Category: Project Management Reviews

As documented by Nilesh Chand

For as long as I can recall, I have wanted to be a program director. Taking action is the difference between just dreaming of a new career and achieving it. I got educated, improved my skill set, and put myself in a position to achieve my career goals. Plus, I did it without moving or switching companies.

I live in Fiji and have worked in telecommunications since 2000. After earning a diploma in electrical and electronics engineering from the Fiji Institute of Technology, I began working for Vodafone as a telecommunications and prepay billing technician. I soon was elevated to a senior prepay billing engineer and then to prepay billing and VAS manager. In this role, I managed billing domains and transformational network projects through the evolution from 2G to 3G and then to 4G/LTE. 

In 2016, I earned an MBA from the University of the South Pacific. While our company prepared for the evolution of 5G in the Pacific Islands Market, I decided to pursue my long-term vision of becoming a project director. This pursuit led me to Simplilearn’s PRINCE2® Foundation and Practitioner Certification Training course, where I learned about project organization, planning, and control. After completing the online course, I obtained a promotion with a 25 percent salary hike. 

Today I am responsible for Vodafone’s overall program management and building group synergies in all ATH regional markets, including Fiji, Kiribati, Vanuatu, Samoa, American Samoa, Cook Islands, and Papua New Guinea.

Using Change to Your Advantage

With all the technological changes, I saw significant growth in my field. I wanted to develop additional skills and envisioned how a project management certification would help me achieve my long-term goals. My Simplilearn certification helped me obtain my current position as Vodafone’s regional program manager. 

As documented by Haribabuji Harikrishnan

I’m a professional with 16 years of technical and managerial experience. I completed my Bachelor of Technology in Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Madras University, Chennai, and received my MBA through distance education in International Business from Pondicherry University. I started my career as escalation lead at CSS Corporation in Chennai, and then moved to HCL Technologies as a product engineer. I then joined NCR, where I worked for 12 years. I currently work in ERP implementation at HCL Technologies’ Chennai manufacturing plant. 

Once I moved to project management, I knew that a PMP® certification would help me improve my work delivery. Initially, I took an offline classroom course at an institute in Chennai, but I was unable to pass the PMP certification on my first attempt. I remember that day very well and how disappointed I was. Fortunately, my brother steered me to Simplilearn’s PMP Certification Training course. After reading reviews about the quality and flexibility of Simplilearn’s program, I enrolled.

My Simplilearn upskilling experience and the results

I found the course to be very well organized. I rate the instructors highly. I also appreciated Simplilearn’s support team members, who were available 24/7. Since I was traveling three-to-five hours on the train daily, I was able to make full use of Simplilearn’s mobile app. It helped me finish my course on time. After six months, I took the exam again and cleared PMP certification.  

After completing the course, I was assigned specialized project management responsibilities and promoted from assistant manager to project manager. My new skills and responsibilities also earned me a 40 percent salary hike. With the increase, I was better able to manage my finances. I could easily afford my sister’s wedding and my son’s college fees. Soon after that, I could also clear all my loans.

As documented by Seema Bhandarkar

I’m a senior research scientist with over a decade of experience. I earned a master’s degree with a specialization in microbiology in 2004. I started my career at a clinical stage biotech company, Aurigene Discovery, and then spent 10 years at Syngene. I then returned to Aurigene as a program manager.

Expanding My Horizons

I decided to upskill because I felt that I needed an upgrade. I started with Simplilearn’s PMP® certification and then went on to complete multiple other courses. While upskilling in project management was in alignment with my role as a senior scientist, I realized that all of my current reading was only related to the scientific field. I decided to expand my knowledge base by upskilling in the area of digital marketing with Simplilearn’s Digital Marketing 101 course. Learning the fundamental concepts of digital marketing, along with marketing for mobile and marketing analytics, provided an introduction to a field completely outside of my own. From there, I continued my upskilling journey by completing the Lean Six Sigma Black Belt course.

Flexible Learning Sealed the Deal

Adding a learning plan into an already busy personal and professional life requires a strategy. Simplilearn’s self-paced course model gave me the freedom to choose when and where I completed the courses. While I did not work from home for long during the 2020 lockdowns, I was able to fit upskilling into my days. Since I had a morning shift, I would have time in the afternoon to go through the course material and videos. 

I credit the flexible learning formats for helping me balance learning with home and work, even with a full-time job, family, and simultaneously completing an MBA program. While cooking or doing other household chores, I’d play the videos on the side and simultaneously go about my day while upskilling. The content design was great because all the videos were self-explanatory. The information came across so understandably that it actually allowed me to do something else while still listening and learning.

As documented by Dominic Amon.

