E104 - Quinn Snyder at Cisco

In this episode of the Route to Networking podcast, our Senior Vice President, Antonio Costa, was joined by Quinn Snyder, the Developer Advocate and Technical Evangelist for Cisco DevNet. Quinn and Antonio discuss the importance of giving back to the networking community and why everyone must do their bit to help each other.

His journey to where he is today, he describes as a long one. Back in his high school days, he had a Cisco Networking Academy class, and he knew from then he wanted to go down that path. He got his CCNA during high school and started working towards his CCNP. He managed to get his CCNA before leaving high school and through his affiliation with the academy, he landed an internship with World Wide Technology which blossomed into an 11-year career over there.

He was in services doing deployment and worked on tasks that were repetitive and worked on automating them. His experience with that leads him to find a better and more efficient way of doing tasks. So, he tried starting up a service practice around automation in 2015/16. It was at this point he started to see a lot of stuff in the DevNet zone at Cisco Live and was intrigued. After 2 and a half years, a role opened for Cisco DevNet and after a few tense weeks of interviews, he got the job.

Aside from his role, one of his biggest passions in life is teaching and education and being able to take the things he knows, go through the trials and tribulations, what’s the best way to do things and give back to the community. From Cisco Live, webinars, and workshops to learning labs, he loves to see people learn and grow through what he and his team have created.

When he first started in 2006, he had exposure to a little security and wireless. Back then, speaking to CCIEs who were doing it for quite some time, made him realise you have got to specialise. Drill into what you’re passionate about whether that’s wireless, security etc. The main change he has seen is that they’ve taken something that we thought was a commodity 20 years ago and completely flipped it on its head.

The most rewarding part of his role goes back to the education aspect. At the Cisco Live event in Vegas, hearing people come up and thank them for the session or ask them questions.

The Networking Community…

When it comes to the Networking community, Quinn loves to give back. “We all started somewhere, and we all had questions”. He says all people in the Networking industry got to where they are through a combination of hard work and determination but also by having someone that took a chance on them and took them under their wing. If we don’t do those things the community will become insular/close-minded, and we will lose the potential to develop a lot of great talent.

For anyone looking to start a career in the field, find a community. Find a group of people that are there to give back. Latch on to it but also don’t forget to look back and remember where you started when you grow.

Quinn shares what the best skills are to have for success in the Networking field, tune in now to hear it!