Posts
Welcome to the fourth post of the CCIE Coffee Blog, where we highlight the inspiring journeys of Albanians who have achieved the prestigious CCIE certification. It's meant to provide some background info for the CCIE Hall of Fame for Albania and Kosovo. This series contains non-technical content aiming to the inspiration of young Albanians to pursue similar paths like our much respected guests.
Fig.1 CCIE Coffee Blog
Meet the first Albanian Woman CCIE: Somea Ferati
For Somea Ferati, that journey started in Kosovo and continued in Poland. She reached a major milestone accross 2 countries when she became CCIE Security #70474, and the first Albanian woman to earn a CCIE.
While talking to Somea, I realized that this story is about much more than earning a CCIE. It's about curiosity, discipline, consistency, and believing in yourself, even when the path ahead isn't always clear. I've know first hand how hard CCIE is, and her journey reflects what I have also experienced. It shows that with dedication, resilience, and the right mindset, even the biggest goals are within reach.
I had a chat with Somea about her journey. I hope you enjoy her story as much as I did.
I’m Somea, born and raised in Kosovo, a small country that shaped so much of who I became from an early age. My curiosity for computers and systems started in high school, it was a time when technology was becoming an essential part of everyday life, and I saw many young women building strong careers and achieving great things in technical fields. I was eager to become one of them.
I earned my CCNA and, at the age of 19, started an internship at a networking company in Kosovo, and then a year later at 20, I began working full time as a Network Engineer.
At the age of 21, I moved alone to Poland and started working at Cisco. It was the biggest challenge that I had, that experience expanded my view of networking and showed me how much more there was to learn in security.
For me CCIE always felt like a journey for people who were truly determined. It was not only an exam or a title, it represented dedication, discipline, and technical knowledge.
I saw it as a way to challenge myself and push beyond what felt comfortable. My uncle, Arijan, was one of the first Albanians to earn the CCIE, and I grew up hearing my family talk about this important eight hour exam and the amount of dedication it required. Seeing his journey made it feel real to me. It showed me that someone from our community could reach that level, and eventually I wanted to follow that path in my own way.
I believe that when you are alone in a new country, homesickness, full time job and studying can make burnout come very easily.
But honestly, I did not spend much time thinking about how hard the CCIE journey was. What I remember most is that the more I learned and studied, the more I realized how much more there was to know. It made me curious rather than discouraged. Every new topic showed me another area where I wanted to become stronger.
Of course. There were times when giving up felt like the easiest thing to do, to just leave it and move on.
But then I would ask myself what was the purpose of starting if I was not going to give myself a real chance to finish?
I come from Kosovo, a place where resilience is part of our identity, when we believe in a goal, we keep going until we make it happen.
For me, giving up was never really an option. I knew that consistency and hard work would matter more than natural ability alone.
I saw many people with years of experience, while I was still early in my career. I could not control how much experience I already had, but I could control how much effort, discipline, and consistency I gave every day.
I did a lot of labbing and spent a lot of time studying the topics. What worked best for me was not only repeating configurations, but also understanding why something worked, why it failed, and how to troubleshoot it.
One thing that played a very important role was having amazing people around me. This journey taught me that you can achieve so much with the support of family and friends. Having a healthy state of mind was also important, because it allowed me to focus through long nights of studying while working full time.
Albanians are a small nation, but we are full of talent, determination, and ambition. When I realized that I was the first Albanian woman to achieve this, I felt very proud, not only of the achievement itself, but of the opportunity it gave me to be part of a community of people with much more experience than me, people I can continue learning from.
Representing Kosovo among professionals from different countries means a lot to me.
I hope this achievement encourages more women to pursue the CCIE and shows them that nothing is impossible when they truly set their minds to it.
I believe the CCIE will play a huge part in my career and open doors in more beautiful ways than I could have imagined.
But even before thinking about the future, the biggest change is in the present, the confidence and mindset I gained from this journey. It taught me to trust myself with difficult problems, to stay calm under pressure and not to be intimidated by goals that once felt too big.
The certification is important, but the person I became while working toward it is just as important.
I wish everyone could experience the journey of dedicating themselves to one big goal, building a routine, sacrificing some comfort, learning from failure, and continuing even when it gets difficult.
At the end of the day it is not only about the title, it is about the discipline, the dedication, the long hours, and the effort you put into becoming better than you were before.
AI is already playing a crucial role in almost everything, and I believe security engineers need to understand how to use it responsibly and effectively.
At the same time, we should not forget the fundamentals, strong networking knowledge, understanding traffic flows and troubleshooting will always matter. The technology will keep changing, but the ability to understand what is happening inside an environment will remain essential.
Somea:
There is a photo of me from my second year of high school, wearing my school uniform, during a presentation about dreams in my English literature class.
I think that photo is worth more than a thousand words. At that age, I already dreamed of becoming an engineer, even though I did not know exactly what the journey would look like.
Looking back now, I would tell that younger version of myself keep going. You do not need to know every step from the beginning. Just stay curious, work hard, and trust that the path will become clearer with time.
I wish good luck to everyone reading this especially every young woman and man working toward their dreams and goals.
Take care of yourself in every way professionally, personally, and with your health.
We are often far more capable of achieving our goals than we think.
Conclusions
Somea's story is a reminder that the CCIE is about much more than passing an exam. It is about believing in yourself, staying curious, and showing up every day, even when the journey is difficult.
Coming from Kosovo, moving to another country at a young age, building a career at Cisco, and becoming the first Albanian woman to earn a CCIE is an incredible achievement. I'm sure her story will inspire many future CCIE candidates, especially young women who dream of building a career in networking and cybersecurity.
.jpg)
