ITIL Certification – Credit and Career Advancement

According to information published in 2012 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job outlook for computer and information systems managers is projected to increase by 15% through 2022.

ITIL® (IT Service Management) is the most recognized framework for IT service management in the world.

The opportunities presented are plenty – and subjective to a professional’s preference.  Professionals inclined more towards managing and leading teams are recommended to pursue the Lifecycle Modules; for those who are process oriented and wish to play an active in service management then it is strongly suggested to take up Capability modules.

Certification & Credits

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ITIL® is undoubtedly one of the most recognized and accredited IT Service framework and helps professionals to pursue career goals. More often not, ITIL certification is understood for service management exclusively. While that’s true, ITIL also complements Project Management. So the scope is quite broad and left to the individual’s preference about career path.

How many Credits do I need to become ITIL® Expert?

 ITIL® certification commences with Foundation and moves forward with Lifecycle or Capability Modules, which eventually will make you qualify to appear for the MALC certification.

You need 22 credits to qualify for the expert level – which is usually achieved by becoming certified as Foundation level and earn 2 credit followed by Intermediate Modules and then MALC.

Foundation (2 credits) + 5 Lifecycle Modules (each module is worth 3 credits and hence 5 x 3 =15 credits) + MALC (5 credits) =22 credits.

Or

Foundation (2 credits) + 4 Capability Modules (each module is worth 4 credits and hence 4x4 =16 credits) + MALC (5 credits)=23 credits.

The criteria set are to earn 22 credit to become an Expert. 

You can learn more about the Credit system , please visit Axelos link.

Career Advancement

Excellent. For a qualified professional, the prospects can be just amazing. Evaluating studies from payscale.com offer valuable insights about the Employees with a Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Expert Level Certification:

image courtesy: http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Certification=Information_Technology_Infrastructure_Library_(ITIL)_Expert_Level/Salary

There is an increasing need and growing demand for this certification and indicators from the public domain forecast a trend of capitalizing on IT Service Management. 

ITIL professionals with more certifications earn on average 13% more in US, according to the ITSM Salary Survey by Plexent. According to the survey, certifications really do pay: in 2011, an ITIL Expert made on average $122,000 and an ITIL Service Manager $125,000 in US. 

Bring Work-Life Balance with Disciplined Project Management

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There seems to be early burn-out in IT professionals. Doctors are appalled at the heart-risks and related ailments; whenever a  young person wheeled into the emergency ward, the first question invariably is “are you working in IT?” why is it so? Job pressure, peer pressure, management pressure – the stress is too much. A number of factors collide and contribute to this havoc wreaked on youngsters. Heart attack in the forties or fifties doesn’t shock or surprise but in late twenties and early thirties psyches the physicians, who are perplexed dealing with the predicament. Such is the severity, and cut-throat the companies, employees either by choice or force end up staying late at their desk ‘burning the midnight oil’.

Does the number of hours clocked or the contributions  count? The misconception in the market is that one who spends long hours in the office is deemed ‘hard working’. Anything less and your talent is questionable or the workload is not just enough to justify your paycheck. So some just pretend to stretch or ‘kill’ time by indulging in other activity instead of freeing up bandwidth to take up additional tasks. “If I do this task or accommodate more chores in addition, will the amount in the salary credited change?” this reflects not just the individual lack of commitment, but reflects poorly on the leadership as well.

Devotion to work should be wilful, lest it leaves one dissatisfied and disgruntled. Once resourceful, now turned rebels are primarily due to poor people management. Long and late nights are part of the daily rigor of an IT Professional. Time consumed at office leaves with less for family. Everything ought to be balanced – including work.

