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YES!
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After you remove all of the specifics related to each field, they both are careers fundamentally focused around problem-solving.
Networking can be simple, it depends on the size of networks that you deal with, the number of nodes, types of physical transports, routing and security protocols.
Programming, what part do you find difficult?
Programming is a much broader subject, however, you don't need to know all of it. Just focus on the set of skills required for your job.
Don't aim towards mastering either of these fields, because there is too much to learn to ever master them. However, both fields are so broad that if you find yourself bored in one sector, give a different aspect of the field a try.
To actually give you an answer to your question, I think networking may be more difficult to get going at first, because there is quite a bit of up front knowledge that you need to perform fundamental tasks. Once you have entered and practiced a bit, you'll start to rely more on your trouble-shooting skills to find and fix problems.
Programming is probably easier to enter. With as much sample code that exists on the Internet it's not difficult for many to fake it and get a program to appear to work, and yet not know why. To become a good programmer you're still going to develop some strong problem-solving/trouble-shooting skills to succeed.
Above all, look for something that you enjoy. You're less likely to succeed if you don't enjoy what you do.
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Nothing is easy untill you are having knowledge about it. Networking, once you get enough knowledge will be easy for you too.
Favourite line: Throw me to them wolves and close the gate up. I am afraid of what will happen to them wolves - Eminem
~! Firewall !~
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Setting up, configuring, securing, and maintaniing a large enterprise network is more difficult than software development.
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PIEBALDconsult wrote: Setting up, configuring, securing, and maintaniing a large enterprise network is more difficult than software development.
So companies who have hundreds of developers and manage with say 5-10 IT professionals are doing it wrong then? Per what you said it would be more reasonable if there where hundreds of IT professionals and only 10 software developers.
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Not necessarily; too many cooks spoil the infrastructure.
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Amount of effort needed and difficulty are not really correlated at all. Software development companies hire lots of developers because they are producing the item that is being sold at the end, whereas network administration is an overhead that is to be minimised.
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Finding errors in existing code is easier than finding errors in an existing network.
Defining a standard is easy for both, but enforcing, detecting, and correcting non-compliant parts of the network is difficult.
BobJanova wrote: Amount of effort needed ... hire lots of developers
I agree that throwing more bodies at the problem won't help, will probably make it worse, and may have been the initial cause. But the question says "just in terms of difficulty".
In fact, hiring more developers doesn't make the job easier either, at best it can only make meeting deadlines easier.
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Setting up, configuring, securing, and maintaniing a large enterprise application is more difficult than networking.
Fixed it for you 
All things are relative.
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You must be doing it wrong.
You've probably never worked on a large enterprise network -- where the number of servers, switches, routers, load balancers, etc. approaches a half million spread across a dozen data centers world-wide. The size and complexity of which is the culmination of mergers among several large enterprise networks with differing standards. My job for the last two years has involved using the available tools to gather, correlate, and aggregate whatever data we can get (and there's not nearly enough) to detect and predict potential problems. Fortunately I never have to enter a data center and actually trace cables. :shudder:
Software is easy, but all the applications are at the mercy of the hardware.
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I'm just going to point out that, as I find it highly unlikely that you're configuring the network devices using bits, you are relying on soundly developed software to configure the network. Solarwinds, server OS, firewalls, VPNs, ASAs, crypto, switch OS, router OS; whatever you're touching is basically a chunk of silicon without effective software.
That being said, my apples are better than your oranges. Mainly because they're mine.
I would like to point out, though, that if you find software design and development to be easy, most likely you _are_ doing it wrong.
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The software tools are good, the hardware tools are good, it's the wetware tools that are a mite problematic.
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Have you considered a career flipping burgers. It could be every bit as challenging and interesting for you.
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Depends on what you're trying to program:
o Your dog to roll over
o A universal remote control
o DVR to record your favorite program
o Your wife how to cook - NOT for the faint of heart
o Your neighbor to not have his dog poop in your yard
While Networking;
o On your favorite social site is easy
o CodeProject - depends a lot on you attitude
o Face to face - no one does that anymore do they?
Well the permutations are endless but this should give you a place to start
Have you ever just looked at someone and knew the wheel was turning but the hamster was dead?
Trying to understand the behavior of some people is like trying to smell the color 9.
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Most things in life are hard to master, it depends on your ability and your motivation. If you find programming hard and boring then it is probably not a good career choice. And if you know nothing about networking there is no way you can decide that that is a good career choice. Find something that you are interested in.
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If you find programming boring, it's a fair bet you will find networking boring too
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If you want to go for something easy I would avoid IT altogether - networking gets incredibly complex.
Some of the brightest people I know, work in the area of computer networks.
Member 10744531 wrote: basically i just wanna know which field is harder to get on with and master ?
The only way to answer that question, grasshopper, is to say that mastering anything will, at times, require sitting and staying with what is difficult and what may seem to be extremely boring.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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This is oddly similar to a question I answered on Quora.
Marc
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This is a question that you should answer for yourself after obtaining a bit of background in both areas.
I encourage you to get involved in both areas. After a while, you will get to understand which of the two is a good fit for you.
The answer that you come up with will be specific to you and to no one else.
Different people have different backgrounds and consider different things to be interesting or boring, difficult or hard.
So go ahead and get involved in the areas that you think might interest you and might be a good fit for you.
After a while you will know if an area is a good match for you or not.
But be careful. The answers you find may be useful only to you. Other people may come up with completely different answers for themselves.
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It sounds like you want a good-paying job that is easy to do and fun all the time. Don't we all.
Networking requires less expertise in the academic sense, but that doesn't mean that it's easy. Networking changes very fast and requires you to constantly work to keep up with new technologies and products, even more so than with programming. There's also a lot of responsibility that comes with networking, because you are on the front lines of security.
But you can forget about any sort of professional career until you learn how to write. I don't mean that as an insult, but serious advice. A resume written that way will get you nowhere, and writing an email like that on the job in a professional setting would make you look incompetent. So really, forget about programming and networking for now, work on writing.
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...To advise of my 23rd Wedding Anniversary, also the 23rd Anniversary of the Strathfield Massacre.
Didn't even get an elephanting root.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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Which one of those should have resulted in the rooting?
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Happy Anniversary, Michael! Have you considered raising sheep?
Will Rogers never met me.
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Roger Wright wrote: Have you considered raising sheep?
Well, they don't wander about armed with big knives and automatic weapons.
Except in some parts of Wales and New Zealand.
You looking for sympathy?
You'll find it in the dictionary, between sympathomimetic and sympatric
(Page 1788, if it helps)
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OriginalGriff wrote: they don't wander about armed with big knives and automatic weapons.
I can understand how that would make them less attractive, but Mick's in a bit of a jam and might not be so picky.
Will Rogers never met me.
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