Corpcomms
Hello Inkar! Thank you for taking the time to join us for the Spotlight interview series. Let’s start from the beginning – before you joined AIFC, where did your career take root? We’re curious to learn about your training and how you climbed the career ladder.
Inkar
After finishing school, I decided to pursue a career in IT and enrolled at KZNTU. However, after two years, I found the field there wasn’t as engaging as I hoped. So, I transferred to the Almaty Institute of Power Engineering and Communications to study telecommunications. It was exciting, as at that time Kazakhtelecom was bringing in new digital exchanges. I graduated with honors and began working as a telecommunicator at Kazakhtelecom. However, after just six months, I realized it wasn’t the right fit for me.
I moved to Kazakhtelecom’s IT department, where I spent four years working as a developer on two main systems: 061 (subscriber support) and 065 (centralized repair bureau). Once these systems moved to the support stage, I started losing interest and switched to Halyk Bank’s SAP implementation department. There, I learned about SAP and banking and became an ERP consultant. But again, SAP didn’t captivate me for long, and I transitioned to Microsoft Axapta, which I stuck with for over seven years, working on ERP implementations for large companies in the oil, gas, and gold mining sectors.
One of my final projects before joining AIFC was the automation of a dealership network for Nissan in Southeast Asia. I led a team from Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, and China on this project. When it ended, I returned to Kazakhstan for my sister’s wedding, thinking I’d stay for two weeks, but I ended up working remotely to finish the project and realized how much I missed home. Soon after, a friend introduced me to a new project in Astana – AIFC. I didn’t even know all the details but decided to jump in. Seven years later, I’m still here.