and linux is the most difficult for me. To begin with, I would like to start with the ability to not just click on the buttons and form the amount of knowledge at random, but really learn how to work with mikrotik. Even from the experience of communicating with colleagues who are 2-3 times older than me, they “fan their fingers” saying that they served more than 10 superduper servers, in practice they use patterns that they don’t understand. The result in an unusual environment that differs by 1mm is terrible discomfort for people. The trend is that in a couple of years every housewife will talk about highly accessible networks, but in fact stand in front of a person and say "do it" and in six months, in the literal sense of the word, she won't do it. I do not want it so. MTCNA is going to be a little expensive for me at the moment and it is not known if I need it now at this stage of my development. To begin with, I would like to be removed from mikrotik as such to understand my level of development in network administration. Tests, tasks, your way of becoming.
For example, I have the task of making fault tolerance and balancing two providers on Mikrotik, I did not master it. VPN without manual configuration of routing for l2tp + ipsec on the client side, did not master it, only a crutch, but it works.

Answer 1

At first, it is advisable to learn the networks and protocols of the OSI model as a whole, and only then it is advisable to study the RFC standards,
then you will automatically study mikrotik, or just watch Mikrotik courses on YouTube

Answer 2

Micros are wonderfully placed on virtual machines. You lift couple of hosts and forward.
In fact, you first need to know the basics of routing, why do we need network masks, vlan, etc.

Answer 3

it is advisable to run your eyes over OSI, well, and not be afraid of unfamiliar abbreviations, information on mikrotik sea, you can do anything from it. Also, at one time, I began to study them in battle (at work they locked up a microtic and said: “This will be our router now, set it up, and the firewall worked normally, and there were Schaub nata, and a web proxy to a remote host, and that’s all everything" was sweaty at first - now there are microtics everywhere, at home, at work, at my mother's. Fucking pieces of iron.