In 2010 I joined IBM as a consultant through the MEA Consulting by Degrees program, a highly selective track for new graduates across Morocco and the UAE. I stayed with IBM until 2015, and the five years in between shaped how I think about sales, project delivery, strategic partnerships, and ultimately what kind of work environment I actually want.
Dubai: the immersion that set the tone
The program started with immersive training in Dubai. I was put in a room with other new hires from across the region, working alongside them, and meeting senior IBM leaders early on. That immersion mattered less for the content of the training itself and more for the standard it set: this was a program designed to move fast and expect a lot, from day one.
2011 to 2013: sales, delivery, and the discipline of both
For two years I was part of the ITS team within Global Technology Services. The role split across two very different disciplines, and I had to be competent in both at once.
On the sales side, I frequently led the sales process for public RFPs, which is where I actually learned the mechanics of a sales cycle end to end, not just the pitch, but the structuring, the positioning, the follow-through. On the delivery side, I supported project directors as a project manager on strategic projects, spending months on customer sites in banking and telco, managing the day-to-day action plan. Holding both sides at once, sales and delivery, taught me something most single-track roles don’t: how a deal you win has to survive contact with the reality of delivering it.
Strategic exposure beyond my own role
My work within GTS also pulled me into internal and external strategic planning and meetings that went beyond my formal scope. That exposure sharpened my strategic planning instincts and my understanding of how strategic partnerships actually get built and maintained, not as an abstract skill, but through repeated exposure to how those conversations are conducted at a senior level.
Mid-2013: a deliberate shift to STG sales
In mid-2013 I moved to the STG department in a sales role, a genuinely different function from what I’d been doing in GTS. I performed well there against sales targets and in business partner engagement, but what mattered more than the performance itself was what the shift taught me: that I could take on an unfamiliar role and be effective in it quickly, rather than needing years to find my footing in something new.
What five years across different roles actually taught me
Being exposed to different roles and departments in a short period compressed a lot of learning into a few years. It also did something less obvious: it helped me understand who I am, what I actually want, and what role I’m suited to play.
IBM gave me a foundational understanding of how a large business actually operates. I learned to navigate complex organizational structures, to manage projects with real discipline, and to carry myself with the professional etiquette that environment demanded. It was a real-world setting where communication, teamwork, and problem-solving had to happen inside established processes, not around them.
It also clarified something I couldn’t have articulated before I lived it: what I value in a workplace. The type of environment, culture, and management style that actually aligns with where I wanted to go, not in theory, but based on five years of direct comparison across different teams and roles within the same company.
How this maps to the four pillars
Intention. Choosing the Consulting by Degrees program, and later choosing to move into STG sales, were both deliberate decisions, not drift. Each one was a conscious bet on a direction I wanted to test.
Continuity. Five years, two very different functions, and the discipline of managing a day-to-day action plan on customer sites for months at a time. This is where I built the muscle for sustained execution, not just bursts of effort.
Mastery / الإØسان. Mastering the full sales process for public RFPs, and performing well enough in STG sales to hit targets in an unfamiliar function, both required the kind of craft that only comes from doing the work repeatedly and taking the feedback seriously.
Impact. The clearest impact of these five years wasn’t a deal closed or a project delivered. It was self-knowledge: a precise understanding of what kind of work, culture, and leadership I actually want, which has shaped every decision I’ve made since.
In closing
IBM didn’t just give me a job title. It gave me five years of direct, high-stakes exposure to how large organizations actually function, and the clarity to know what I wanted to build next.
From Intention to Impact, this is where I learned that competence in a role isn’t the same as alignment with it, and that figuring out the difference, early, is worth more than any single achievement along the way.
