Reflective Journal: Experience and Professional Exposure

This reflective journal explores the experience of a professional exposure at the CISCO's DevNet Create 2019 Conference and discusses the technical and professional skills developed during the exposure. It highlights the importance of networking and gaining real-life experience in career development.

Reflective Journal: Experience and Professional Exposure
Name of the Student
Name of the Institution
Student’s Number
Abstract- networking can be daunting for
inexperienced people, while some other
people may find it an easy undertaking. It is,
however, a must have ‘skill' for all
individuals seeking to advance and develop
their career. Networking help individuals
build their business and professional
network, gain more experience and
professional exposure. The main purpose of
this essay is to reflect on my experience of a
professional exposure I had with the
CISCO's DevNet Create 2019 Conference. I
use it to describe the technical skills that I
developed during the exposure as well as the
professional skills that I learned during this
time.
1. Introduction
While trying to develop a holistic
person, learning institutions always try to
balance between education (theoretical
work), technical skills and real-life
situational knowledge. Professional
experience and exposure are built and
developed through graduate transferable
skills and active interactions with different
professionals, from across the world. Both
inter- and intra-personal interactions are
good since they help individuals develop
strong social skills, enabling them to have
confidence when arguing their cases and/or
addressing bigger audiences [1].
Communication skills consist of valuable
knowledge that can be gained through
interacting with others.

As a young and upcoming computer
network developer and engineer, I decided
to attend this year's Cisco DevNet
conference held at the Computer History
Museum, Mountain View, USA. According
to CISCO, this is the only platform that
brings all forces of infrastructure and
application development together. The
conference offers interactive hands-on
learning matched with cross-vertical and
cross-platform sessions, besides having
intimate settings through which peers
connect and meet leaders in application and
infrastructure development.
2. Technical Skills Developed
2.1) Prior knowledge
Deciding to attend the conference
remains one of the greatest decisions I have
ever made. Though I had little to offer,
unlike other peers I interacted with, it was a
great opportunity for me to learn what the
industry expects of me. It also helped me
understand the contemporary world of
computer networking and what to expect in
the future. The conference provided me with
real-life experience and exposure. It helped
me understand how I can harness the
theoretical knowledge and skills I have
learned in the university. Like an awakening
call, the conference taught me of the much
needed industrial skills and exposed me to
new people through a controlled stable
environment.
2.2) Technical skills and knowledge gained
It was my opportune moment to
learn about myself and create more
connections through which I am confident
that I will reach out to many other
professionals sharing in my dream. It helped
me to critically evaluate my career goals and
consequently align myself with industrial
expectation. My confidence in pursuing
computer networking and development
greatly improved.
Prior to this conference, I had little
concerning what the outside world looked

like in terms of labor and skill demands. I
can now boast of being aware of
contemporary and emerging computing
trends such as Artificial Intelligence,
Envision, Design and AR app development,
coding and engineering, Internet of Things,
cybersecurity, 5G as a key driver for IoT,
cloud computing, data science- big data,
software-defined networks (SDN) analytics
and business experience. These events
challenged me to learn new technical skills
such as installation and maintenance of
networks. Currently, I am pursuing
professional courses in networking and can
effectively plan, design, configure and
deploy all forms of computer networks
including fiber. Additionally, the idea of
running computation infrastructure and
services from a virtualized environment
prompted me to engage with some of the
service providers in attendance, further
enhancing my knowledge.
3. Professional Skills
All aspects of computer networking
have grown and evolved to become highly
technical, and a technology that is massively
being accepted. Almost all industries-
banking, health sector, business and finance,
education, military, etc. rely on computer
networks for day-to-day operations.
According to Tapia et. al. (2011), computer
networks enable the creation of online
learning environments, provision of
government services through e-government
portals, telecommuting and
telecommunications as well as the
development of digital and smart cities [2].
This conference made me realize that there
is an increasing demand for highly skilled
network engineers to manage and service
organizational network infrastructure. I was
able to understand clearly what
responsibilities are vested on the shoulders
of network engineers that include a wide
range of technologies such as wide area and
local area networks, internet access and

security control solutions. The knowledge
and experience that I have concerning the
configuration of network devices such as
routers, switches, firewalls and the
management of the same started growing out
of the experiences gained during the
conference.
Besides helping me understand this
increasing demand, the proceedings in the
conference helped me really learn
communication skills and accept my role as
a network engineer. Ime management,
decision making, conflict resolution,
adaptability, self-motivation, leadership and
the ability to work under pressure and
minimum supervision are among the skills I
acquired.
I understood that for me to grow
career-wise, I must seek personal
development through experience and
accumulation of knowledge and skills
through direct participation in events and
network engineering activities. Looking on
o the future, I will focus on gaining
experience hat ids borne of exposure so that
I could become more effective. To achieve
this, I plan to subject myself to more
influencing experiences and join
organizations that bring together network
engineers who I can interact with and learn
more from. I plan to have an open mind and
predispose myself o learning experiences by
charting my career development path with
passionate curiosity, accepting failures,
learning more about myself, accepting my
failures and learning from them.
4. Conclusion
Professional and career development
largely depend on professional experience
and exposure. By focusing on taking
deliberate actions to expose oneself to
influencing situations, individuals choose to
become more experienced and effective.
Such professionals have confidence in their
work and look at problems from higher
vantage points.

5. References
[1] A. Mohan, D. Merle, C. Jackson, J. Lannin and S. Nair, "Professional skills in the
engineering curriculum," IEEE transactions on education, vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 562-571,
2009.
[2] A. H. Tapia, K. Lynette, and A. O. Julio, "A Critical Discourse Analysis of three US
municipal wireless network initiatives for enhancing social inclusion," Telematics and
Informatics, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 215-226, 2011.