I met a desktop engineer today

Faeez is busy configuring my computer


Our education district is in the process of migrating to a different mail client service provider. That means all our computers have to be reconfigured. Today it is the turn of our satellite office to be set up for the new mail client, Outlook, which is a Microsoft mail service.

I received all this information from Faeez, the desktop technician, who is overseeing this migration process in my office. Faeez is a alumnus of Spine High School, in Mitchell's Plain.

I wanted to know why Faeez had chosen this occupation.

"They say you normally follow in your father's footsteps and that is true in my case. My father is in the IT industry and I was always exposed to computers. That is where my interest started.


When Mweb advertised for interns, I was accepted and worked there in the call centre. I worked there for a year and then  moved to my present company,"said Faeez. 

We discussed his high school. I asked whether he had ever gone back to Spine High School to share his experiences. Other students can learn from him, I say.

"They didn't invite me to come back. I won't also go back. I was one of those naughty children in class and I always landed into trouble. I was not rude, you know, I was just naughty, like normal kids." 

While Faeez is giving me this background, he is continuing with his task at the computer.

Our conversation shifted to his future aspirations. He wants to continue studying in the IT field.

"I wOuld like to specialise as a Cisco engineer or as a server engineer. At the moment I am just doing entry level. This job is like being a "boytjie" ( a labourer ), mixing cement whole day on a building site."

I laughed at the analogy that Faeez used to describe where he was in his career.

This young man is definitely driven. Perhaps some time in the future Faeez will be seen managing an  IT company. He knows what he wants and that is already half the battle won.


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