Muslim Rizvi | VP PMO
Muslim Rizvi spent his early life in Karachi and then later on pursued to do his Bachelors from FAST now renamed to NUCES. Later on pursuing his MBA from IBA and eventually joined CresSoft which was the largest software exporter at the time.
CresSoft transferred him to Chicago in January 2000 and eventually he moved to Canada in 2003. He started his career as Business Analyst (BA) and although his background was Computer Science but he always knew he wasn't going to be a programmer.
He enjoyed his life in interaction with people, businesses and technology and hence was a natural fit for the BA role where he eventually came across the PM role which was a direct match for his personality type.
He grew into management at different levels and currently heads the PMO at Pivot Tree in Toronto.
He believes there are two type of people. One who start things and one who complete things. Within technology, there are always those people who take visions from dreamers and break down them into tangible to make it happen.
His advice to newcomers in Canada - First, keep remember you don't know everything, it keeps you grounded. Humility is important aspect to grow anywhere. Second, team support is always important. Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you, who can show you the mirror and blind spot. Titles doesn't matter. Third, when you come to Canada, there's a skill set component that you can learn PMP, PNP, PMI, Agile & other methodologies. But cultural understanding and communication are always important tool to breakout and assimilate. Invite your neighbors to get know them. Get involved with other cultures and people.
One interesting thing between US & Canada, In US, philosophy is melting pot. You come and become American. But in Canada, it's a beautiful mosaic, you preserve your culture . It makes Canada more inclusive.