A project manager, whom I used to report, will sit beside me and plan the ‘tasks for the week’ taking my inputs for the ‘hours allocated’ and sometime let me estimate the ‘number of hours’. Effort estimation is both critical and crucial. Bagging the project by heck or crook, and later slogging the days, night and weekend are typical signs of burnout. It’s like cutting the foot to match the boot. That’s not project management. Weekends usually act as buffer and my manager managed on the maxim of “if you can’t get the work done in eight hour, either you are inefficient or incompetent."  People also tend to procrastinate – another malaise with no medicine in sight. Hence there is no blaming the managers alone. Both sides suffer from their own shortcoming and apparently there has to be a middle ground.

The 40 hour week

Any project manager with appreciable knowledge and experience will not estimate more than 8-hours as man day in the project plan. How many hours does the team work is another question but for the record its 8 hours, and usually the weekends are not factored – and mostly serve as buffers. Remember time is money and hence any inflation in your estimation will have an adverse implication on your cost estimation. If the budget balloons, the project will slip out of your hands. It’s a typical trapeze act or skating on thin ice. So balancing the 40-hour and keeping the project within cost calls for a skilled and smart time management.

Performance and productivity

No matter how many hours you clock, you are most productive for the first 4 hours.  The body might be willing but the mind simply is not up to it. Exhaustion,and fatigue hampers performance. Your ability to concentrate ebbs with passage of time. There should be a reason why Henry For came out with the brilliant strategy of ‘weekend’ so as to boost morale, improve productivity and increase time spent with family.  Sources from public domain cite that working fewer hours increase productivity and thereafter tend to wane.

Work-life balance

“I am too busy at work” is the usual refrain. You start before the kids awake and return after the fast asleep. Many professionals itinerary falls in to this pattern. Genuine cases of work chewing and even gobbling time is a possibility but that can’t become the norm. Its not family first or work at any cost. One has to strike a balance to do justice to both – stakeholder management.  Your internal and external client included, family too is part of stakeholders. And its important to attend on everyone, and if possible satisfy.

A gallup study revealed that we work 47 hours – which is 7 hours more. What will all the dollars, incentive, promotions and perks amount when you compromise your health for career. Think about it.

Layoff and Life After – Not the end but a Beginning.

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Just like corporates announce their annual results, few companies decide to lose weight by shedding or offloading, which is marked metaphorically as ‘deadwood’. In some fiercely competitive employment, top 10% is generally booted out citing uncompetitive or poor performance.

Some layoff in the recent days shook the very ground – just like blindsided. Hundreds of developers lost their jobs.

The most perilous is the pink slip. Nothing scares the daylight of a professional, especially in the IT industry than the prospect of losing the job. A status of ‘looking for a job’ isn’t exactly tantalizing. It means ‘moving mountains’.

The first thing to lose is not the job: it is confidence. And then the slow undoing of everything built thus far. A typical domino effect that comes down crumbling like a pack of cards. Nothing can be as disturbing, particularly when you didn’t see that coming or failed to detect those distress signals.

Your credibility is on the line. Confidence erodes, confusion prevails. Like a vision becoming blur, the future looks bleak. Questions of survival and means for sustenance crops from all corners. The wherewithal withdrawn, individuals accustomed to a certain living standards will find it disturbingly difficult in being displaced.  And that is to put it mildly.

When the curtains are down in your services offered to a company, its not the end of your career – just that the engagement you were roped met its logical conclusion wherein your services are no longer required. Fine. Look  elsewhere.

Very early in the career, when someone close to the author of this article was ‘fired’, devastating as it was in having shattered dreams and aspiration that dies premature, the CEO  commiserated ‘well, may be we don’t find a fitment here but this doesn’t mean you will not shine and succeed somewhere. Play up to your strength’.

You might be initially dismayed and distressed. Of course dejected, but never get depressed. ‘Play  to your strength’ – and that’s exactly what one should do in the given circumstances.

We are in the edtech industry for some time and, Professionals walking into our premise for consultations with regard to professional certification and career counseling makes us under better the anger and unrest when such unexpected misfortune scuttles and chokes career path.

