I was studying in my university when I got to know Cisco Systems for the first time. Cisco invited students to sing-up for the CCNA program. Since I was thinking about my future, my career and development sphere I decided to enter the Cisco Systems Academy. I had never been looking into this field before and decided that it may be a good opportunity to start. The studies were really hard in the beginning when I had to cope with the English-language materials and terms most of which were unclear to me and I had to spend all my free time to study CCNA. When I progressed with my studies and started to understand more it became easier for me to learn. Of course the academy instructors and my classmates have contributed to that a lot. The unrestricted access to the CISCO equipment allowed me to apply my theoretical knowledge in practice. I was interested in network technologies from the first day and tried to bottom into it. I realized that it is necessary for my career and everything hangs upon my sleeve. I successfully graduated from my Academy, passed my exams and obtained CCNA certificate. It was my personal achievement and a perfect award for all my efforts. I continued my study in the University and shortly found an intern vacancy in Cisco Systems. I was terribly nervous before the interview as it was the first interview in my life and it happened to be an interview with the leading company in the industry. The interview could have been much easier - I had to demonstrate all my knowledge answering thousands of questions. I was a bit upset after the interview and blamed myself for not being able to answer all the questions. But how happy and surprised I was when Cisco called me back to say I'm in! The main selection criteria were my ability to stand in a tough situation and to adapt to unknown conditions. By the way, the knowledge from the CCNA program helped me a lot. I was ineffably glad and remain happy now. The system of responsibilities assignment is at a very high level in Cisco Systems. Everyone has his own mentor who defines your current goals and tasks and leads you through career. This was very helpful because initially I was challenged by all the internal procedures of a big company. My colleagues are very friendly and they always give the full answers to the different questions I ask and help to understand what is going on. At the moment I want to become a specialist in Routing and Switching, that is why I enrolled for the CCNP program. My manager also supports my initiative and tries to give me related tasks which undoubtedly help me to get more in-depth knowledge of the subject and increase my professional skills. I advise customers from small/middle business on equipment selection, assist during products presentations for customers and company partners, help to organize exhibitions, such as Cisco Expo 2008. I believe that all this provides a strong background for my future development and career growth. |
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