Cisco’s advocacy group, Cisco Insider, brings our prospects collectively and gives a approach for them to make highly effective connections, increase their skilled and private networks, and study from high consultants of their discipline. Certainly one of our objectives with our advocacy group 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 study 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 information by means of his weblog.
Welcome, Mateusz! It’s so nice to speak with you at present! 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 crucial in a company that gives and manages supply-chain options for hundreds of consumers. 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 staff 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 acquired you began?
My journey started once 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 interested by what actually occurs behind the scenes if 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 centered 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 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 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 to date?
I used to be seeking to turn out to be extra related with a group of pros, 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 hitch the group.
The best worth of the group, 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 abilities 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 method to meet new individuals from across the globe. I really recognize the ability of group—it’s what helps me get pleasure from demanding processes like getting ready for the DevNet Knowledgeable certification and dealing on difficult initiatives. The DevNet Knowledgeable certification demonstrates experience designing and creating community automation options by means of the whole community lifecycle, from idea, growth, and deployment to operation and optimization.
Talking of your DevNet Knowledgeable 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, resembling John Capobianco, who revealed Automate Your Community. In his GitHub repository the place the e book is out there, he acknowledged, “I believe in open-source software. I believe people should have universal access to Linux. I believe open-source tools like Ansible should remain open source.” This impressed me to go a step additional and say, “I believe people should have universal access to knowledge.”
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 grasp.
I dedicate hours daily to finding out new subjects and applied sciences. As I profit from the free assets 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 beneficial useful resource for somebody who’s beginning their DevNet Knowledgeable journey. My purpose is to assist others really feel much less harassed 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 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 completely different angles. This, in flip, may cause them to options they hadn’t thought of earlier than.
I even have a dream of writing a technical e book 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 Knowledgeable journey remains 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 assets obtainable that mentioned these facets intimately. My first try was tough—not resulting from lack of know-how, however due to sudden elements that affected my efficiency. Being conscious of those small but important particulars might 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 day by day work to offer a practical 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 comply with alongside and study extra out of your experiences?
In case you’re excited by diving deeper into my journey, notably my ongoing DevNet Knowledgeable certification course of, you may comply with alongside on my weblog at mateuszfrak.com. I frequently share insights, suggestions, and detailed posts concerning the challenges and options I encounter. Whether or not you’re getting ready for certification, or just seeking to increase your information in community automation, I hope my weblog generally is a beneficial 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 group!
Learn extra advocate interviews.
You may get pleasure from this interview with Rob Taylor.
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