Cisco’s advocacy neighborhood, Cisco Insider, brings our clients collectively and gives a manner for them to make highly effective connections, broaden their skilled and private networks, and be taught from high consultants of their discipline. One in every of our objectives with our advocacy neighborhood is to deepen {our relationships} with our clients. 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 not too long ago sat down with Mateusz Frąk to find out about his journey in community engineering and his ardour for sharing information by means of his weblog.
Welcome, Mateusz! It’s so nice to talk with you right now! Let’s kick issues off by studying a bit of 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 function entails implementing, managing, troubleshooting, and enhancing our community automation options. These options are essential in a corporation 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 varied instruments that the operations staff makes use of to troubleshoot networks, leading to sooner isolation of widespread 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 faculty. 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 interested in what actually occurs behind the scenes once you load a webpage like Google.
Through the years, I progressed from a junior community administrator to a community engineer, and ultimately a community architect. As a community architect, I targeted on modernizing an organization’s community by adopting software-defined networks (SDN) for each knowledge heart 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 just’ve had a powerful profession development. How did you get entangled with the Cisco Insider Advocates neighborhood, and what has your expertise been like to this point?
I used to be trying to grow to be extra related with a neighborhood of pros, 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 affix the neighborhood.
The best worth of the neighborhood, in my view, is the power 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 abilities and deal with 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 tasks I’m concerned with at work. Moreover, it’s been a incredible approach to meet new folks from across the globe. I really respect the ability of neighborhood—it’s what helps me get pleasure from demanding processes like making ready for the DevNet Professional certification and dealing on difficult tasks. The DevNet Professional certification demonstrates experience designing and growing community automation options by means 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 at all times been impressed by professionals who generously share their experiences with others, reminiscent of John Capobianco, who printed Automate Your Community. In his GitHub repository the place the ebook is obtainable, he said, “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 manner that’s simple to grasp.
I dedicate hours day by day to learning new subjects and applied sciences. As I profit from the free assets shared by Cisco, John, Conor, and plenty of different technical writers, I really feel a powerful need to present 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 useful useful resource for somebody who’s beginning their DevNet Professional journey. My objective 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 also be a manner to enhance my technical writing abilities, 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-about earlier than.
I even have a dream of writing a technical ebook sometime. I consider that the method of writing for my weblog will assist me develop the talents 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 objective is to assist others really feel much less overwhelmed when making ready for such a demanding certification.
After I began my journey, there weren’t many assets obtainable that mentioned these features intimately. My first try was troublesome—not as a consequence of lack of expertise, however due to sudden components that affected my efficiency. Being conscious of those small but vital particulars may also help candidates handle their stress ranges higher, particularly in the event that they’ve learn concerning the expertise of somebody who has been by means of it.
Sooner or later, I’ll additionally share insights from my every day work to present a sensible view of life in IT. Whereas there are a lot 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 the event you’re fascinated with diving deeper into my journey, significantly my ongoing DevNet Professional certification course of, you possibly can observe alongside on my weblog at mateuszfrak.com. I frequently share insights, ideas, and detailed posts concerning the challenges and options I encounter. Whether or not you’re making ready for certification, or just trying to broaden your information in community automation, I hope my weblog generally is a useful 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 neighborhood!
Learn extra advocate interviews.
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