‘Expect the unexpected’ – be prepared always. Learn from the defence services – why is that the army does the drill day in and day out?  That’s preparedness.  Keep educating yourself. Reinventing – is learning new things and innovation is about iterations in ideas. Figure out your strength and try channeling in many ways – that’s what makes you versatile.

Its not about hour hard you get hit – but to collect yourself and stand up to the challenge. You may be down but not out.  There is always an opening for those who pursue relentlessly. The reason why we insist on  professional certification – to be certified in as many as possible is to become recognized instantly. May be that company doesn’t need you, fine, but someone wants you. There is always someone.

AI is another Competitor, not Your Counterpart

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Yet another splash of the waves. The news is about AI. Again.

All along, the news beamed over the web had to stress this message to drive home the hard fact that machines are here to replace professionals.

It sounds so artificial. Want your business to boom, add on AI.

We can argue all day about the robots coming to the rescue, but replacing jobs altogether is something we can agree to disagree.

Industrialization introduced the concept of automation – the first of the threat to replace human workforce. Before computers became really personal, typist was a typical occupation. That has been taken over or obliterated by software. Weren’t the threat of AI perceived real then? Yes, just that the impact was less, and man moved on.

Today the business runs on a different lane. Cross-selling and upselling is rampant. Technology is making business thrive.  A cancer patient can know the course of treatment, courtesy not a doctor but a biotech company. So, software coding for cancer cure?  Well, Microsoft too has stated as its long term goals.

Wakeup call

At some point in time, we all tend to become complacent by becoming too comfortable at workplace – the cushion factor. And it takes something like that of a threat to shake us out of the comfort zone – competition is the ultimate threat. AI is another competitor, not your counterpart.

How did farming take place before the advent of tractor? More hands in the field, and more time to till. The tractor proved to be a game changer. Was it warded off as a threat to uproot livelihood?

Why is that robots would act as our replacement and wipe out employment? What happens if robots fail to function or malfunction? Even in the worst of cases, it’s the repetitive work that can be automated. What about creative?

All your bets on an algorithm. Then try this read. It might help you to revise your opinion. Nothing like your instincts.  And who is going to replace that as well?  Certainly not algorithms – which has its pros and cons.

AI and Writing

The writing is on the wall about man’s dependence on AI but not its dominance. In fact, word from the industry has hinted instead of competing, AI can utilize the service of the human mind to complement.

“When you talk to an AI chatbot, who do you think writes those professional, peppy responses?” was an interesting read. AI didn’t appear intimidating, rather impressing the significance of the mind power as if to suggest ‘ we can compete against each other and also co-exist.’

Why You want to wait till they walk out? | Effective Leadership

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As much as companies expect employees to upskill, the attrition rate in recent times has rocked the boat, and almost ran the ship aground. A large IT firm considered a bellwether in the Asian-pacific region witnessed unprecedented exits, especially in the upper management. Sources within cite “performance related issues’ for the departure. With so many legs to march out the door apparently was too much of a jolt, that the leadership itself came in to question as why talent, that too  at the top of the pyramid, are hitting the bricks?  Resignation are rampant. Job-hopping seems to be most happening that it is no longer a shocker to screen a resume with several companies chequered in the career path.

Why?

While the companies quote ‘performance’, the employees have a different perspective that paints a different picture altogether. Expected and evident. Both parties need justification and play it out for the records. But the crux of the matter is ‘leadership failed’. Either it didn’t see it coming or perhaps caught off-guarded. Either ways, the executive cant be excused or exempted.

Observations made from the key trends  of human capital mention that ‘Only 30% of CEOs said they were confident that they would have the talent they needed to grow their organisation in the near future’.

Companies have little idea or limited information behind the reasons of resignation of high-profiles despite digging on data available. At best, they turn out as conjectures and not conclusions. HBR.org offers insights in why employees choose to leave. Some of them aren’t sure of their call to quit, some chose to get out and some shunted out.

If innovations are the guiding force of the future, then the best and brightest can’t be possibly let go just like that – which does happen when paths collide or for the sheer pride.

