How is ITIL Important to Individuals

Do you advise that I get the ITIL certification?

Will I get a better paying job if I get ITIL foundation certification?

I have 6 years of IT experience and I want to move into management side of things. Is ITIL the way forward?

I have been working in the same role for the past 3 years? Will ITIL help me move into a better role?

These are some of the questions that I get swarmed with on a regular basis. I have tried to answer as much as possible, and I have missed out on replying on most of the queries I receive through this blog. I hope to answer all the questions that IT professionals may have through this post. If you have further questions, clarifications or want to add-on, please use the commenting section in this post.

ITIL Basics

Since you are reading this post, I assume that you are aware that ITIL is an IT service management framework. It draws boundaries and provides directions to various activities that typically go on in an IT service management organization.

Most organizations today swear by ITIL. They have tried numerous options before sticking to ITIL and once they experience it, they don’t seem to look any other way. In all seriousness, ITIL is comprehensive. It provides the direction for how companies can go about starting IT services and provides a number of possible processes that make the IT service a success while perennially improving and profiting businesses.

ITIL for Employability

If you are getting onto ITIL, you have just subscribed to the majority of organizations as a possible candidate. Congratulations!

Going by sheer numbers and probabilities, ITIL makes you employable. It gives you the edge to get into organizations and whether you can make a career out of it or not, is left to you. But it definitely gives you options and career paths to take it all the way to the top.

When I first started, I knew zilch about ITIL. I did something completely on a tangential plane to what an IT guy was supposed to do. When I was introduced to ITIL, I knew that it widespread, and I did pick it up faster than all my peers and it got me onto a vertical ascent in the ITIL driven IT-dom.

ITIL makes you employable. If you are looking to expand your options of getting into multi-corporation organizations, this framework is definitely your ride.

Is ITIL for Me?

Let’s put it this way. Anybody who is capable of thinking logically possesses the pre-requisite to take up ITIL. Without any IT experience, you can still understand ITIL and perform roles that ITIL demands of you. All that is needed is the zeal to learn, put it into perspective and start learning about how various IT components come together under one roof.

If you are a technical guy, you can still come into the world of ITIL. In fact, you have the advantage of instant integration between technical knowledge and ITIL management framework. You don’t need to imagine how things might work like your non-technical ITIL peers. You already know the technical side of things, so picking up management side of things through the framework will be a lot easier, and your technical knowledge will help you deliver on a number of levels while you sit on the management end.

To sum up, ITIL is for both non-technical professionals, technical IT-ians and also for those who are fresh out of college. I don’t want to give false hopes here. To understand ITIL and follow up with its activities is a lot harder for non-technical folks – but definitely not impossible. As long as you can think logically, you will do just as well as the technical professionals.

ITIL Roles

ITIL framework runs deep into various functions such as technical streams, accounting teams and into customer management functions as well. So, while you do what you are best at, ITIL provides you the edge to take your work to the next level.

ITIL also specifies a number of roles that are responsible for smooth functioning of the processes. Some of the roles include incident manager, problem manager, change manager and release manager.

Did you observe that the roles that ITIL specifies all ended with a manager. Yep, ITIL is the door that takes you to the door of management’s periphery. It helps you to transition from performing to managing.

To Conclude

You can make a great career out of ITIL. You are never too late to become an ITIL practitioner. Start by learning the basics and taking up the ITIL foundation certification. The certification gives the employer the trust that the person who is looking to get hired is oriented in the same direction as the organization. It saves them the effort that they normally would spend on training ITIL basics and the effort that goes into getting you used to the ITIL environment. My advice is to become employable with ITIL and get a chair in front of the interviewer. My experience is that once you get to know the basics, the framework will suck you in, and you fall in love with it, and the relationship will be a long lasting one. Trust me on this!