Ashish Deb was born in Delhi, India. His Parents are originally from Calcutta, West Bengal, they moved to Delhi at a very young age and settled in Delhi. Ashish grew up in an environment when personal computers were at a very early stage and people saw it as a next engineering marvel that will change people’s life for the next few generations. Ashish started looking at courses and programs where he could learn computing skills and he also enrolled in a degree program with Electronics and Telecom Engineering.
During this time Mr. Deb also got into apprenticeships in various organizations where electronic instruments and computers were extensively used and finally he landed a job with a US based PC company-Compaq, working as a service engineer for middle east and Asia.
After working in middle-east and Asia for 7 years , Ashish moved to Toronto, Canada during the y2k boom in the IT industry. He worked for one of the top five banks in Canada as a Networking Engineer.
He saw a need to increase IT skills for local companies, so he partnered with a few friends and started evening school for training IT related courses in networking, database and programming gaining a lot of popularity with new immigrants and students coming fresh out of university and colleges. His training programs also catered to people who were already working in the IT industry but lacking in leading edge skills.
During this time Ashis Deb helped his community via social services like Costi and HRDC hosting seminars in career counseling, helping people with resume writing, interview coaching etc. this brought lot of success to people who were looking for jobs and good life in this new country where people from all over the world immigrate for a better future.
Today Ashish lives in Toronto, with his wife, son, daughter and his mother and spends his free time helping the local community by volunteering with IT related services and also volunteering for charities back in his home country, India.
What made you choose to go into (industry)?
I chose the IT industry because it enables & empower people with the ability to do their job better. The tools and technologies that we develop for our clients and customers helps them improve their business process, make their investments in IT infrastructure more secure, reliable and scalable thus helping them in enhancing their customer experience.
What do you find most challenging about your career?
Being able to provide solutions to business that helps them grow at rapid speed. Get to know various lines of business-like travel, finance, medical, government, retail etc.
What is one piece of advice you would give someone starting in your industry?
Being a specialist rather than a generalist, means becoming an expert in a set of tools and technology that build computing solutions for businesses. Keep up with the fast-changing industry and be aware of the social awareness that this industry brings to people.
If you could change anything about your industry what would it be and why?
Plan and deliver more grass root level hands on training , build center of excellence labs on new technologies and tools for community colleges and universities in partnership with the IT companies where students
How would your colleagues describe you?
I am a dreamer; perfectionist and I have the technical ability to identify the right resources and delegate work in order for successful delivery of a project or product.
How do you maintain a solid work life balance?
One thing that I have learnt to manage well in the past few years is time. With all the communications tools we have today like emails, skype, zoom our phones we need to actively/proactively attend to work schedules as well as our personal life. That way you have a plan for how you are running your life day to day and down the line you can review and improve based on requirements from work or family.
What is one piece of technology that helps you the most in your daily routine?
What has been the hardest obstacle you’ve overcome?
Prioritization of work
Who has been a role model to you and why?
Bill Gates, a technologist who was one of the pioneers in our industry in changing the world we live in today, also being a philanthropist and a humble man.
What is one piece of advice that you have never forgotten?
Never confront with a situation if you have no solution
What does success look like to you?
Success is if my client or employer is happy with the work, I have done for them.
What is one piece of advice you would like to leave our readers with?
To become successful in life and achieve your dream; you need to dream and have aspiration and then work hard to reach that goal. When you are busy trying to achieve your goal of life, do not forget your family, friends and most of all be respectful to everyone around you.