The case came into the routing protocols queue, even though it was simply a line card crash. The RP queue in HTTS was the dumping ground for anything that did not fit into one of the few other specialized queues we had. A large US service provider had a Packet over SONET (PoS) line card […]
Interviewing #2: Why do we interview?
In the last article on technical interviewing, I told the story of how I got my first networking job. The interview was chaotic and unorganized, and resulted in me getting the job and being quite successful. In this post, I’d like to start with a very basic question: Why is it that we interview job […]
TAC Tales #17: Escalations
When you open a TAC case, how exactly does the customer support engineer (CSE) figure out how to solve the case? After all, CSEs are not super-human. Just like any engineer, in TAC you have a range of brilliant to not-so-brilliant, and everything in between. Let me give an example: I worked at HTTS, or […]
CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure
There were quite a few big announcements at Cisco Live this year. One of the big ones was the overhaul of the certification program. A number of new certifications were introduced (such as the DevNet CCNA/CCNP), and the existing ones were overhauled. I wanted to do a post about this because I was involved with […]
Cisco Live is over! Long Live Cisco Live!
I think it’s fair to say that all technical marketing engineers are excited for Cisco Live, and happy when it’s over. Cisco Live is always a lot of fun–I heard one person say “it’s like a family reunion except I like everyone!” It’s a great chance to see a lot of folks you don’t get […]
Inside Cisco Live
While I’m thinking about another TAC Tale, I’m quite busy working on slides for Cisco Live. I figured this makes for another interesting “inside Cisco” post, since most people who have been to the show don’t know much about how it comes together. A couple years back I asked a customer if I could […]
What are we getting ourselves into?
It seems to be rank heresy for someone working in the valley to say it, but let me say it anyways. I don’t agree with the axiom of the technology industry which states that all technological progress is always good. Many in our society instinctively realize this, which is why they oppose genetic engineering and […]
Blog Updates
A lot of the blog posts I write begin with “I’m just too busy to blog these days!” Luckily, I have dozens of drafts so often blogging is just a question of cleaning up something I wrote a long time ago. However, I’d like to keep things up here even as life becomes more hectic […]
Interviewing #1: How I got my first networking job
I’ve wanted to kick off a series for a while now on technical interviewing. Let me begin with a story. My first job interview for a full network engineering role was at the San Francisco Chronicle in 2000. I had been working for five years in IT, mostly doing desktop and end-user support. I then […]
Moving carpets for $2000
I worked for two years at a Cisco Gold Partner. The first year was great. We were trying to start up a Cisco practice in San Francisco (they were primarily a Citrix partner before), so my buddy and I wined and dined Cisco channel account managers trying to impress them with our CCIE’s and get […]