Again in 2007, after months of intensive learning, I handed my first Cisco certification examination: the CCNA. I walked out of that testing heart with tears streaming down my face, similar to Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness.
That CCNA certification was my ticket to kickstarting a brand new life and profession in IT. The satisfaction of passing after two earlier failed makes an attempt was unbelievable. Little did I do know then that this achievement was simply the spark that might ignite a ardour for lifelong studying. My actual development started within the months and years after passing the examination.
All of us take certification for a purpose: our employer desires us to get a pay increase, a job promotion, or a brand new job. However these do one factor: they provide us self-growth and self-knowledge. What occurs after the certification is what I’ll uncover right here right now.
“Reaching Cisco certification is a significant accomplishment, however true success comes from having
a lifelong dedication to studying. Regularly have interaction with the Cisco neighborhood,
share your experience, and leverage micro-learning sources.”
Connecting with the Cisco Neighborhood
Within the lead-up to my examination date, I joined the Cisco on-line neighborhood boards. Interacting with Cisco specialists expanded my information far past textbook ideas. I discovered invaluable real-world troubleshooting ideas and finest practices from professionals utilizing Cisco applied sciences each day of their environments.
Their insights uncovered me to new views and options. One member helped me higher perceive how OSPF value metrics influence route choice—an idea I had struggled with. One other gave an important tip about utilizing port safety to stop MAC flooding assaults. Not solely did the neighborhood assist fill information gaps, however exposing me to how different community engineers approached issues developed my vital considering skills.
Empowering Change: Collectively, We Make a Distinction
After getting a lot from the Cisco Neighborhood, I used to be excited to begin giving again and paying it ahead. I shared my classes discovered by creating weblog posts and tutorial movies and even mentoring different newcomers learning for his or her certifications. Serving to fellow learners made an influence and strengthened my information as I needed to clarify ideas in a easy and logical method. By no means underestimate how a lot you realize and the way sharing this might help somebody following your path.
Quick-form studying content material has distinct benefits in right now’s world of condensed consideration spans and packed schedules. Know-how matters can simply be distilled into <10-minute movies that convey the core ideas learners want. These bite-sized tutorials match trendy consumption preferences; they’re simple to entry on any machine, easy to repeat for reinforcement, and fast to suit into small pockets of free time.
Quick movies benefit from our mind’s visible processing capabilities by slides, screenshots, and code samples. Learners can acquire broad publicity by watching quite a few condensed tutorials on a topic space, constructing foundational information piece by piece. Whereas not complete, quick movies successfully impart elementary rules, terminology, and workflows. They supply sufficient baseline understanding to allow deeper unbiased examine.
In an period of knowledge overload, compact studying experiences guarantee key concepts stick. Know-how matters are well-suited for targeted, environment friendly supply in snackable movies that spark curiosity and ship worth in minutes.
Full Snack Developer
Snack Minutes are quick, bite-sized movies created by high IT professionals that train targeted classes on technical matters. They’re a straightforward and fascinating method to maintain increasing our abilities.
One of many nice issues about Snack Minutes is that they cowl rising matters like community automation. Community automation makes use of software program and protocols like Ansible, Python, REST APIs, and NETCONF to programmatically configure and handle networks. This could make networks extra agile, environment friendly, and resilient. If somebody is new to community automation, this can be invaluable for studying foundational ideas rapidly. The quick movies give publicity to automation fundamentals and phrases.
Extra just lately, the Snack Minute group has made some nice content material on core networking rules—excellent for reinforcing foundational networking ideas reminiscent of TCP/IP, routing protocols, and VLANs; distilling matters into compact classes ensures that you don’t overlook what you labored on so laborious to be taught.
Discovering New Cisco Merchandise and Options
The networking world strikes quick, and Cisco is all the time releasing new applied sciences. With Snack Minutes, I can sustain with the most recent Cisco options like Meraki SD-WAN, Catalyst 9000 switches, Umbrella Safety, and many others. Chew-sized movies rapidly deliver me on top of things on new improvements from Cisco. This permits me to remain conversant on the place Cisco product households are headed and see how these applied sciences can profit my group.
It’s not nearly staying knowledgeable; it’s about leveraging these insights to make knowledgeable selections that drive effectivity and success in our networking methods. With Snack Minutes, it’s not solely preserving tempo with the ever-evolving tech panorama but additionally equipping ourselves towards a brighter, extra related future.
The Journey Continues: Investing in Lifelong Studying
My Cisco certification was simply the place to begin on my journey to develop as a community engineer. Whereas the learning and exams have been difficult, the true work started after passing, as I seemed for tactics to repeatedly broaden my abilities. Connecting with the Cisco neighborhood, giving again by creating tutorials, and staying on high of recent developments have been essential to my ongoing schooling. Quick, snackable studying sources like Snack Minutes make it simple and fascinating to bolster foundational ideas and choose up rising matters like automation. The bite-sized movies are the right method to continue to grow your information and abilities wherever you’re in your profession.
Reaching Cisco certification is a significant accomplishment, however true success comes from having a lifelong dedication to studying. Regularly have interaction with the Cisco neighborhood, share your experience, and leverage micro-learning sources. This ardour for ongoing schooling will maintain you related and forward in our quickly altering technical panorama.
Take a look at the Snack Minute Offered by Cisco U. playlist on YouTube for simply digestible movies that broaden your abilities and information. The quick, visually partaking tutorials are an effective way to maintain advancing in your profession journey lengthy after passing your certification examination.
Learn subsequent: From Community Automation to Safety: Cisco U. Position-Based mostly Studying Paths
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