Cisco’s advocacy neighborhood, Cisco Insider, brings our clients collectively and gives a manner for them to make highly effective connections, increase their skilled and private networks, and study from prime specialists of their area. One in all our objectives with our advocacy neighborhood is to deepen {our relationships} with our clients. Our Q&A sequence 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 find out about 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 at present! Let’s kick issues off by studying a little 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 position 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 1000’s of consumers. I additionally give attention to 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 group 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 received 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 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 centered 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 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 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 thus far?
I used to be trying to develop into extra related with a neighborhood of pros, so throughout Cisco Dwell 2024 in Amsterdam, I visited the Insider Advocates sales space. After talking with the neighborhood managers, I made a decision to hitch the neighborhood.
The best worth of the neighborhood, for my part, is the power to ask questions on to material specialists (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 tasks I’m concerned with at work. Moreover, it’s been a improbable technique to meet new individuals from across the globe. I really admire the facility of neighborhood—it’s what helps me take pleasure in demanding processes like getting ready for the DevNet Skilled certification and dealing on difficult tasks. The DevNet Skilled certification demonstrates experience designing and growing community automation options by way of your complete 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 start out sharing your journey publicly?
I’ve at all times been impressed by professionals who generously share their experiences with others, comparable to John Capobianco, who revealed Automate Your Community. In his GitHub repository the place the guide is out there, he said, “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 situations and explains them in a manner that’s straightforward 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 plenty of different technical writers, I really feel a robust 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 helpful useful resource for somebody who’s beginning their DevNet Skilled journey. My objective 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 also be a manner to enhance my technical writing abilities, 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, would possibly make them options they hadn’t thought of earlier than.
I even have a dream of writing a technical guide sometime. I consider that the method of writing for my weblog will assist me develop the abilities I have to make that dream a actuality.
What can readers count on out of your upcoming weblog posts?
My DevNet Skilled 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 objective 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 sources out there that mentioned these features intimately. My first try was troublesome—not attributable to lack of know-how, 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 concerning 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 sensible 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 comply with alongside and study extra out of your experiences?
In case you’re curious about diving deeper into my journey, significantly my ongoing DevNet Skilled certification course of, you possibly can comply with 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 getting ready for certification, or just trying to increase your data in community automation, I hope my weblog could be a helpful 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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