Cisco’s advocacy neighborhood, Cisco Insider, brings our prospects collectively and supplies a manner for them to make highly effective connections, develop their skilled and private networks, and be taught from prime consultants of their discipline. Considered one of our objectives with our advocacy neighborhood is to deepen {our relationships} with our prospects. Our Q&A sequence permits us to shine a highlight on a few of our most passionate advocates as we be taught extra about their tales and backgrounds.
We not too long ago sat down with Mateusz Frąk to study his journey in community engineering and his ardour for sharing information by his weblog.
Welcome, Mateusz! It’s so nice to speak with you at the moment! Let’s kick issues off by studying just a little bit about who you’re.
Thanks for having me right here! I’m Mateusz, and I work at DSV as a senior community automation engineer. DSV is a worldwide transport and logistics firm. My position entails implementing, managing, troubleshooting, and enhancing our community automation options. These options are essential in a company that gives and manages supply-chain options for 1000’s of consumers. I additionally concentrate on figuring out enterprise points, permitting us to develop options that assist community engineers keep away from repetitive duties. We offer numerous instruments that the operations crew makes use of to troubleshoot networks, leading to sooner isolation of frequent community points.
Are you able to inform us about your journey into community engineering? What received you began?
My journey started once I was 18 and attending technical college. I used to be uncovered to numerous specializations like programming, databases, and networks, and I selected networks as a result of I used to be fascinated by the subject and interested in what actually occurs behind the scenes whenever you load a webpage like Google.
Through the years, I progressed from a junior community administrator to a community engineer, and finally a community architect. As a community architect, I targeted on modernizing an organization’s community by adopting software-defined networks (SDN) for each knowledge middle and campus environments, utilizing Cisco merchandise. Practically three years in the past, I made a decision to pivot into community automation, leveraging the talents I had constructed through the years. This transition allowed me to mix my deep understanding of community engineering with automation, enabling the creation of extra environment friendly and efficient options.
It’s clear that you just’ve had a formidable profession development. How did you get entangled with the Cisco Insider Advocates neighborhood, and what has your expertise been like thus far?
I used to be trying to develop into extra related with a neighborhood of execs, so throughout Cisco Stay 2024 in Amsterdam, I visited the Insider Advocates sales space. After talking with the neighborhood managers, I made a decision to hitch the neighborhood.
The best worth of the neighborhood, for my part, is the flexibility to ask questions on to material consultants (SMEs) throughout unique Q&A classes. The responses I’ve acquired from these classes have been extremely insightful, permitting me to enhance my expertise and sort out challenges in my job extra successfully. I’ve additionally related with quite a few SMEs, tapping into their experience and making use of it to the initiatives I’m concerned with at work. Moreover, it’s been a implausible strategy to meet new individuals from across the globe. I really respect the ability of neighborhood—it’s what helps me take pleasure in demanding processes like getting ready for the DevNet Professional certification and dealing on difficult initiatives. The DevNet Professional certification demonstrates experience designing and growing community automation options by the complete community lifecycle, from idea, growth, and deployment to operation and optimization.
Talking of your DevNet Professional journey, you’ve been documenting your experiences in your weblog at mateuszfrak.com. What motivated you to begin sharing your journey publicly?
I’ve all the time been impressed by professionals who generously share their experiences with others, corresponding to John Capobianco, who printed Automate Your Community. In his GitHub repository the place the ebook is offered, he said, “I imagine in open-source software program. I imagine individuals ought to have common entry to Linux. I imagine open-source instruments like Ansible ought to stay open supply.” This impressed me to go a step additional and say, “I imagine individuals ought to have common entry to information.”
I’ve additionally been impressed by Conor Murphy, a technical options architect at Cisco, who shares technical blogs. He tackles very difficult eventualities and explains them in a manner that’s straightforward to know.
I dedicate hours daily to finding out new subjects and applied sciences. As I profit from the free sources shared by Cisco, John, Conor, and lots of different technical writers, I really feel a powerful want to offer again by sharing the information and expertise I collect every day.
What retains you motivated to proceed writing and sharing your journey?
I hope that my weblog will function a worthwhile useful resource for somebody who’s beginning their DevNet Professional journey. My purpose is to assist others really feel much less confused throughout their preparation and the examination itself. I understand how difficult it may be to take care of composure in such high-pressure conditions. I additionally need to present that this certification is achievable by anybody who’s constant and devoted.
My weblog can be a manner to enhance my technical writing expertise, improve my English, and most significantly, deepen my technical information. Writing content material for a weblog takes time and sometimes requires intensive analysis to create articles that not solely inform, but in addition encourage readers to consider issues from totally different angles. This, in flip, would possibly make them options they hadn’t thought of earlier than.
I even have a dream of writing a technical ebook sometime. I imagine that the method of writing for my weblog will assist me develop the talents I have to make that dream a actuality.
What can readers count on out of your upcoming weblog posts?
My DevNet Professional journey continues to be ongoing, and I’m planning to doc my examination makes an attempt quickly, together with suggestions and techniques for tackling a CCIE-level examination. My purpose is to assist others really feel much less overwhelmed when getting ready for such a demanding certification.
Once I began my journey, there weren’t many sources obtainable that mentioned these facets intimately. My first try was troublesome—not attributable to lack of information, however due to surprising elements that affected my efficiency. Being conscious of those small but vital particulars may help candidates handle their stress ranges higher, particularly in the event that they’ve learn in regards to the expertise of somebody who has been by it.
Sooner or later, I’ll additionally share insights from my day by day work to offer a sensible view of life in IT. Whereas there are numerous blogs that assist IT professionals get began with particular instruments, I need to take it a step additional, discussing the challenges professionals face and providing options that transcend the fundamentals.
Lastly, Mateusz, for these impressed by your journey, the place can they observe alongside and be taught extra out of your experiences?
In the event you’re involved in diving deeper into my journey, significantly my ongoing DevNet Professional certification course of, you’ll be able to observe alongside on my weblog at mateuszfrak.com. I commonly share insights, suggestions, and detailed posts in regards to the challenges and options I encounter. Whether or not you’re getting ready for certification, or just trying to develop your information in community automation, I hope my weblog generally is a worthwhile useful resource for you.
It’s been a pleasure to speak with you, Mateusz. Thanks once more for becoming a member of us and for being a part of our neighborhood!
Learn extra advocate interviews.
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