In her own words
: Vicky Fyrigou
Back in the early 90’s I was studying electronics engineering, when I came across a course about data communications. Through this course I discovered a whole new world of challenges (consider the fact that we were studying X25 back then, and that Internet in Greece was in a rather primitive state, with modem connection speeds varying from 2400 bps to 9600 bps, using archie, gopher and ftp).
With no google (not even web) in place at the time, I managed to find and attend some seminars for Internet users by a non-profit organization. We became friends with the guys (most of them by now are some of the most experienced IT professionals in Greece), and shortly after my degree I started working as a part-timer for this organization. I will never forget all of us gathered around a PC to experience our first Mosaic experience…
After a while, a friend of mine suggested I should go for an interview to one of the first ISPs in Greece. That’s how I got my first job in networking, got acquainted to routing and switching and to Cisco equipment (AGS, MGS, 506 series among other currently obsolete devices, running IOS version 9.1…). I worked for this ISP for 4 years, and learnt rip, ospf, igrp, eigrp, bgp, decnet, appletalk, x25, frame-relay and atm. Apart from networking, I had to deal with dns, news, mail, and some basic unix administration. This was a great experience and it certainly enhanced my troubleshooting skills, as well as my communication skills, since I had to deal will all kinds and types of customers on an everyday basis. During the last 2 years I also worked on network design and deployment of new services and technologies.
Things went rather smoothly afterwards. I switched jobs to a Cisco partner. That’s when I got my CCIE (R&S). I strongly believe that if I didn’t have the experience of working under pressure from the ISP, I would never be able to pass it on the first time. Back then, we had no lab equipment in my company, and I had to go to Cisco’s premises in Greece after finishing work every day for about 2 months in order to practice scenarios. It was hard, and very exhausting, but I don’t think I will ever regret it.
I worked for this partner for about 2 years, as a Cisco project consultant for projects mainly in Middle East, Europe and of course Greece. I worked a lot in big network designs with hundreds of points of presence. It was extremely interesting, but tiring enough, since I had to travel a lot and for a long period of time (resulting in getting a lot of complaints from my boyfriend, who now is my husband and a fellow CCIE, and has to travel all the time
Next hop was a position as a network architect at the worldwide information services technology partner for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, switching to security analyst after two years (again with Cisco equipment). After the Games, I went on as a security consultant in the same company. I left the previous company 3.5 years ago to become an IT auditor in the banking sector.
This journey has changed my way of thinking and dealing with stuff in my personal life as well (like quickly trying to find the root of the problems, finding workarounds where a proper solution cannot be reached, and implement an alternative routing protocol for all your choices). But the most important things I always keep in mind are the following: be open minded and prepared, as much as you can, for the unexpected (you never know when a simple shiver will cause the router to reload) and always, always be modest, polite and respect both your colleagues and customers.