“I owe BCIT a huge debt of gratitude for preparing me so well” ~ Shane Singh, Senior Vice President – Global Support, Zscaler
While Shane Singh’s LinkedIn now lists senior roles in a string of top international tech companies, it’s a path that began with BCIT’s Technology Support Professional (TSP) Certificate program.
The Senior Vice President of Global Support at Zscaler had been doing odd jobs, and operating a forklift in a truck parts warehouse, when he encountered the potential impact of digitized inventory. It was a pivotal moment in his career path.
“I had no idea then that technology would play such a large role in our lives, but it piqued my interest,” he explains. It was the mid-90s, the infancy of the internet, with technology starting to roll out across sectors. “We were spending a huge amount of time tracking and tracing inventory manually, and I started to see the impact that technology would have.”
“I told my dad I was enjoying helping with the automation at work, and he was the one who told me I should look at the BCIT fast-track tech programs,” says Shane. “Dad played a huge role, and to this day he’s super interested in what I do.”
Shane went to a TSP Information Session, and learned about the program and its work term: “I was hooked.”
TSP: A tight knit community and real-world application
Shane credits a tight-knit classroom community in helping to boost his confidence.
“We were learning a lot of material, and that brought us together,” says the self-described introvert. “It helped to settle me down, to overcome imposter syndrome, and made me feel that I could do it.”
“The instructors were fantastic, and the focus on real-world practical knowledge was really applicable to where I ended up.”
Shane’s work term was with Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, working under the head of IT: “I had no idea how much technology went into a hotel!”
“My supervisor taught me a lot about discipline and rigor – the importance of using checklists every day, checking backups every morning, building a rhythm of working,” he emphasizes. “There are non-negotiable items that need to happen every single day, and this critical structure gives you time and energy to focus on other things.”
Before his work term was finished, Shane landed his first job with WebCT, a pioneer learning management company.
Career – and technology – takes off
“That first company was in a high growth phase, with a lot of complex implementations and systems integration projects,” says Shane.
He was soon identified as reliable and trustworthy, and quickly found himself managing others, leading the local support team. After a phase of world travel working in Professional Services on deployments, he decided to return to a home base having realized how much he enjoyed leading teams.
Shane’s path took him from educational platform technology to online market research when he joined Vision Critical. He witnessed market research move to the internet, where the online environment offered massive cost savings at higher speed with more accuracy. “The company grew by leaps and bounds, and I helped build out an entire global support team that quickly spun into building and heading up a few operational teams, from customer success to survey programming to cloud operations.”
In 2017 he found a home in cybersecurity. “I fell in love with running IT teams, the importance of being stewards of customers’ data,” Shane explains. “Safeguarding customers and their data is not something I take lightly.”
At Sophos, a global cybersecurity powerhouse serving over 700,000 customers, Shane swiftly rose through the ranks. He eventually led a team of more than a thousand people across twelve countries, reporting directly to the CEO. Now, as the head of global support at Zscaler – one of the world’s top security services platforms, protecting 500 billion online transactions every day for some of the world’s largest companies – Shane is driving rapid transformation across people, processes, and technology. “The pace is intense, but the progress is exciting. We’re building something truly world-class.”
Advice from a global tech leader: In Shane’s words
1. Believe in yourself
It sounds cliché, but you’re going to have moments where you think: ‘I’m not getting it. I’m not going to be good at this.’ Technology changes so quickly that the most important thing is believing in yourself and your ability to adapt. You need that willingness to look around at your options, and consider what business continuity planning looks like, no matter what comes your way.
2. Curiosity leads to continuous improvement
Curiosity is huge in this profession. You constantly have to be figuring out: how can we do better? What can we optimize? It’s something I tend to look for in people as I build my team, that drive toward continuous improvement.
You still need to take the time to do things right, though: don’t lose your discipline and rigor even when you’re growing and changing fast. I’ve learned that when you’re building teams, and building operations, or rebuilding things, sometimes slower is actually faster.
3. Focus on communication
Communication in this field – in any field – is key. It’s a large part of how people are regarded, how they come across to their team and leaders. With 800 people reporting to me, I have to watch my body language, my expressions.
In this field, communication is especially important because you’re dealing with very intricate technologies and complex implementations. Discipline and precision matters so much.
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