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CONFIRMED: Being a tech support engineer is cool!

Ivan Ivanov is currently working as a Deep Technical Support Engineer in the HPE Network team in Sofia. His primary job is to guarantee the business continuity and highest availability for HPE customers' network environments. Learn how he does it:

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Ivan Ivanov is currently working as a Deep Technical Support Engineer in the HPE Network team in Sofia. His primary job is to guarantee the business continuity and highest possible availability for Hewlett Packard Enterprise customers' network environments. This is one of the most fast paced and challenging tasks in the IT field these days. His team is dealing with all network technologies available on the market like LAN, WAN and Datacenter networks, load balancing and wan optimization, network security and network virtualization, Wireless and BYOD networks.

HPE Network extended team in Sofia, BulgariaHPE Network extended team in Sofia, Bulgaria

We sat down with Ivan and wanted to understand how he became a Deep Technical Support Engineer, and what keeps him motivated in HPE.

 
How did you become a Technical Support Engineer?
 
After graduating from University, I wanted to start working in a company where I can learn and develop for the long term. I acquired my CCNA certificate and applied for a vacancy in HP. I started my journey as a Junior Network Engineer in the Network team, in the spring of 2011. The team was brand new back then, only around 10 engineers. In just a few months, the team was already providing service to 10+ Fortune 500 companies. I started dealing with many technologies I had only learnt in theory until then. After a year, my hard work was spotted by my direct manager, and I was promoted to tier 2 engineer. With this promotion, I got bigger responsibilities, and I was provided with the opportunity to train and onboard the newcomers in our team. The team was growing fast back then, so I had the chance to work with many young people and help them get up to speed with their job. That helped me discover my other passion - teaching. Ever since, I've been teaching networking in several Academies in Sofia, as well as in one of the top technical Universities. After two years as a Tier 2 engineer, my managers recognized that I've already accumulated enough experience to become a deep technical support engineer, which is the highest technical level in our team. I was promoted and given the opportunity to work on the most interesting projects available.

 

What are the trainings and experience needed to become a Technical Support Engineer?
 
I would say that any networking training and experience is valuable for our team, because in HPE we are dealing with every network technology that is available out there. Of course, there is no particular certificate or any given years of experience that will make a great network engineer. It is the constant willingness to learn and develop that drives the engineer's career upwards.
 
 
What is the biggest achievement you’ve had so far?12885901_1554864841473240_92455612733948381_o.jpg
 
During my work as a Deep Technical Support Engineer and with the help of my regional managers, my skills and experience were spotted by the HPE global network escalation team, and I was offered the opportunity to become a member of the "Go2Team" - a team of 12 engineers from HPE centers all around the world, that is dealing with the most complex issues and escalations in the networking field in HPE. That was a great moment for me and proved me that hard work will sooner or later be spotted, and that even though I am located in Bulgaria, the opportunities for career growth are beyond country or regional boundaries and are available to anybody in the company, on global scale.
 
Why is HPE the best place to work in?
 
For me, HPE is the best place for any network engineer who wants to learn and develop their career further. You can work and play with each and every network technology currently on the market. Our team is more 100+ engineers at the moment, which is a priceless opportunity to share experience in the networking community. I believe HPE provides the best work-life balance, the working location and environment are absolutely great and I truly enjoy working with so many colleagues I can collaborate with, learn from and last, but not least – have fun together!
 

HPE Network team in Sofia, Bulgaria, having fun together, at a local eventHPE Network team in Sofia, Bulgaria, having fun together, at a local event

Tell us about an unforgettable experience you’ve had in HPE...

I was really surprised and inspired when, during a visit to one of our customers in London, we were invited by the Vice President Global Networks, who was in London the very same day, to drink a beer and have an informal conversation about where we are and where we going as a team and company. I was so impressed to meet such an inspiring professional, that has such a great global exposure, and this showed me that the networking community within the company doesn’t really have borders.
 
What would you advise a graduate joining the company?
 
My advice to young people would be, first and foremost, to believe in yourself and not to be afraid to jump in any technology and opportunity. Be curious and never stop learning and developing. Each and every knowledge and experience matters and will be recognized.
 
If you want to become a technical support engineer in HPE, don’t forget to search and apply for one of the available opportunities, on our HPE Careers website: www.hpe.com/careers!

About the author
 

Ivan Ivanov, Deep Technical Support Engineer, Network OperationsIvan Ivanov, Deep Technical Support Engineer, Network OperationsIvan Ivanov graduated with a major in Telecommunications from the Technical University of Varna. Recently, he decided to continue his education and he is now working on a PhD project, about transitioning existing networks to Software Defined Network (SDN). He is currently working as a Network Deep Technical Support and his job is to guarantee the business continuity and highest possible availability for our customers' network environments. You can connect with Ivan on LinkedIn.

 

 

 

 

 

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