Name of the Role Model

Aleksander Dimitrov

Age

39

City

Sofia

Company

AdminSoft

Position

System administrator

Field of Activity

ICT company specilised in developing and integrating software for educational purposes

Original situation of the Role Model

Aleksander is a System administrator at the Bulgarian ICT company AdminSoft even though his main education is not in this area. He has a physical disability which cuased him a lot of difficulties. He had to learn to walk again, he had to learn to live with himslef…, but he went through this period and this made him stronger.

He is working in the ICT sector for the past 15-16 years and he is with AdminSoft since 2010.

Personal background

Aleksander was born in the city of Dimitrovgrad, Bulgaria. He has a Bachelor degree in Bulgarian philology but during his student years his roommates were mainly people studying Information technologies. Thanks to them he turned the IT first into a hobby and later on into a profession.

Information on physical, psychological, social, economic condition

When Aleksander was 9 years and 4 months old he went through a meningococcal sepsis, which is a life-threatening condition. The damages were mainly in his left leg, which after 16-17 operations was saved by the doctors in Plovdiv. His leg is shortened and he has immobility in the ankle – he can’t move it.

Formal education

Bachelor in Bulgarian philology

Courses and training

Aleksander is acquiring specific IT education in the last few years. He’s currently making a Master for management of IT projects.

He has also taken a few courses focused on hardware installations and network installations.

Certificates

When he finishes his Master, he will become an IT project manager.

Barriers to take ICT training or education

Aleksander says that most of the things he has learnt, he has learnt them from his colleagues… so practically he is self-taught.

He has encountered a lot of difficulties, because the content of the ICT sector is rather infinite, it’s developing very quickly and it’s very possible that the things you knew yesterday are not the same today. You need to perfect yourself constantly, you have to read constantly and it is really important not to be ashamed to ask when you don’t know something.

Description of ICT related job

The System administrator is a person who is responsible for the maintenance, configuration and reliable operation of computer systems.

Position and responsibilities

System administrator at the Bulgarian ICT company AdminSoft

Main activities

His main activities are related to keeping all computer systems flawless and perfectly operational, to ensure that they are connected in a network, to make sure that the operational systems are fine-tuned and to protect them completely, or to the largest extent possible, from viruses.

Skills needed (hard and soft skills) to perform job successfully

You need skills to work with a computer, you need to work well with the Internet and you need to learn English at a working level, i.e. to understand what you’re looking for, to understand what problems you need to solve… This will open many doors, even if at some point you decide to do something else related to any profession, because right now the information is very easily accessible… whether it’s on your computer, on your smart phone, on your laptop… it doesn’t really matter.

You also need quick reactions and orientation in a certain situation because sometimes it’s a matter of seconds to solve a problem before loosing the information.

Barriers to engage in ICT sector

The ICT sector offers a lot of opportunities and people who are interested in this area should not be affrair to take a chance. Right now the prospects in the information technologies are very big, they are developing quickly and this will continue until most of the things in this field get robotized, which is the tendency. So the people that would work in this area and want to work in this area have considerable chances of success, because the investment required right now is not that big.

What has changed since taking ICT training?

Increased confidence and more perspectives for realization on the labour market

What has changed since finding a job in ICT sector?

Even though Aleksander misses his hometown because he moved to work in the capital Sofia, his life changed for the better. Financially speaking, now he can afford things that he couldn’t afford when he was a child.