Job Search :: I Got a Job

Who are you?

Name:
Jeroen Wittock

Age:
24

Country:
Belgium

Job:
Customer Support Engineer

Jeroen Wittock

Have you have ever wondered exactly what it takes to join Cisco at graduate level, or needed to explain how it’s done to you students? If so, Jeroen Wittock’s story will be highly enlightening.

NetAcad graduate Jeroen is a 24-year-old Customer Support Engineer (CSE) working as part of the security team in Cisco TAC. It was an exhaustive hiring process which started at Cisco’s website, and a piece of good luck, as Jeroen explains:

“I started looking for a job and used mainly the Internet to find job offers. That's how I stumbled on the graduates website of Cisco. I started the process to try to get a position as a CSE in Cisco TAC.”

The first part of the selection process was automated, followed by a telephone interview, which presented no problems: “I started off by filling in some basic questions you see in most job interviews. I passed the online tests, then the 45-minute phone interview, and finally I was invited for the assessment day on the 2nd of July.”

So far so good. But things were about to get tough for Jeroen, as he makes clear: “The final round consisted of an assessment day at the Cisco offices in Diegem, Belgium. It was intense: five interviews consisting of technical, human resources and management themes. We also had to prepare and give a technical presentation.”

Jeroen was quickly notified of the outcome: “Two weeks later I was notified that Cisco had accepted me. In August 2006 I started working for Cisco. Ever since I have enjoyed my job every single day.”

Obviously Jeroen had performed exceptionally well in the interview process. But his success had been built on hard work, study and practical experience.

In December 2005 he started in the Networking Academy in Bruges, in his native Belgium, completing the all-important CCNA preparation course.

Then, in March 2006, he had an excellent opportunity “to participate in the Leonardo Project, which is sponsored by the European Union. This project allows students and people looking for a job to get some working experience through an internship in a country in the EU.”

Because he had followed the CCNA course at his NetAcad, Jeroen “found an internship as network administrator in L'Institut de Touraine in Tours France. The internship lasted three months until June. By the end of June I started looking for a job.”

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Download PDF

Rate this article

About | Contact | Useful links | Job Portal