Journey From IT to Digital Marketer to Entrepreneur

As documented by, Girish Pai

My story is similar to a lot of IT professionals who changed their journey midway through in search for something more. While I started in the IT industry, I knew I wanted to do so much more, and digital marketing definitely seemed to call me with arms wide open. 

The more I learned about about digital marketing, the more I loved it. Before I knew it I was picking up as many courses on digital marketing as possible and eventually finally shifting my career goals to include digital marketing. Here’s a look at my professional  journey.

Background

An IIM Kozhikode graduate, I spent 13 years in the IT and telecom industry, lending my expertise to global business development and product management before realizing my passion for digital marketing and growth hacking.

Learning Journey

I started my digital marketing career by venturing into my first start-up, a hyper-local online grocery store called Combyn, that connected consumers with grocery stores in their neighborhood. I was having trouble building an online audience, so I decided to update my digital marketing skills to help me find a better connect.

I decided to take a course in digital marketing and shortlisted courses from different training providers based on three parameters: quality, depth of content and the price. I wanted a self-paced course in digital marketing to ensure that I could take the classes while I worked and enrolled in Simplilearn’s Digital Marketing Certified Associate.

The project-based work and instructive videos that were part of Simplilearn’s course helped me maintain a strong pace through the classes, and my interest grew with each session.