SZABIST Forum on “IT industry: Challenges and Opportunities”
For the last one week my life has somehow been revolving around Si3. First I got an interview call from there, the interview went great Alhamdulilah and they were also ready to offer me an internship but were asking me to work for 40 hours per week and I being a full-time student couldn’t give them more than 25 yrs hrs so I was unable to accept this offer 
Hope I get such great opportunities once I graduate as well.
Other than the interview, I organized a forum at my college where I invited Mr. Amer Hashmi, President and CEO, Si3. Si3 being the first billion-dollar company of Pakistan is often taken as the Infosys and Wipro of Pakistan and after meeting Mr. Amer I got to know a lot about what it takes to come up with such IT giants.
Mr. Amer is one of those lovely people who are always willing to share their rich experiences and knowledge with the Pakistani youth. I was really taken by his personality and what impressed me the most is that he’s a proud Pakistani and more than that someone who’s proud of his Muslim origin. These days I come across people who prefer saying Hi when u greet them with “Assalam o alaikum” and they consider you a bit conservative if you say “Alhamdulilah” or “Mashallah” but Mr. Amer greeted us all with Assalam o Alaikum and kept using the words “Mashallah” and “By the Grace of Allah” throughout his presentation.
Spending some quality time with us he told that IT industry being the 1.4 trillion dollar industry is the third largest in the world but sadly we Pakistanis haven’t yet been able to realize its full potential. Mr. Amer envisions Pakistan as one of the greatest IT emerging markets but few of the weaknesses that need to be overcome are:
Lack of Pro-Pakistani attitude
Lack of R&D
Lack of people having business acumen along with technical skills
Failure to perceive IT as a means of providing services
There’s a lot more that he shared with us but can’t write about all of it mainly because of shortage of time, however, I’m definitely going to touch this topic in my future posts.
impressive deal of work you’re doing…good!
keep it up!
inshahAllah more greater oppertunities will come on ur way
Comment by lubna — March 15, 2007 @ 4:39 pm
@Lubna
Thanks yaar…it was my first experience to organize such an event and everything went quite smoothly Alhamdulilah except the refreshments
and that too o b’coz the admin had taken that task in their hands.
Comment by Fariha — March 15, 2007 @ 11:41 pm
Hey that really nice
And such a beautiful blog you’ve here … By the way they were asking for mere 40 hours you are willing to give 25 YEARS — thats dedication :>
Comment by Asma — March 16, 2007 @ 11:45 pm
@Asma
Lolz..thanks for pointing out my mistake
I guess i was all tired and sleepy while typing this post…waisay..haan…this really can be called dedication 
Comment by Administrator — March 16, 2007 @ 11:56 pm
I agree that Pakistan has great potential in the IT and ITES markets and could become one of the leading providers in the coming years.
Comment by Sidhusaaheb — April 14, 2007 @ 1:20 am
@Sidhusaaheb
Thanks! btw predictions say that in 2008 or later India might start outsourcing sum work to Pakistan so it wud be gr8 to see Pakistan and India work together in the field of IT
Comment by Fariha Akhtar — April 14, 2007 @ 1:25 am
Amen!
Comment by Sidhusaaheb — May 3, 2007 @ 11:37 am
the issues put forward by Mr Ameer are not only related to IT industry but are plaguing every field of study . I think the root cause of these issues lies in our social and economic environment. almost all of us get education merely to earn big bucks, and not for the sake of education itself , and the who do it for education sake ,our govt. fails to retain them within the country. education is treated more as a means of income, due to which we are left far behind in research activities. on the other hand teaching is not regarded as decent and respectable job as it were in the earlier times, usually those who aren’t able to do something becomes teacher, leading to a chaotic chain reaction through the generations.
Comment by Syed Faraz Mahmood — June 11, 2007 @ 7:25 pm