Hi Team,
Firstly I would like to appreciate the team for spending your valuable time in helping us making our career decisions, I have gone through couple of questions and was really impressed in way they were answered.
So here I come with my question?..
I am currently working as a IT ServiceDesk Manager for one of top IT security company, I have a over all experience of 9 years ? out of which 6 years I have been into Internal IT support (Helpdesk).I am a MSc Computer Science graduate, CCNA , MCP & ITIL Foundation V2. I am currently working on ITIL V3 Bridge and ITIL V2 Service Delivery & Support Manager & MCSE certifications.
My questions?
1.I would like to know what I should work on, to make sure that I have a better career path.
2.I am interested to work(because of Financial reasons) in Dubai or any other Gulf countries , so will I be able to fetch a job over there if so how (what should be my approach)or what is that I need to work on to get a good profile job
sainath's Advice on Sunday, November 29, 2009 :
Hi,
I am not sure whether you realise it or not, but at this point you are well-positioned to take advantage of some very good opportunities. Earlier, companies used to outsource mostly application software development but it is not the case anymore. Infrastructure outsourcing is a very visible trend and is here to stay.
About 2 years back, a leading international bank outsourced it's entire application development and IT infrastructure to 4 leading vendors - the infra outsourcing was awarded to one of the big 5, and the software development was awarded in separate pieces to 3 of the top 10 software companies in India. This is called "unbundling". On the surface, this approach gives some interesting advantages to the client - there is no dependency on a single vendor, cost comparison is as per market realities,etc. However, it also leads to some huge challenges. The more outsourced entities you have, the better co-ordinated the IT operation or Service Delivery arm has to be. Else delivery takes a huge hit and the benefits of outsourcing are not realised. This is where ITIL as a Service Delivery methodology has a major role to play. ITIL defines a common set of ground rules which when followed correctly will inevitably lead to business benefits. However, just implementing an Incident Management process/tool or a Change Management process will not help. The client top management and the Service Delivery top management also needs to play a major role in establishing the correct objectives. COBIT as a framework plays a major role over here. COBIT basically aligns IT objectives with business objectives - moreover, the process guidelines in COBIT are very comprehensive. Also, the Gulf, particularly Dubai has been quick to adopt COBIT - the ISACA website provides case studies on the same. Please check them out. In a nutshell, COBIT tels you what, ITIL tells you how - both the standards complement each other. Check out the bridge diagrams and pdfs on the ISACA website and the complementary relationship between COBIT and ITIL will be clear to you.
Business service delivery is directly correlated with IT service delivery - IT plays a major role in enabling operational levers of any business today. Companies wishing to stay competent are seriously adopting COBIT and ITIL. It is recognised as a mature management practice.
To specifically answer your questions, I can suggest the following approach. Target the following certifications in a maximum calendar period of 1 year:
(1) ITIL Advanced Diploma - Version 3
(2) COBIT 4.1 Foundation
(3) PMP
As a paralllel activity, you may also target a good opening in the Gulf. But remember, you need to carefully research the organisation where you are offered a break - first, the organisation top management should be serious about adopting these best practices and secondly, the business model has to be strong in the light of the Dubai crash. You will need to check this out in detail - this is a separate discussion in itself. Try for a strong role like IT Infrastructure Project Manager or Service Delivery Manager. Check out the link below which provides more information on the role of a SDM.
www.dotnetfunda.com/advices/a37-career-advice-itil.aspxYour goal of achieving the 3 certifications mentioned above needs to be very strong - plan everything (as painful as it can be) and leave nothing to chance.
"When you make a real decision, you draw a line, and it's not in the sand but in cement."
- Anthony Robbins
And also, please remember, it is not important how many years of experience you have in the chronological sense, to quote Warren Veenmann and Sally Eichhorst,
"If you have been in the same job for 30 years doing exactly the same thing, it does not count as 30 years of experience. It is 1 year of experience, 30 times repeated."
All of us can fall into this trap if we are not careful.
All the best !
Regards,
Sainath Sherigar,
www.ugain.info