Where and how to take skills as a novice network engineer?

Question

IT education

It would be desirable to learn and receive councils about work as "network engineer".
At the moment I'm studying at college in the 3rd year, specialty: "Information security of automated systems", but now I'm thinking about how to develop towards "networks". During my studies at the college, I was fascinated by the administration of networks, and computer networks in general, so while reading various vacancies and articles, I became interested in the work of a "network engineer".
So, on different sources, information about the specialty is different, and it’s not entirely clear to me what exactly should be emphasized in training, and because of this, a number of questions arose.
1. Where should you start your journey of becoming a "network engineer"?
2.
3. What certificates would be worth getting in the future?
4. How hard is it to get your first job?
5. Are there sites where you can practice with networks, like on some codewars'e (if you take programming) or hackthebox (pentest)?
6. How to create a portfolio, what to include in it, and does a "network engineer" need it at all?

Answer 1

Get a job at a small provider, break the entire network one evening and heroically fix it overnight.
Perhaps no one will notice, but you will say to yourself: I am an engineer!!

Answer 2

https://linkmeup.ru/blog/1188/

Answer 3

About certificates. Cisco and Huawei. Taking tests is not cheap.
In general, you can download Packet Tracer and practice it. On the Internet, you can find tasks for her. And then at the interview you can safely declare how many hours you spent in Packet Tracer.