I am Elisa and I graduated in 2008 with a Management & Manufacturing Engineering degree from Politecnico di Milano. Six months before graduating, I started working as a Researcher and a Consultant. It was a wonderful and absolutely useful experience but, after 18 months, I decided I wanted to try something new. I had always thought consultancy was the right choice for me, but it wasn’t (at least, until now).
Whilst at university, I saw a HPE company presentation and I thought “this would be MY company, if it had been not an IT company!” – at that time I didn’t know exactly what an IT company like HPE does (plus Information Technology was not my favorite subject).
I was fascinated by the values of the company and I realized that those values/culture were also mine: the value and importance of employees and customers, respect, collaboration, act, innovation, teamwork.
I decided to join the Sales Strategy and Planning team at HPE. After one year working in the Sales department, I realized, to my surprise, that I am a salesperson. I am keen on building relationships, managing stress, being organized and paying attention to people’s needs. I spent four years working in the sales team an afterwards I joined the Account Management team, focusing on insurance and bank institutes.
After 10 years at HPE, I can now say how fantastic this company is – I have had the opportunity to cover so many interesting roles!
Are you doing the work of your dreams?
Yes, I am!
At University I thought the right role for me would be a consultancy role; I used to think that salespeople were the ones that keep bothering you and that want just to sell everything. Well, the reality is far different from this one and I have realized it after living the real life of a sales company.
A salesperson experiences different working lives and contexts: they deal with many different companies and different customers’ needs and need to understand them in order to define the best solutions for them. A salesperson has to help customers to reach their goals.
What do you like most about this job?
I love the possibility to continue learning, meeting new people, working with many companies, working in team, having a clear goal to reach and also having the responsibility of representing a company like HPE in front of the customer.
A salesperson is like the striker of a soccer team: he/she scores a goal only when the team is coordinated and collaborative.
What do you like most about HPE?
HPE culture and values: innovate, act, partnership and the fact that people really make the difference here! A company made up of people needs to take care of them, and in HPE that happens.
Moreover, HPE offers opportunities to advance your career and you also have the possibility of a job rotation. It is ultimately you who decides your career path. What I immediately admired about HPE was the support I received from the company to help me think and develop my future career, through mentorship, coaching and training activities.
Suggestion
Be curious and accept the challenge. Sometimes you will fail, and this will be the best occasion for learning, but most of the times you will succeed. The more experiences you will have, the more consciousness you will acquire.
What did you learn at Politecnico?
The best lesson from Politecnico is to face problems and to see them from different points of view, to analyze them and to define the best solution. Besides the subjects that I studied, Politecnico gave me the methodology to face a problem and to be strong enough to move forward.
Finally, learning so many different subjects, such as BI, business plan, Information system, logistics, finance, has helped me in my work.
About the Author:
She is very social and keeps a close relationship with her Alma Mater helping to promote career opportunities at HPE by showcasing her own successful story!
Stay connected to Elisa via Linkedin and for career opportunities at HPE please click here.
Desiree Chavez
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
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DesireeCH
Employer brand and digital media evangelist. Proactively searching for new trends and best in class practices to find, converse, share, engage and refer potential candidates and bring the best Talent for the company.