Effective leadership is to know when to reign in and when to cut loose. Stop the flow and stem the tide.   To influence beliefs and behavior to beget the best in result.

Angst amongst us

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Its not the frustration over failures.

Its not the mistakes. Its not even the repeated mistakes.

Incredibly it’s the repeat of the repeated mistake – like typos in a perfectly proof-read post. Darn! How did the error creep on.

Well, a pilot missed his destination by messing up the co-ordinate, and this is not without precedent. Imagine the shock of the passengers and the people in general “how could he possibly goof up on the guidance? Isn’t the computer on?”

Incredulous.

That’s how we are sometimes.  Knowingly doing things wrong is inexcusable, but knowing well and still getting things wrong is indefensible. That’s where we go weak on our knees. Tensions run high. Anger flare up. Heated arguments and bruised souls.

Now that the pilot has landed in the wrong destination, will all the fury unleashed help in recovering from the loss and land in the right spot?

May be get more processes in place. More check and balance. Make it foolproof that alerts can’t just be missed, so that mistakes won’t be repeated. As much as plans and process are prepared, we can’t absolve ourselves of the wrongdoings. Negligence is negligence. It can’t be negated, and only corrected.  

We don’t have time to learn from our mistakes, or from others’ mistakes, and worst of all repeat mistakes.

How can the lessons learnt from the past help us from preventing, rather than firefighting? 

Please share your thoughts….

Fix the Fix. Technology making us tardy??!!

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We all misunderstand and misinterpret that technology can solve everything or rather it will eventually. While right and wrong, sometimes we lay too much emphasis on technology that faith on our own prowess fails or simply overlooked. Weren’t we able to memorize and remember a truckload of telephone numbers? Weren’t we able to do math mentally? Remember birthdays, anniversaries of near and far. The mailman was our main source of communication exchange. We had our own internal database – that can store number, words, equations, law and rules – and that’s why we call it ‘by-heart’. It was not a super computer, but it was superb processing unit.

With the advent of the sophisticated machines – starting the simplest calculator, to the latest scientific calculator, life of course became sophisticated – but at what cost. Today, kids seem to struggle to divide 1 divided by 2 and by instinct they reach out for the calculator. ‘That’s the way we are taught’.

Software coding used to be in notepad as the ‘tool’. Its more advanced in the present age. These modern gadgets, tools and techniques are welcomed and embraced. Inexplicably, the solid grounding one had with the ike of notepad is missing in the IDE (integrated development environment). We are indeed the torchbearers for technology. Codes are now reused, instead of writing from the scratch – after all it’s the same ‘Login’ module. So why reinvent the wheel. The public domain is full of that one has to trowel and one has tinker. If you give it back or make it open – call that open source. Certainly, computers have reshaped. Consequently, sophistication has slackened our skills instead of sharpening; allay instead of rending us active, dependent instead of dominating [we don’t even bother to get the spelling correct – why? The system will take care. The flip side is auto-correct can actually end up misleading. Such instance are one too many when correspondence of suffered when we leave it to the control or total mercy of the computer]. This is not just with business correspondence but in all our walk of life. No machine is immune to malfunction.  But how does one detect the malaise before the damage is done. Advanced minds. This means less reliance and dependence. Self-sufficient. Get back to the basic. Use technology to supplement and complement, and not as the substance. Today robots are capable of creating blogs and write-ups – and did they get it right? Today robots can replace waiters in a restaurant – were they able to take the order or serve appropriately.

Human endeavour is to make progress and be at it. The trade-off should not be our intelligence erodes or corroded. Not at the cost of dependence for anything and everything. They are supposed to improve our lives, help us overcome difficulties, but not own our sense and sensibilities. We are much more competent and capable but the bane of machines curbing the complexities had made inadvertently reliant that instead of masters, we are slave to the system. we are less communicative with each other, less inactive, less agile and less usage of our faculties , so when fail to exercise our body and mind its makes is overall unhealthy. are we getting back to the old times? life has gone on a full circle??

