The application was done by email, providing a CV and a motivational letter. This was followed by submission acceptance feedback from Cisco HR, and then a technical phone/Webex interview. This, in turn, was followed by another feedback confirming I had passed to the in-person testing.

Phone questions included basic questions about networking, proxies, and DNS. They also asked about a problematic situation I faced in the past and how I resolved it.

In-person, the interview consisted of two role-play scenarios in which I was to troubleshoot a client's network. The objective was to use soft skills to manage the situation, get the required information, and based on this information, provide a problem description, conclusions if possible, and finally, an action plan.

This was followed by crunching 25-30 pages of documentation within an hour of preparation time and then doing a short presentation on the topic.

Finally, I had both managerial and technical questioning. Questions ranged from explaining OSPF and comparing it to EIGRP, to STP loop prevention mechanisms.