Cisco’s advocacy group, Cisco Insider, brings our prospects collectively and offers a manner 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 targets 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 just lately sat down with Mateusz Frąk to study his journey in community engineering and his ardour for sharing data by way of his weblog.
Welcome, Mateusz! It’s so nice to talk with you right now! Let’s kick issues off by studying a bit 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 important in a corporation 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 widespread 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 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 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 middle and campus environments, utilizing Cisco merchandise. Practically three years in the past, I made a decision to pivot into community automation, leveraging the abilities 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 get entangled with the Cisco Insider Advocates group, and what has your expertise been like up to now?
I used to be seeking to turn into extra linked with a group of execs, so throughout Cisco Reside 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, in my view, is the flexibility to ask questions on to subject 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 deal with 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 incredible option to meet new individuals from across the globe. I actually respect the facility of group—it’s what helps me take pleasure in demanding processes like making ready for the DevNet Skilled certification and dealing on difficult initiatives. The DevNet Skilled certification demonstrates experience designing and growing community automation options by way of the whole community lifecycle, from idea, improvement, and deployment to operation and optimization.
Talking of your DevNet Skilled 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 out there, he acknowledged, “I consider in open-source software program. I consider individuals 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 individuals 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 manner that’s straightforward to know.
I dedicate hours on daily basis 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 want 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 invaluable useful resource for somebody who’s beginning their DevNet Skilled journey. My objective is to assist others really feel much less careworn 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 also be a manner 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 infrequently requires intensive analysis to create articles that not solely inform, but additionally 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 e book sometime. I consider 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 Skilled 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 sources accessible that mentioned these features intimately. My first try was troublesome—not on account of lack of expertise, however due to surprising 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 in regards to the expertise of somebody who has been by way of it.
Sooner or later, I’ll additionally share insights from my every day work to offer a practical view of life in IT. Whereas there are various 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 study extra out of your experiences?
When you’re involved in diving deeper into my journey, notably my ongoing DevNet Skilled 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 making ready for certification, or just seeking to increase your data in community automation, I hope my weblog generally is a invaluable 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 may take pleasure in this interview with Rob Taylor.
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