Achieving Career Goals One Certification at a Time

Syed Basharat Aziz

18+ years

Program Manager, Ejada

Minds United

ITSM Consultant

Al Moammar Information Systems Co.

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.

ITIL 4 Managing Professional Master’s Program

Access to all ITIL 4 MP higher-level courses

The Simplilearn Difference

I chose Simplilearn because I needed a blend of instructor-based training and self-paced learning.

The course material was great in terms of structure and design, and I liked the concept of quizzes after every lesson to self-assess my learning. My learning experience was very good. Instructors were well educated and up-to-date. The training was well-paced, and I enjoyed the Q&A sessions with the instructors.

I liked that Simplilearn provides access to the course after completion so he could revisit it before his ITIL v4 certification exam. For my MSP Practitioner training, I’ve chosen self-paced training due to my work and time constraints.

Flexibility and Discipline

I believe that to excel in your career, you need to sacrifice and make additional efforts. I used to spend two-to-three hours extra in my office every day to study. Simplilearn’s courses have made me more agile and organized. They have also helped me in improving my soft skills and communication.

SYED ENROLLED FOR

ITIL® 4 Managing Professional Transition Module

Did you know?

Annual Expected Salary of an ITIL Professional is

$95k - $105k

Source: Glassdoor