Cisco’s advocacy group, Cisco Insider, brings our prospects collectively and supplies a method for them to make highly effective connections, develop their skilled and private networks, and be taught from prime consultants of their area. One in all our targets with our advocacy group 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 just lately sat down with Mateusz Frąk to find out about his journey in community engineering and his ardour for sharing information by way of his weblog.
Welcome, Mateusz! It’s so nice to talk with you at the moment! Let’s kick issues off by studying a little bit bit about who you might be.
Thanks for having me right here! I’m Mateusz, and I work at DSV as a senior community automation engineer. DSV is a world transport and logistics firm. My function entails implementing, managing, troubleshooting, and enhancing our community automation options. These options are vital in a corporation that gives and manages supply-chain options for 1000’s of shoppers. I additionally deal with 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 obtained you began?
My journey started after I was 18 and attending technical college. I used to be uncovered to varied specializations like programming, databases, and networks, and I selected networks as a result of I used to be fascinated by the subject and inquisitive about 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 information 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 over time. 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 simply’ve had a powerful profession development. How did you become involved with the Cisco Insider Advocates group, and what has your expertise been like thus far?
I used to be seeking to turn out to be extra related with a group of execs, so throughout Cisco Stay 2024 in Amsterdam, I visited the Insider Advocates sales space. After talking with the group managers, I made a decision to affix the group.
The best worth of the group, in my view, is the power to ask questions on to material consultants (SMEs) throughout unique Q&A periods. The responses I’ve obtained from these periods 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 option to meet new folks from across the globe. I really admire the facility of group—it’s what helps me get pleasure from demanding processes like making ready for the DevNet Professional certification and dealing on difficult initiatives. The DevNet Professional certification demonstrates experience designing and creating community automation options by way of the complete community lifecycle, from idea, improvement, 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, resembling John Capobianco, who printed Automate Your Community. In his GitHub repository the place the e-book is offered, he acknowledged, “I consider in open-source software program. I consider folks ought to have common entry to Linux. I consider open-source instruments like Ansible ought to stay open supply.” This impressed me to go a step additional and say, “I consider folks 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 method that’s simple to know.
I dedicate hours day by day to finding out new subjects and applied sciences. As I profit from the free sources shared by Cisco, John, Conor, and plenty of different technical writers, I really feel a powerful need to provide 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 beneficial useful resource for somebody who’s beginning their DevNet Professional journey. My purpose is to assist others really feel much less pressured throughout their preparation and the examination itself. I understand how difficult it may be to keep up 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 method 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 completely different angles. This, in flip, would possibly make them options they hadn’t thought-about earlier than.
I even have a dream of writing a technical e-book sometime. I consider 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 remains to be ongoing, and I’m planning to doc my examination makes an attempt quickly, together with ideas and techniques for tackling a CCIE-level examination. My purpose is to assist others really feel much less overwhelmed when making ready for such a demanding certification.
Once I began my journey, there weren’t many sources accessible that mentioned these facets intimately. My first try was troublesome—not on account of lack of understanding, however due to sudden components that affected my efficiency. Being conscious of those small but important particulars will help candidates handle their stress ranges higher, particularly in the event that they’ve learn concerning the expertise of somebody who has been by way of it.
Sooner or later, I’ll additionally share insights from my each day work to provide a practical view of life in IT. Whereas there are lots of 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 case you’re desirous about 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, ideas, and detailed posts concerning the challenges and options I encounter. Whether or not you’re making ready for certification, or just seeking to develop your information in community automation, I hope my weblog could be a beneficial useful resource for you.
It’s been a pleasure to talk with you, Mateusz. Thanks once more for becoming a member of us and for being a part of our group!
Learn extra advocate interviews.
You would possibly get pleasure from this interview with Rob Taylor.
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