When you RiseUp with ServiceNow, you build a fulfilling career doing the best work of your life. That’s certainly the case with Jake Gillespie. Jake’s a Principal Consultant and ServiceNow Certified Master Architect (CMA) at Enable, a Fujitsu Company, an award-winning ServiceNow Elite Partner headquartered in Melbourne, Australia.

Jake started in TV broadcasting, but after a decade, he decided he wanted a different career path that would let him pursue his love of technology. So, he enrolled in the University of Southern Queensland, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering Technology (Computer Systems) in 2011. After leaving university, Jake joined Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) as an IT Officer.

While Jake enjoyed this junior position, he says he still had no clear career direction. That all changed when he first encountered ServiceNow. He was working for an operations analyst charged with increasing efficiency in the IT department. Since TMR used ServiceNow, this involved developing requirements for TMR’s ServiceNow administration team. While he was in this role, his team leader noticed Jake’s strong technical skills and suggested a secondment to the administration team as a developer/administrator.

Jake has never looked back. In fact, he says that ServiceNow has changed his life. After about a year, Jake was offered a technical consulting position at Cloud Sherpas, becoming their first ServiceNow consultant in Australia. He became a ServiceNow Certified System Administrator (CSA) and Certified Implementation Specialist (CIS) within six months of joining Cloud Sherpas and was rapidly promoted to Senior Technical Consultant.

Over the next three years, Jake worked with many Cloud Sherpas clients, leading all aspects of project and solution delivery. Jake says this was a perfect role since he describes himself as a technical guy who loves working with customers to help them solve problems. As Cloud Sherpas was a ServiceNow training partner, he also volunteered to take on a part-time training role, achieving course delivery certifications in multiple areas. Jake explains that becoming a trainer really helped to keep his ServiceNow knowledge up to date and greatly improved his presentation skills—which are critical for a consultant.

Cloud Sherpas was acquired by Accenture in 2016. Jake moved into a role as a Technical Architect. He then left Accenture in 2017 to join Enable, a Fujitsu Company as a Technical Lead Consultant and became a Principal Consultant there in 2019. That’s where he heard about the ServiceNow Certified Master Architect (CMA) program. Jake says he wasn’t sure it was for him, but he decided to take the plunge. He expected the program to be primarily technical. But he was delighted to discover that it was much more than architect training. He specifically says that it gave him skills to engage with and influence customer C-suite stakeholders, and the cohort approach was great since it allowed participants to learn from each other.

As a CMA, Jake is heavily involved with the ServiceNow Community. He was a speaker at the last four Knowledge conferences, and he’s always looking for thought leadership opportunities within the community. He’s also currently enrolled in the Certified Technical Architect (CTA) program and expects to graduate in early 2023. He says the strong technical focus of the CTA program complements his CMA and will help him to deliver even better outcomes for his customers.

The bottom line? In Jake’s own words, “Over the last decade, I’ve helped countless customers achieve their business goals. And I’ve gone from a technical consultant focused on low-level details to a master architect focused on strategy and business outcomes. I enjoy seeing customers get great returns on their ServiceNow investment, and I get pleasure when people love their work because they’re using ServiceNow. What better career path could I ask for? I plan to be in the ServiceNow ecosystem for many years to come.”

That’s what happens when you RiseUp with ServiceNow.