E47 - Michal Dobryznski at Sky

On our 47th episode of The Route to Networking podcast, James Dean is joined by Michal Dobryznski, the Technical Manager at Sky. Michal is MBA qualified, CCNP, CCNA, CCIE and CMgr certified and during the episode, he discusses his experience completing those qualifications.

When it comes to his passion for the industry, the seed was planted when he was at university. He did his masters in Poland at a technical university and in his final 2 years with the vision to make himself more employable, he signed up to the CiscoNet academy. He did his CCNA training and finished four modules and it was at this point he thought it was definitely a path he wanted to pursue. He dipped his toe in the world of Networking and the rest is history.

After he graduated, he moved to the UK and started looking for IT-related work. After a few months of searching, he got his first role as a contractor doing a WindowsXP refresh project. He stayed there for 7 months but wanted to start his first Networking role. He got a role at Spitfire and throughout his time there, moved from roles such as 1st Line Support, 2nd Line Support and Pre-Sales. He was able to get to know all aspects of Networking and completed his CCIE after his 3rd attempt. “Every fail was soul-crushing, but you need to pick yourself back up and go with it”.

MBA…

Doing an MBA was always a dream of his and he did not know exactly why but he just thought it sounded amazing. He was at the stage where he had nothing to do with business and when he started getting more involved with management, the interest sparked up. He was offered the opportunity, as part of an apprenticeship program, where they took a few qualified people and sent them on a 2-year part-time MBA, and he got accepted. It was a life-changing experience for him, and he learned a lot of things that he has taken into his everyday life.

Sky…

At Sky, he is mainly on the Technical Management side but there are aspects of Project Management and People Management as he needs to make sure the Engineers are working on his projects. He is responsible for the Enterprise team and the legislation they work with to make sure their network is compliant. “For a Network Engineer or a geek, it’s a dream come true to work on a Network like that.”

The advice he would give to someone looking to get into the Networking industry would be to focus on what you find interesting. Find an area of interest, stick to it and become the best at it. Do not close yourself or lock yourself to a particular subject though, be open-minded and look at all the technology. Be curious, never stop learning and level up.

Advice he would give to his younger self is to not procrastinate, not delay things and just get it done!

Michal discusses some of the emerging technology that he says both impresses and frustrates him. Make sure you give the episode a listen to hear what he says!