After six years of training at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, I obtained my pharmacist license. I began working as a Pharmacy House Officer at Maamobi General Hospital in Accra, Ghana. I managed the ART and diabetic clinics of the hospital. At the ART clinic, I was responsible for refills, counseling clients, and initiating new clients on therapy. I also checked for drug interactions, as most of the patients had other conditions such as hypertension, in addition to diabetes. This set me on the path to practice public health, primarily in HIV care and clinical pharmacy.

I developed an interest in health projects and programs, and decided to upskill. I saw the possibilities of big data in the pharmacy industry, and wanted to understand the latest technologies better. I plunged ahead and enrolled in Simplilearn’s PRINCE2® Practitioner and Foundation, Introduction to Data Analytics, and Digital Transformation Leader courses.

As documented by Cesar Amaro

Project management is a process that savvy business professionals use to achieve goals by effectively organizing and managing necessary resources. A project manager needs the proper training, experience, and leadership skills to drive this process successfully.

Although I was already working as a project manager, I enrolled in Simplilearn’s PMI-RMP® certification training program to take my career to the next level and gain further expertise.

I am a native of Venezuela who worked as a PMO process manager with Smartmatic in Panama City. I have 12 years of project management experience in the telecommunication industry, building and implementing electronic voting systems worldwide. However, I’m not one to coast along doing the same routine. I know that the world is competitive, and to remain valuable, I need to grow my skill set. I realized that constant learning is the only way.

With everything being on the cloud these days, cyber security has become a promising field for creating your career. This coupled with the fact that cyber security is a great interest of mine, I was propelled to build a career in cyber security.

I had over 20 years of experience in the technology industry and was working at Dell Technologies as a client solutions director. Working with multiple clients, the one common trend I saw was the growing need for cyber security along with its infrastructure, which created the need for well-versed subject matter experts like me.

The Plan for Moving Forward

I started my journey with Simplilearn in 2019, when I completed a course in Project Management. Like many other students, I was also looking for options to supplement my current practical knowledge with a technical education.

I chose this program which offered modules from MIT, and since I had already taken some previous courses through Simplilearn, I was confident of the quality of content and teaching experience.

Project management skills were important for me to navigate the world of cyber security with more confidence, such as managing the scope and budget for projects, assessing risks, and managing projects day to day.

To become a more valuable resource, I also took Simplilearn’s Post Graduate Program in Cyber Security, and the Project Management Professional (PMP®) course to help gain both theoretical and practical knowledge to better guide my clients.

Cyber Security in the Real World

In my opinion, a successful cyber security course is one that starts with the basics of security and helps learners prepare for the real world and also enhance their career prospects. This is why Simplilearn’s Bootcamps were perfect for me to grow further in cyber security and my career.

In the past, I had been highly dependent on other experts to provide guidance in the field of cyber security. However, with the completion of my Cyber Security certification from Simplilearn, I can now provide the right solutions directly to my clients. Not only do I have theoretical knowledge but also pragmatic knowledge, allowing me to ask pertinent questions and have intelligent conversations about product safety and effectiveness. My multi-faceted approach now merges hardware, software, and services into a single comprehensive solution.

Career Development

After finishing the program, I was confident that I was prepared to make the move into leadership positions. The cyber security industry is a growing field and the certification allowed me to differentiate myself and become more specialized. It will also enabled me to grow within my current organization with Dell and take on more responsibility over time.

My learning experience with Simplilearn has been great. The content is relevant and the delivery is high-quality. Instructors combine theory with real-world examples that challenge the learner’s understanding. The online learning platform is convenient and offers value-added features, such as students retaining access to the online recordings for future reference.

Students can be assured of the quality of content and the associated materials, allowing them to:

• Design systems that secure devices, applications, and networks
• Build a “hacker mindset” and defend against future attacks
• Construct and manage the overall security posture of an organization
• Understand the importance of policies and compliance mandates

In my opinion, this course offers great value for the money. I am confident to continue my journey into leadership.

As documented by Sriram Sridharan.

As your career grows, you constantly have to keep adding to your skills or you can become obsolete. This was true for me too, as I was rising up the ranks in my job, I realized that I would have to keep adding to my skills to become better.

When I worked for Hewlett Packard Enterprise, I realized pretty early that project management would be an essential skill that I would need to climb the corporate ladder.

I completed my bachelor’s in production engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Trichy, followed by a master’s in industrial engineering from Texas A&M University. Previously I’ve worked for GE as a product safety engineer, and for Shell as a material data engineer.

I then got the opportunity to work for Hewlett Packard Enterprise as a team lead for the business intelligence team. While I was confident about my skills, I knew I should also look at project management training.

I was given more responsibilities at work. I had to work on a project management dashboard, work in collaboration with cross-functional teams, business intelligence (BI) tools, and at the same time, I had to manage a large team.