My path to achieving a dream and becoming an ICT professional at Cisco
THE BEGINNING OF MY JOURNEY
My story was not a straightforward one. It began in South Africa as far as 2009 when I was an asylum seeker running away from war in my home country, the Democratic Republic of Congo. As young as I was at that time, I already had at heart the need to further my education, as I knew this was the only way to succeed in life. However, I could not afford excessive school fees, having no means to support myself nor a breadwinner. I therefore did any small job I could get out there to take care of myself and plan for my future education.
Eventually, after attending some basic computer course (Excel, Word, PowerPoint) in Cape Town, I got exposed to the world of computers and fell in love with them. I soon realized that the ICT journey would be the one I would like to pursue, even though it felt challenging initially, due to the complexity and broadness of the field, as well as my limited English skills at the time. However, these challenges did not discourage me at all, and I promised myself not to give up no matter how difficult it looked back then.
I therefore decided to dive deep into the ICT world and joined a Cisco Academy after hearing about it at a place where I was studying my elementary computer skills. I took part in a Cisco networking program offered by Cape Peninsula University of Technology, in Cape Town, South Africa. Honestly, I didn’t know much about Cisco before joining the program. But after attending few sessions, I realized all the future career possibilities that would be available if only I managed to complete the program. It is through this course that I began to build plans of joining Cisco one day.
A DREAM COME TRUE
At the end of the program, I was retained as a technical lecturer for the same program within my university. Few years later, I joined the corporate workforce as a network engineer. This corporate life took me into various companies within South Africa, where I constantly built up my technical background while filling the skill gaps and I eventually got certified with the most renown Cisco certification, hoping to join Cisco and pursue my initial dream.
I knew that getting a job at Cisco was the best thing for me. Thus, I made sure that I spent most of my time developing my skills to be able to successfully complete the interview process one day, should Cisco offer it to me. It took me 9 years before I finally was offered the position on the Cisco Poland team. When I got hired, it was a dream come true! It took me so long, but it was worth it. My experience in the field and sacrifices made for over 9 years paid off eventually. I am now a proud Cisco Consulting Engineer, enjoying an amazing city of Krakow with its amazing Polish people.
FIRST IMPRESSION
After joining Cisco I quickly realized the benefits of becoming a Cisco employee, of which I only had minimal understanding before. Of course, the most important ones for me were opportunities to grow professionally, enhance my technical abilities, and learn from the best in the industry. But there is so much more – I’ve got great professionals to work with, a massive network of friends from all kinds of life and background, like-minded people across Poland and the Globe. And those are the reasons that still motivate me to work every day at Cisco. Not to mention the unique company culture and top-notch leadership, which I had never seen anywhere else during my past 9 years of career outside of Cisco.
Another impression-changer for me was the company’s approach to give employees 1 additional day off per quarter to recharge and spend time with family and friends, or 10 additional time off days per calendar year for employees, who would like to do volunteering work for a charity organization of their choice, the list goes on. In my opinion, this is a huge benefit which helps us to maintain our wellbeing while giving back to our communities.
The last but surely not the least is the free training we get here. In my previous employments, to get access to similar high quality training, I needed to commit to remain working for that employer for a certain period by signing an agreement with the employer, allowing the employer to make me pay back the cost of the training if I were to attempt leaving their organization before this time ends. But here at Cisco, there’s no cost attached to any training provided toward the employee. And you can complete any training you wish; I would say not even the sky would be the limit. Not to mention the flexibility of working from home or in a hybrid mode, which I never had before Cisco.
MY JOB AT CISCO
Currently, I’m part of the Customer Experience Center organization in Krakow, working in the Professional Services division as Senior Consulting Engineer. My responsibilities are designing datacenter infrastructure, handling the technical documentation and the architectural documents for our customers.
To be more precise, I draft documentation for Cisco corporate customers to make sure their solutions match Cisco’s guidelines and Cisco best practices. I also act as Cisco trusted adviser toward our customers, mainly those who are subscribed to our trusted expertise as service offering. So, I handle all the documentation from high-level design to low-level design, networking implementations plan, migrations plan – that’s mainly what I do.
Furthermore, I provide knowledge transfer if required on the project, which could be in a form of workshops or just a quick Q&A. For now, my area of expertise is Data Center-related. The daily interaction technologies span from OTV, Fabric Path, VXLAN, ACI, the networking day 2 apps and DCNM.
MY DAY AS CISCONIAN
Each working day is different at Cisco. Every morning, I usually start checking what has been pre-scheduled by our project management team. It could be a meeting with the customer to discuss the new project requirements or check the project progress to address all the concerns which can hinder the project completion in due time. Or it also can be taking a training or course, which we frequently do to be up to speed with different technologies and their evolutions in any area of our interest.
So, there are times when my calendar may look clean, which doesn’t necessary mean that I am free. In that case, I would be working offline on the documentations for my existing projects. So, my day is not a repetitive set of tasks. It depends on how many projects are assigned to me, and every day is unique.
TIPS FROM ME
To my fellow Cisconians, I would suggest being ready to accept the challenges as they come our way, for the sake of our own growth. We need to take the challenges and fall in love with the process because every day brings us new challenges, and we shouldn’t escape them. There is no doubt that Cisco offers equal opportunities to every employee. So, there is always a room for growth for each one of us, the ball is in our court. Keeping in mind that Cisco uses a consultive leadership model which allows no micromanagement of employees by their leaders, I suggest that you just do what you love and love what you do.
For people who are considering joining Cisco, If you’re a person who loves challenges, I would say that Cisco is the best place to be. You’ll get to grow, get to be challenged, and you’ll be given the opportunities to improve constantly. Not to mention the support from peers who are skilled in every single technology. They are always ready to help and always have your back. So that’s why regardless of the challenge, accept it, and it will be always a rewarding experience at the end!
Do you want to fulfill your dreams of developing in the IT industry like Jacques? Then check out our job offers and join us!
2 Comments
Very inspiring pathway !
Vraiment une expérience encourageant et fortifiant… et merci de pouvoir nous partager ton expérience et parcourir au sein de Cisco et tellement motivant.
Et tu as fait preuve de la ténacité… quand même Cisco ta ouvert des portes.
Bravos Jacques.