Cisco Insider Mateusz Frąk is captivated with gaining—and sharing—data.

Cisco’s advocacy group, Cisco Insider, brings our clients collectively and offers a means for them to make highly effective connections, increase their skilled and private networks, and study from prime specialists of their area. Certainly one of our objectives with our advocacy group 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 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 via his weblog.

Welcome, Mateusz! It’s so nice to speak 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 world transport and logistics firm. My function includes implementing, managing, troubleshooting, and enhancing our community automation options. These options are important in a company 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 numerous instruments that the operations crew 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 acquired you began?

My journey started once I was 18 and attending technical faculty. 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 if 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 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 this point?

I used to be trying to change into extra linked with a group of pros, 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, 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 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 tasks I’m concerned with at work. Moreover, it’s been a implausible technique to meet new folks from across the globe. I really admire the ability of group—it’s what helps me take pleasure in demanding processes like getting ready for the DevNet Knowledgeable certification and dealing on difficult tasks. The DevNet Knowledgeable certification demonstrates experience designing and growing community automation options via your entire 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 all the time been impressed by professionals who generously share their experiences with others, corresponding to John Capobianco, who revealed Automate Your Community. In his GitHub repository the place the guide is offered, 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 means that’s simple to grasp.

I dedicate hours each day 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 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 precious useful resource for somebody who’s beginning their DevNet Knowledgeable journey. My objective is to assist others really feel much less burdened 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 means 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 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 guide sometime. I imagine 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 Knowledgeable journey continues 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 objective 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 assets accessible that mentioned these facets intimately. My first try was troublesome—not resulting from lack of information, however due to surprising elements that affected my efficiency. Being conscious of those small but vital particulars will help candidates handle their stress ranges higher, particularly in the event that they’ve learn concerning the expertise of somebody who has been via 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 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 comply with alongside and study extra out of your experiences?

Should you’re excited about diving deeper into my journey, significantly my ongoing DevNet Knowledgeable certification course of, you may comply with alongside on my weblog at mateuszfrak.com. I repeatedly share insights, suggestions, 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 generally is a precious 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 would possibly take pleasure in this interview with Rob Taylor.

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For our clients who’ve already joined our Cisco Insider Advocates group, say hiya to Mateusz in the event you haven’t met but. And in the event you’re a Cisco buyer however aren’t a group member, contemplate becoming a member of. You’ll be capable of:

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