As documented by Syed Basharat Aziz.
A lot of people dream about being able to start their own business, I am also one of these people. My career goal was set from day one, I always wanted to start my own IT consultancy firm in my homeland. My entire journey was to fulfill this ultimate goal.
I have always been the man with a plan. With over 23 years in the IT industry, I knew that staying abreast of the industry’s developments is key to advancing my career toward my goal.
Finding New Opportunities
I moved to Saudi Arabia from Pakistan in 2003, searching for better job opportunities. I started my career as a consultant and moved to project management and IT service management. Currently, I am working at a public company that provides infrastructure and software as a service to other ministries.
Every ministry has its own setup and IT department. The Saudi Government is planning to centralize the IT services across the ministries. I am currently working for the central entity as a part of ITSM. They are currently using ITIL v2, and my job here is to upgrade the systems to ITIL v3 and later to v4.
Gaining Marketable Skills With Simplilearn
My skills are highly valued because there are very few ITIL 4 professionals in the market where I’m from. However, this also means that I must constantly keep my skills updated to include new and improved technologies. That’s why I have been taking online courses to keep upskilling.
Simplilearn has been a big part of that journey because it has been my go-to for upskilling. I started with one course and fell in love with it. To date, I have completed 16 professional certifications through Simplilearn online bootcamps and recently completed ITIL 4 Managing Professional Transition Module Training and MSP® Foundation & Practitioner Certification Training. After receiving my ITIL 4 certificate, I even got a new job at a public company in January 2021, along with a 15% salary hike.
Simplilearn allowed me to have choices in where I wanted to work. Not only am I ITIL v4 certified, but have also cleared the MSP Foundation exam and am currently preparing for the MSP Practitioner certification.
I am maintaining a pace of earning one certificate per year. I realized very early that in the IT field, I need to upskill. Otherwise, I will be left behind. In the next five years, I want to move back to my hometown in Pakistan and start my own IT consultancy firm. I am sure these certificates will help me in achieving my goals.
