Need advice on starting ITIL career...

Hey guys,
My name is Faiz and I'm a Mechanical Engineer by degree, based in Hyderabad, India and have about 2 years of experience in sales and service in a company that deals with construction equipment, so leaving that field and jumping into IT Management may seem a little strange at this point, but it's intentional. I've always been interested in IT, and in management as well, so this seems like a very viable option at this point.

My main intention to start this thread is not to ask whether ITIL is right for me or not, I've already decided to write my foundations exams soon. What I need to know is where I should start once I get my foundations certificate and what I need to do. I stay in India and plan to stay here for a year or 2 and gain experience in an ITIL environment. The problem is that ITIL implementation is not very prominent here at this point of time and there aren't a lot of jobs for a fresher with only ITIL Foundations as certification. Either that or I don't know which companies are looking for people with ITIL certifications. What should I do once I'm done with my Foundations exam?

Should I:
1)Look for a job and start working, and work my way to the MALC exam through company sponsorship. Getting to the MALC exam through the company will take many many years I'm sure and that might be way too long for me. If so, any advice on where to start for jobs would be very helpful. It seems very frightening and unlikely to me that a foundations certificate alone can get me a job, though I may be very wrong in this regard.

2)Work my way up until my MALC exam and finish the entire ITIL V3 curriculum. And then look for jobs.

I have absolutely no IT certifications whatsoever, and I intend to stay in IT Management alone and do not intend to venture into software or hardware, because I already have experience in service management, although in a different field.

I have no problems relocating to any other place in the world, though I am of the conception that getting some experience in my home country first would help. Am not sure how true I am in this regard. Please advice.

Also, are foundation certifications in ISO 20000/ Six Sigma helpful and/or necessary?

Please advice. I'm really paranoid about all this, and any advice or guidance would be highly appreciated.

Thanks.

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brianeaglesfan

"I have absolutely no IT certifications whatsoever, and I intend to stay in IT Management alone and do not intend to venture into software or hardware, because I already have experience in service management, although in a different field."

How do you plan on managing the delivery of services that you've got no knowledge of or experience working with?

eMeS

How about an option 3) Don't, just don't.

I'm probably one of the 2 or 3 people here most qualified to answer, but I'm probably the worst person to answer because my words are not going to be incredibly encouraging. My words, as always, are meant to be nothing but truthful.

This is basically the same question that shows up in the security certifications forum a few times a week. It goes like this: "How can I start a career in IT security. I have no IT experience and the only work I've done is in field X".

The short answer is anyone can go grab up all of the certifications that they want, and very likely brute force their way into whatever field it is they want to be in. However, that person will not be credible without significant complementary experience.

The long answer is that I've met many people that do ITIL-related work. Some are excellent and really know their stuff, some known what's in the books only, and some know neither what's in the books nor how to practically adopt ITIL. Without exception, the people that really know their stuff all have significant years of IT experience under their belts before they ever became involved in a career specific to service management. So, in my experience, the people who are credible in the service management/ITIL world are those with years of related IT experience in conjunction with years of related ITIL knowledge and experience.

Seriously I try to not be cynical about these things. On one hand people that take your approach generally end up going into organizations and screwing things up to such an extent that it generates a significant amount of business for me. I spend a lot of time every year going back and unraveling some mess that someone that had lots of certs, zero experience, and a low daily rate created. From that standpoint I should be encouraging you. On the other hand though, people simply chasing the certs end up killing a field because they make it top-heavy and it collapses under the weight of failure. That's bad for all of us. For me it means that I have to work harder to market my services. For you it means that you have to go chase the next fad.

As far a ISO/IEC 20000, that's complementary to ITIL/service management, so I'm not sure that specific credentials in that area will really help you. Six Sigma is a good example of something that has collapsed under the weight of people grabbing the certifications, but not really knowing anything about it or how to do it. I wouldn't waste time with it at the moment.

Whatever you choose I wish you the best. My personal thought is that you should develop some underlying IT experience first.

MS

Turgon

faiz0802 wrote: »

Hey guys,
My name is Faiz and I'm a Mechanical Engineer by degree, based in Hyderabad, India and have about 2 years of experience in sales and service in a company that deals with construction equipment, so leaving that field and jumping into IT Management may seem a little strange at this point, but it's intentional. I've always been interested in IT, and in management as well, so this seems like a very viable option at this point.

