Q: Is it possible to have more information on tests and the interview process, particularly on the assessment centre part?
A: The assessment process consists of the following stages i/ application screening, ii/ telephone interview for the best candidates and, iii/ if you succeed in the telephone interview, a full assessment centre day at the Cisco office, where you will be required to do some individual and group exercises. Obviously we can't provide you the details of the exercises which will change each time. We recommend you refresh your basic networking knowledge, but do not focus only on the technical preparation. As this is an Associate position we will also be interested in your soft/professional skills and your past learning/working experiences, rather than your prior networking knowledge itself.
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Q: What do you exactly mean by “soft skills” or "professional skills"?
A: Soft or Professional skills are all your non-technical capabilities that define your performance both in your day-to-day job and your further career. These include presentation, building relationships, communication, team working, leadership and troubleshooting skills. As you may imagine in a customer facing role it is very important to be able to leverage these skills in order to be recognized as a trusted advisor to the customer.
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Q: What are the main differences between the ANCE and ASE?
A: The main differences between an NCE and an SE are where they fit within our services lifecycle (prepare, plan, design, implement, operate and optimize).
A Network Consulting Engineer (NCE) is a post-sales role. There are different types of NCE within Advanced Services
- Proactive NCE for Subscription services usually supports a limited amount big customers (big Enterprise or Service Provider) that already have Cisco equipment in place and have purchased an ongoing support services contract. The NCE usually works on the optimize stage of the lifecycle and their tasks include performing network audits, giving advice on network improvement, reviewing designs and working on the customers software strategy.
- Proactive NCE for Transactional services usually supports different Advanced Services customers with projects that could last from a few weeks to a few months. This would be during the plan, design and implement stages of the lifecycle and may be related to a particular technology area.
- Reactive NCE (HTTS or HTE) gives live support to solve specific issues that our Advanced Services customer is facing. This involves troubleshooting and analyzing information about the specific network topology of the customer. This is the operation stage in the lifecycle.
An SE is a pre-sales role. An SE works at the start of a project, with the sales team, in order to select the solution to put in place and the right equipment for the customer needs. This is the prepare and plan stage of the lifecycle.
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Q: Are the certifications part of the programme or are we meant to make our own arrangements to do them ourselves?
A: In the first 3 months the ANCEs have a block of classroom based training, with both technical (CCNA and CCNP courses) and professional skills classes (presentation practices, team building, troubleshooting training). During this period you are expected to take and pass your CCNA and written CCIE Routing & Switching certifications, and do your best to achieve CCNP also (the exams must be taken, but it is stretch goal to pass all of them).
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Q: Are there any services you deliver to any real Cisco customers during the programme?
A: After the first 3 months there is a period of rotations (usually about 3 months) where you will work with a Cisco team and are likely to be facing real customers to solve their issues, mainly on the phone or by email.
At the end of the program you will join your final team where you will be working with other AS NCEs to deliver Advanced Services to our customers during your 'on the job training' phase.
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