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Name:
Mariya Andonova

Age:
29

Country:
Bulgaria

Job:
Cisco Systems Engineer

Mariya Andonova

High Flyer Mariya Becomes First Cisco CCIE Graduate In Bulgaria

“I feel really excited about my achievement,” says 29 year old Mariya Andonova. And so she should, becoming the first ever female Cisco® employee to become a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) in her native Bulgaria. She is only the second woman to gain the qualification in the country – beaten to the achievement by a mere 10 weeks.

Now a Systems Engineer, her CCIE is the latest of a whole string of impressive achievements including Cisco CCNA, CCNP, CCDP, as well as a university degree.

What is more, she was one of just 23 young engineers to participate in the Cisco Sales Associate Programme. Mariya outclassed 1,400 other hopeful applicants in order to join the scheme.

She joined candidates from Central and Eastern Europe's leading technical universities, who represented 11 countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey.

The programme includes Cisco certified courses, technical and sales skills, and general preparation for working at Cisco. In addition to classroom and role-playing sessions, participants go on field trips to businesses, receive mentoring by seasoned Systems Engineers and are given on-the-job assignments in the labs and in the field back in their home countries.

It was there that Mariya passed most of her qualifications. But how did she become involved in the Networking Academy programme in the first place?

“Friends of mine at my university – the Technical University of Varna – had joined the programme there as soon as it opened, and loved it. I liked the content and decided to sign up,” she explained.

At the time, she was also working on the ICT helpdesk at BTC-NET, a subsidiary of Bulgarian Telecom. After passing her CCNA examination she was quickly promoted to the position of ADSL Engineer.

After two years in this position she successfully applied to join the Cisco Sales Associate Program and participated from August 2006 to June 2007 in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The qualifications and experience she gained there led to her current position in Cisco.

Her advice to would-be ICT professionals is straightforward: “It’s not easy to work in a constantly changing environment, so you have to keep your knowledge up to date – all the time, and work with the newest technologies and products on the market.”

Working at Cisco should give Mariya every opportunity to follow her own advice.

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