My main intention to start this thread is not to ask whether ITIL is right for me or not, I've already decided to write my foundations exams soon. What I need to know is where I should start once I get my foundations certificate and what I need to do. I stay in India and plan to stay here for a year or 2 and gain experience in an ITIL environment. The problem is that ITIL implementation is not very prominent here at this point of time and there aren't a lot of jobs for a fresher with only ITIL Foundations as certification. Either that or I don't know which companies are looking for people with ITIL certifications. What should I do once I'm done with my Foundations exam?

Should I:
1)Look for a job and start working, and work my way to the MALC exam through company sponsorship. Getting to the MALC exam through the company will take many many years I'm sure and that might be way too long for me. If so, any advice on where to start for jobs would be very helpful. It seems very frightening and unlikely to me that a foundations certificate alone can get me a job, though I may be very wrong in this regard.

2)Work my way up until my MALC exam and finish the entire ITIL V3 curriculum. And then look for jobs.

I have absolutely no IT certifications whatsoever, and I intend to stay in IT Management alone and do not intend to venture into software or hardware, because I already have experience in service management, although in a different field.

I have no problems relocating to any other place in the world, though I am of the conception that getting some experience in my home country first would help. Am not sure how true I am in this regard. Please advice.

Also, are foundation certifications in ISO 20000/ Six Sigma helpful and/or necessary?

Please advice. I'm really paranoid about all this, and any advice or guidance would be highly appreciated.

Thanks.

Well as a degreed engineer with some sales and service background I think you can make the leap. At the same time you dont have foundation experience in Professional IT support let alone IT Management. As painful as it may sound I would advise you to roll your sleeves up and try and land a helpdesk job. If you have the goods you should move up soon enough given your degree and aspirations. It is very difficult to be truly effective at IT Management without solid experience in this industry. Im tempted to say you are 10 years too late to wing it like that. It was possible to bluff it back then and get by even if you were borderline hopeless, but it's very difficult to pull that off these days. But given you are based in India and not in the West I suggest you knock on the door of some Indian outsourcing companies and see if they will give you a start.

NinjaBoy

eMeS wrote: »

...The short answer is anyone can go grab up all of the certifications that they want, and very likely brute force their way into whatever field it is they want to be in. However, that person will not be credible without significant complementary experience.

The long answer is that I've met many people that do ITIL-related work. Some are excellent and really know their stuff, some known what's in the books only, and some know neither what's in the books nor how to practically adopt ITIL. Without exception, the people that really know their stuff all have significant years of IT experience under their belts before they ever became involved in a career specific to service management. So, in my experience, the people who are credible in the service management/ITIL world are those with years of related IT experience in conjunction with years of related ITIL knowledge and experience...

...Whatever you choose I wish you the best. My personal thought is that you should develop some underlying IT experience first...

Turgon wrote: »

...As painful as it may sound I would advise you to roll your sleeves up and try and land a helpdesk job. If you have the goods you should move up soon enough given your degree and aspirations. It is very difficult to be truly effective at IT Management without solid experience in this industry...

I agree with both eMeS and Turgon.

faiz0802 wrote: »

...I'm a Mechanical Engineer by degree, based in Hyderabad, India and have about 2 years of experience in sales and service in a company that deals with construction equipment, so leaving that field and jumping into IT Management may seem a little strange at this point, but it's intentional. I've always been interested in IT, and in management as well, so this seems like a very viable option at this point...

I don't say the following to boast but to show where I'm coming from... I am a Chartered IT Professional with quite a few IT certifications (& a Computing degree) and an IT Manager with a good few years experience (and management qualifications). Yet to be honest no company in their right mind would hire me as a Engineering Manager, regardless of whether the engineering field is Chemical, civil, electrical, mechanical, etc... For the simple reason that I'm not experienced and/or qualified in that field.

ITIL is not a set of rules laid down in a set of books, ITIL is a methodology of best practice. There's nothing stopping you doing the ITIL foundation or even the higher ITIL certs, but do not think that just by doing those certs that it will magically give you experience, practical knowledge and an IT managers post.

Listen to the advice that has already been given, get yourself some experience - even if it's on a fast track scheme and get your basics in the field before you try to manage the people in the field.

faiz0802 wrote: »

...and I intend to stay in IT Management alone and do not intend to venture into software or hardware...

You are not going to get very far imo with that frame of mind, I'm sorry to say. Part of the IT managers job is to propose new technology and to implement/oversee the implementation of those new technology with existing technology. Another part of the IT managers role is to procure hardware & software for the organisation. How are you going to do just those two things without the underlining knowledge & experience? Those are just two of the many duties that IT managers have to do and there are alot more.

I don't say these things to dishearten you, but to just give you a glimps that the role of the IT manager is not just a role to tell people what to do.

-Ken