The IT convert who became a cloud specialist. Meet Geoffrey.
With his tangible enthusiasm for all things technology, you’d be forgiven for assuming Geoffrey Buhagiar had always worked in IT. In actual fact, he made a significant career change to pursue his passion, took the time to hone his industry skills, and has found his niche as Infrastructure Specialist with the MFSA. If you’re looking for clues on how to get ahead in the tech industry, Geoffrey’s journey is truly exemplary. This is his story.
I started out as an architectural draughtsman and did this for 8 years. Eventually I decided I needed a change; a dose of determination and a slice of passion for technology drove me to pursue a career in IT.
My first IT role was as IT Support Officer with the MFSA. This turned out to be very valuable for helping me settle into a new industry and gave me a good grounding in understanding user needs and day-to-day systems management. From here, the company helped me grow and encouraged me to build up my skills as I moved up in the department. I’ve since climbed to Infrastructure Specialist.
Originally a colleague of mine suggested selecting ICE Malta as my go-to institute for accredited Microsoft training, and to be honest, there wasn’t a lot to choose from in Malta! That said, it was definitely the right choice. The tutors are passionate in their field of expertise and dedicated towards teaching and transferring their knowledge. The staff from ICE Malta are always there when needed, answering any questions and queries swiftly. The learning experience was a very positive one, hence my enrolment on a second course.
As I say, I returned to ICE Malta to complete the Azure Administrator certification earlier this year. The MFSA believed in my abilities to further grow my knowledge within Technology Function and agreed to sponsor my course on this occasion.
Once again, the learning experience was brilliant. The educator made the classes very engaging and attended to the needs of every individual, despite the range of experience between us. He even went above and beyond to offer extra tuition time to ensure we didn’t miss out on anything.
I think the way in which cloud computing enables multiple technologies to interact between each other is really interesting. The power it offers for managing and maintaining devices is fascinating.
From a practical standpoint, my training helped me better understand and get a clearer picture of how systems interact and the requirements of cloud administration. More specifically, the course gave me an insight into Microsoft’s best practices in this sector and boosted my confidence in using Azure services. It’s an industry that is constantly evolving, so staying up to date with latest practices is very important.
Oh yes!! I really like the range of courses that ICE Malta offers and the fact that it’s not just tech-centric, but offers creative and strategic courses as well.
From the cloud side I’d always be interested in extending my Azure skills and qualifications further. On a personal level, I’d really like the chance to delve deeper into HTML coding – this was something I briefly touched on before and found very enjoyable. I’d also love to dabble in graphic design if I get time in the future!
I really like the range of courses that ICE Malta offers and the fact that it’s not just tech-centric, but offers creative and strategic courses as well.
GEOFFREY BUHAGIARInfrastructure Specialist
