Careers in IT: Solutions Specialist

Miklos Fodor started his IT career on a Service Desk at T-Systems in Hungary. Now he is a Solutions Specialist at NSC Global, overseeing global projects worth millions of dollars.

We meet up with Miklos to ask him about his career progression, and what a role as a Solutions Specialist at an international company entails.

Hi Miklos, You joined NSC in 2015. What brought you to our organisation?

I was working at the time as Solution Consultant for T-Systems in Barcelona. One of my previous colleagues asked me if I would be interested in supporting his team at NSC. NSC just started the external Service Desk Support activities and they were facing an increasing amount of requests. After seeing the opportunity for development, and challenging global deals, I happily joined NSC.

How did you find yourself working in the IT industry for a career?

I was still studying when I saw an opportunity to start working as a German and English speaking Service Support Agent in my hometown Debrecen, in Hungary. It was the early time of a Service Desk nearshoring project in the country, and I found it a very interesting place to work: I’ve always liked to work with people from different countries and cultures. I did the training during the summer, and started working right after that.

What did you learn on a Service Desk that has helped you get to the top?

Being my first job, it helped me to socialize into an office and a work environment. We were a very young team and learned most of it on the job. Later, I was asked to be backup team leader and had the opportunity to look deeper into the delivery structure and management. That gave me the opportunity to perform smaller transition projects for service extension, which is when I started to see more opportunites in this sector, eventually working on outsourcing projects, and then helping with the planning as well.

Can you briefly describe your role?

I am responsible for all Service Desk related global requests (RFI, RFP, etc.). This includes understanding the requirement, designing the right solution for the customer within the company’s capabilities, planning the service transition, and creating the budget for all of this. During the bid phase I frequently present our solution to the customer online or in person. I also continually monitor industry news to stay on top of the latest trends – and find out how can those can benefit our business and those of our customers’.

Talk us through a typical day as a Solutions Specialist. 

See above 🙂 

Additionally I do internal reporting and service reviews with our delivery. It all depends on the actual workload of ongoing projects.

What is your biggest challenge in this role?

We have to be very competitive on the cost side while not undermining quality. Customers expect us to be high-quality, very fast and cheap. To balance out these things is probably the hardest part of my job.

And what gives you the most satisfaction?

Seeing a project going live and people getting positive feedback, this gives me a very good feeling. This is the time when you actually can see the result of your job.  

What advice would you give to those starting out in IT today?

Good choice! They better get ready for an environment with non-stop change and fast movement. Keeping up with it usually rewards your effort.

Innovations like SD-WAN and the cloud are changing the Enterprise Networking landscape; how do you see your job evolving over the next few years?

On one hand workplaces are transforming and the cloud allows you to access your platform anywhere anytime. This clearly changes the end-user behaviour and make things easier. Still, as long as we have end-users, the Service Desk will be with us.

What tech innovations are you most excited about? 

AI seems to be very interesting and progressing. I’m personally not a big fan of this tendency but it is definitely exiting!

What do you enjoy most about your job?

Winning a deal!

Thanks Miklos!

Getting a job with NSC isn’t the only way to start a career in IT. However, it is a good way: learn while you earn, work with multinational clients, work alongside senior IT engineers and work in a growing company with many international opportunities. Take a look at our open positions on our jobs page.