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'I am an accidental IT person," Ahmed Shah reflects. "I had no plans to get into IT. But then the IT boom came along, and I thought, 'Let's try this.' Here I am, twelve years later."
Today, Shah is a senior infrastructure project manager in the IT group at UnitedHealth Group Inc (Minneapolis, MN). UnitedHealth is a diversified health and well-being company. It offers its products and services through six operating businesses, serving some 70 million people nationwide.
Infrastructure building
It's up to Shah to lead projects that build the IT infrastructure to host apps for the company's various business units. The application and infrastructure must meet the company's managed services standards and policies. At the same time, it must create an environment that meets the needs of the business and is robust, reliable and efficient.
Shah works with multiple project managers across the organization. "Infrastructure building comes after you have defined the software requirements and figured out what components go into it and where," he explains.
His previous jobs, he notes, were in "hardcore" IT. He likes this job better because "You get an opportunity to learn and do good work and interact with people in the business on a daily basis."
Starting in marketing
Shah grew up in Pakistan. When he was twenty he came to the U.S., and worked on his 1990 BS in marketing at Central State University (Edmond, OK) and Minnesota State University-Moorhead. He got his MBA in 1993 from Oregon State University.
When he graduated the economy was in recession and he couldn't find the work he hoped for. "I worked at odd jobs," he recalls, and studied at Moorhead State University (Moorhead, MN) for a graduate degree in counseling, thinking of working in college admin.
But the job picture was changing, and Shah was flexible. "Internet Explorer and Netscape had just come out and were changing the way people used IT on a daily basis. The accessibility was mind-boggling," he says.
From helpdesk to networking
He started as a helpdesk worker at a now-defunct computer manufacturer in Minneapolis, and picked up training courses along the way. Then he worked for an integration company as a field support and maintenance technician. "Integration was big business then. Companies would want a thousand desktops, and we would build, deliver and install them," he says.
He left in 1997 to take a networking position with Shared Resource Management (Minneapolis, MN). "They trained me in server technology and leveraged my hardware background," he explains.
Enterprise-wide technology
In 1998 Shah and his wife moved to Madison, WI where he continued to work as a consultant, now for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. He picked up experience in Microsoft Exchange technology as one of a team of two that managed enterprise-wide systems for the department.
"Eventually I was managing the entire state of Wisconsin from Madison," he says. "We had several remote offices, 200 servers, and when summer storms hit the job got really lively. It was a fantastic learning experience and a great place to work!"
Using his soft skills
In 2004 Shah found a job as an account rep for Robert Half Technology, part of Robert Half International (Minneapolis, MN), the staffing services firm.
"I had plenty of background in IT and wanted to use my soft skills," he says. "There's a different rhythm and speed to sales. I enjoyed it, and it helped me later on with project management."
Leveraging his experience
Two years ago Shah found his current job at UnitedHealth. "I had an understanding of IT from a bottom-up perspective and had learned how to talk to people in depth," he says. "The advantage of consulting is that you get to know the environment and culture of many organizations."
He had wanted to work for UnitedHealth for a long time, because of "the sheer growth of the organization, particularly on the IT side," he says. "It's one of the premier employers in the Twin Cities area right now."
And Shah is hoping to keep right in step with his employer, continuing to move forward and gain higher-level responsibilities. D/C
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