Cisco’s advocacy neighborhood, Cisco Insider, brings our prospects collectively and offers a approach for them to make highly effective connections, develop their skilled and private networks, and be taught from high consultants of their area. One among our targets with our advocacy neighborhood is to deepen {our relationships} with our prospects. Our Q&A collection 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 lately sat down with Mateusz Frąk to find out about his journey in community engineering and his ardour for sharing data by means of his weblog.
Welcome, Mateusz! It’s so nice to speak with you as we speak! Let’s kick issues off by studying a bit of 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 includes implementing, managing, troubleshooting, and enhancing our community automation options. These options are crucial in a company that gives and manages supply-chain options for hundreds 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 workforce makes use of to troubleshoot networks, leading to quicker isolation of frequent community points.
Are you able to inform us about your journey into community engineering? What bought you began?
My journey started after 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 by what actually occurs behind the scenes once you load a webpage like Google.
Over time, 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. Almost three years in the past, I made a decision to pivot into community automation, leveraging the abilities 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 formidable profession development. How did you become involved with the Cisco Insider Advocates neighborhood, and what has your expertise been like thus far?
I used to be trying to turn out to be extra linked with a neighborhood of execs, so throughout Cisco Reside 2024 in Amsterdam, I visited the Insider Advocates sales space. After talking with the neighborhood managers, I made a decision to affix 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 periods. The responses I’ve acquired 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 linked 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 method to meet new folks 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 creating community automation options by means of all the 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 start out sharing your journey publicly?
I’ve at all times been impressed by professionals who generously share their experiences with others, equivalent to John Capobianco, who printed Automate Your Community. In his GitHub repository the place the ebook is obtainable, he acknowledged, “I imagine in open-source software program. I imagine folks 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 folks ought to have common entry to data.”
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 approach that’s simple to know.
I dedicate hours day-after-day to learning 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 need to offer again by sharing the data 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 useful useful resource for somebody who’s beginning their DevNet Professional journey. My aim is to assist others really feel much less confused 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 approach to enhance my technical writing expertise, improve my English, and most significantly, deepen my technical data. Writing content material for a weblog takes time and sometimes requires in depth analysis to create articles that not solely inform, but in addition encourage readers to consider issues from totally different angles. This, in flip, may cause them to options they hadn’t thought-about 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 abilities I must make that dream a actuality.
What can readers anticipate 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 ideas and techniques for tackling a CCIE-level examination. My aim is to assist others really feel much less overwhelmed when getting ready for such a demanding certification.
After I began my journey, there weren’t many sources accessible that mentioned these points intimately. My first try was tough—not on account of lack of expertise, 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 means of 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?
When you’re curious about diving deeper into my journey, notably my ongoing DevNet Professional certification course of, you may observe alongside on my weblog at mateuszfrak.com. I commonly share insights, ideas, 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 data in community automation, I hope my weblog generally is a useful 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.
You may take pleasure in this interview with Rob Taylor.
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For our prospects who’ve already joined our Cisco Insider Advocates neighborhood, say good day to Mateusz for those who haven’t met but. And for those who’re a Cisco buyer however aren’t a neighborhood member, take into account becoming a member of. You’ll have the ability to:
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