Khurram Pervaiz

Behind every successful man there is a woman…but my story has nothing to do with the woman in the picture! She clearly seems disinterested and is looking away.

Well, my story does not have only one woman but plenty friends I can count on! My practical life has taught me that if you have good friends, you can get around anything in the world.

I have a degree in BSIT, but my passion has always been HR. Sounds weird, right? I never really was a fan of IT industry and was never happy with the idea of upgrading your skillset every now and then – ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’. But, my friends insisted and I joined Netsol as SQA Engineer back in 2007.

Everyone has their own struggle to fight and mine was when I was looking for my first job switch after 11 years at Netsol. Leaving Netsol was heartbreaking because of the friends I had made. But again, rizq will take you where it is destined and here I am at Emerald Labs today making my way up.

While I stand by what I said earlier and often regretted my decision to have joined the IT industry, but it was my friends who kept me going. From losing a loved one, to choosing a career or a tourist destination, I mean everything can be tackled if you have a good support system. Most of what I am today is because of my friends’ support who are my biggest asset. We have experienced what a 28 hours consecutive road travel can do to your mind and body; the pitch dark night and we travelled on the most reckless road in Pakistan. Still we made it through only because we were together.

You might think, why do I hold my friends so important? One of the most challenging period during my work is somewhat more personal than professional but it impacted a lot of decisions I had to make. My uncle used to live with me and he got really sick. As I was the only one who had to take care of him so I had asked my team to give me few months of work from home. At that time, it was not in the culture to allow work for home for long periods of time. But, fortunately, my team was very generous and allowed me as much time I wanted. My colleagues (which are more of a family to me) were always there whenever I needed a break from the continuous health care which I was providing especially my cousins who always responded to my SOS calls and helped me out through these tough times.

But now when I revisit the time, I feel that it was an opportunity provided to me by the Almighty to take care of an elder as I wasn’t given this opportunity when my parents left us all of a sudden. And now seems the most difficult time when I am not able to share my career progress with my parents. But, I am fortunate to have good friends and family members who are supportive.

Just want to end this with the thought that you will be tested in your life at various fronts but only to the extent which you can handle; never beyond that!”