A customer recounted a very hilarious encounter. This happened in India, where the three-wheeler called as ‘autorickshaw’ driven around manually without GPS or any such gadget but rely on the acumen of the driver. The customer with no idea about the geography and supremely confident of his ’GPS’ boarded for lack of a better transportation at that time, and instructed the driver the ‘destination with address’ but insisted in guiding as he had his ‘GPSs’. The thoroughly amused driver with a smirk on his face and a cynical ‘yes sir, as you wish’ complied with the “10 meters take left and 20 meters take right” and it just guided. The busy customer glued to the gps was horrified and jumped out of shock “we have come to the same lace we started.”

The driver threw a “you got it all wrong. You could trust my experience but went for some device that made us dumb”. Customer conceded “ok champ, you win. Now can you take me to my place?” with the vehicle swerving right, left, and sometime straight, they reached in 10 minutes. The driver didn’t sermonize but offered some unsolicited advice “sometimes we work better than that ‘device director’. His christening of GPS was really humorous and so was the narration. The customer concluded “I paid that guy twice the fare: one of the ride and the other for tuition.” Incredible lessons learnt.

Technology should lead us. We should not be led by it.

What’s stopping You from learning now? Reskill & Upskill

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How long can you dwell in the past? Dust up and wipe the cobwebs for the mind needs fine-tuning and freeing up the bandwidth these cobwebs occupy.  Its going to be a hardsell.  We need to step up to sync with the trend that’s fast changing like shifting sands. Steam engine won’t work in 2000 and electric engine will not be powerful enough to pull a bullet train.  Just as we change with times and arise to the calling, learning is no different.

We have an understanding about illiteracy. But, ‘The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn’ – Alvin Toffle

The threat of robots replacing jobs looming large just the long shadows on an overcast skies that met with differing and disastrous results. This is not the challenge per se. This is just a part. For the algorithm in the robot can be reworked to make it more intelligent. But what about you?  If much is expected from a robot, the expectations for sure will surge when it comes to man. Man competing animals ( Jessie Owens raced), and later  man versus machine(remember, Deep  Blue).  We are stepping into an era which mandates man to be more dispensable. The endeavor is to eliminate the dependence on human – for instance, the driverless car, self-engaging instruments,  even flying cars in the future.  We are speaking the language of artificial intelligence with robotics gleaning away the role meant for humans. If the sky is no longer the limit, then those fancied becomes a possibility. That’s the philosophy now.

Its challenging times – critically and constructively. Lethargic, lackadaisical, and laidback attitude wont carry an inch forward. To be on your toes, you need to stay abreast with the rapid changes all over.  360 degrees. How will you able to negotiate despite the years of experience to your credit if you cant comprehend the latest  appss launched by google yesterday? google is just a reference, to imply in vogue.

Your ‘value add’ for the day can be contested. Companies are extremely competitive that they only want A players. Steve Jobs was known to be ruthless in flushing out those that didn’t add value in his team. How can you become the part of the A team? Confronted with such uncomfortable poser might sound uncivilized, but then that’s inevitable. If not today, it’s going to pop tomorrow and you better brace yourself. You have to be significantly superior to justify your hire.

 How?

Unlearn and relearn. You will realize that your learning will help you winnow the wanted from unwanted. Its about reskilling and upskilling. When a product needs an upgrade, the mind needs more of it. Sounds surreal? Check this from the movie matrix:

“As Morpheus says to Neo in the film:

“What is real? If you are talking about your senses, what you feel, taste, smell or see, then all you’re talking about is electrical signals interpreted by your brain.”

Don’t have to get psyched and worked out. The positive connotation communicate the simple truth - that you can better machines – for they too are just a bundle of wires that communicate through electric signals. So start enrolling for the latest workshops, boot camps, certifications, knowledge hubs – whatever it takes that will act as knowledge enabler.

 Desire to be one step ahead. Broaden knowledge. Stay relevant.