How Did You Get Into Tech – Ahmed Nabil

This week we hear about Ahmed Nabil’s story where he began as an Electrical Engineer and now works as an IT manager. This is one of many stories in our How Did You Get Into Tech blog series.

Where Did your interest in technology start?

Back in high school in 1994 when my father bought me the first computer.

What was your first job?

Control System Engineer. My university major was Control/Electrical Engineering and not Computer Science. Since then I moved to IT.

What is your current position?

IT Manager

What type of educational background do you have?

I graduated from the Arab Academy for Science & Technology, Egypt 2000 with a BS in Electrical and Control Engineering. I completed my graduate education and earned a MSc in Business Information Technology from School of Computer Science, Middlesex University, UK in 2007.

I have more than 14 years of experience in the field of Information Technology Infrastructure, Systems Administration/Engineering, Security Systems, IT management and holds several professional IT certification from Microsoft, Cisco, PMI, CWNP and EC-Council. I have been awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award (MVP) for three years in row in 2013, 2014 and 2015 in the Enterprise Security field.

My real passion is Networking and Security. I am currently working as PGESCo IT Manager managing the Security, Networking, System admin/Engineering and Application support teams.

What resources did you use for your tech education (university, community college, meetups, training, online tutorials, MOOC courses with EdX, Udacity and Coursera)?

Intructor led training, University, self-training using VMs, books and most importantly CBT (computer-based training).

Did you have any mentors, professors, colleagues or supervisors who offered career guidance?

Mentoring and coaching were crucial in my career. I believe I was lucky with my managers acting as my mentors when first starting my career. With no experience, they gave me feedback on my work, advised me on the best career route, provided training to enhance and sharpen my skills, which allowed me to network with other employees and departments. Most of all they always lent a friendly ear with which to share frustrations as well as successes.

I started working as an Electrical Engineer for one year before switching to the IT world. I will never regret switching as it opened a new world for me.

What resources do you find to be the best when continuing your education?

Computer-based training and online training.

I would believe that at specific stages in your career self-learning/computer-based training is an ideal solution. First of all, it provides a flexible schedule (this is especially important for the IT life where we are all very busy and can’t sacrifice full days for instructor-led training), it’s cost-effective, especially with companies who have tight budgets, and most importantly it increases the knowledge retention by engaging multiple senses during course.

If you were to give an individual advice about starting a career in tech, what would you say to them?

Go with your passion, pick your career, and always try harder. No one can stop you from achieving your dreams, but yourself.