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Name:
Maria Del Pilar Muñoz

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Country:
Colombia

Job:
DMS Consulting Systems Engineer

Maria Del Pilar Muñoz

Outstanding Student Gains A Clutch Of Certifications, Wins NetRiders, and Joins Cisco

Maria Del Pilar Muñoz is a Colombian ICT professional who was studying two majors at university when her dean suggested she specialised in networks. Now her hard work and dedication has been rewarded by gaining a position at Cisco.

Making A Choice
It's not unusual to study more than one subject university - students often major in one discipline, and take other additional courses, as well. What is out of the ordinary is to have two majors and, according to Maria's dean at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Cali, Colombia, it was one major too many. "He asked me why I was studying two at the same time and what my interest was in each one," Maria recalls. "After a long talk, we concluded I was more devoted to Computer Sciences and the most interesting part of Electronics for me was Networking and Telecommunication." Her dean also had some practical advice. "He recommended enrolling in the Cisco Networking Academy to cover my interest in networking and keep focusing on Computer Sciences for my undergraduate studies," she explains.

Winning Through
Maria achieved a lot at university, in her Networking Academy, and beyond. Her current array of certifications includes "CCNA, CCAI, CCDA, CCNP, CCDP, written CCIE and I'm currently preparing the CCIE Lab Exam for this year," she comments. But perhaps one of her most memorable successes was coming first in a NetRiders competition in 2003. "It was the first NetRiders in Colombia and was dominated by women," she remarked. "There were three women and 18 men - and all of three women won an award!" Her prize for achieving first place was a trip to San Jose to meet senior members of the Cisco team, and to see the heart of the operation in action.

Getting Hired
It was not suprising that Maria soon found work after graduating. Winning NetRiders was also a bonus to her career, as she explains "It gave me the opportunity to be in contact with people from the local Cisco office. So, once a vacancy opened, they called me." She quickly rose through the ranks, taking time to add to her CCNA qualification. "I started at Cisco four years ago as an Associate Systems Engineer," she recounts, "and was responsible for the lab and demos at the local office of Cisco Colombia. I studied really hard to achieve my CCNP certification and a year after I was already CCNP certified and was promoted to a Systems Engineer, and just last year I was promoted to a consulting position. Now I work for the Digital Media Systems Business Unit as Consulting Systems Engineer, covering Latin America from Mexico to Brazil."

Giving Something Back
Maria has also found time to be actively involved in the development of ICT careers for women in her country, a subject she finds highly rewarding. "I was invited to participate in a discussion forum about women and technology in my home city," she comments. "It felt really good to have the opportunity to tell my story to some other girls in high school or university and answer some of their concerns about a career path in technology."

Maria has also continued to have a strong relationship with the Networking Academy programme - and NetRiders. As well as teaching at an academy, she was invited to participate in the organisation of NetRiders. "I worked preparing the challenges for the contestants, selecting the jury, and helping with promotion in the academies."

She continues: "But the most rewarding thing for me was to have high school students participating as contestants in this competition. It was really amazing to see these students presenting their networking designs and participating in the troubleshooting challenges with incredible confidence. At that time, I remember I felt proud of our Cisco academies."

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