Serife Yildiz has been with HPE as Account Manager for German Cloud Service Providers, based in the HPE Prague HUB. In addition to her fulfilling job, she spends time developing new skills and learning about (new) technology.
It might be kind of strange to describe a person as a melting pot per se, but truthfully, that is what I am โ I am a German-born Turk and I was raised in Germany/Turkey/China, attending high school and university with Koreans, Chinese, Turks, Germans, French etc. As a result, I am capable of speaking German, Turkish, and English on a mother tongue level, Mandarin Chinese fluently, and French as well as Korean on a conversational level. Now, you might think why I am telling you all these details about my background? Well, I do believe this is a valuable piece of information if you are considering a career with HPE since we have people with an international background and it is of utmost importance to be internationally minded and be considerate of other cultures. Internationality is one of the key reasons why I decided to join the HPE family.
Another key reason why I joined HPE: I get to work in the world of tech that is highly exciting to me. Then again, you might ask, how a person who studied Business and Chinese got interested in the tech industry... Well, there are two explanations to that:
- Professionally, I am a person who needs to be up-to-date on innovation that affects people on an everyday basis โ be it in the consumer segment or in B2B. I highly enjoy making a difference in the lives of people โ and HPE is definitely the right place to be since we are the largest provider of IT Infrastructure, ranging from hardware, software to services and sophisticated solutions. Additionally, during my studies, I interned at companies such as Sony in China in the consumer business as well as at Microsoft in Turkey in B2B. These are my professional reasons as to why I chose the technology field and HPE as my employer, being a pioneer in the IT industry, the โbig broโ of Silicon Valley so to say.
- In the same context of being โup-to-dateโ, there are personal reasons as to why I chose the tech industry as a career path and HPE as my employer: As you can see, I am a person who wants to learn as much as possible and be surrounded by people who see โgoing the extra mileโ not as an obstacle but rather as a critical success factor in life. Being able to be around employees who value change, innovation, and flexibility is a great asset for my future development and growth as a person.
Now, you may want hear about my work at HPE and what I do all day.
There is no typical day of course in such an innovative environment, but let me tell you an example of what a day in the office can entail: I am an Account Manager based in the Prague HUB, working for our Cloud Service Provider customers, located in Germany.
I am working in a team with two other colleagues who are very motivated and inspiring personalities. The energy in the team reflects the exciting customer segment we are working for โ the cloud service providers. Now, what are cloud service providers? As the name kind of states, these are companies that provide various cloud services to their customers.
This segment is growing rapidly and is therefore highly competitive - as an Account Manager for this segment, you need to be working very detail oriented and fast at the same time in order to proof HPE can do it best.
Most of the work I am doing is direct sales meaning that I have direct customer contact. However, in our team, we also do have some indirect business every now and then. In my role, we discuss suitable solutions with technical colleagues and customers for the given business case. The next step is to cooperate with the pricing colleagues for discounts on the given solution. After this step, I may ask my colleagues at HPE India to prepare a quote for the customer at the approved price. I will then forward the quote to my customer. Afterwards, in case the customer orders, we need to cooperate with Order Management.
This is for you just to get a glimpse of the work I do as an Account Manager in the world of cloud service providers. It is highly fulfilling to be able to lead the full sales cycle and orchestrate all the resources involved in this process โ from presales to pricing, to quote generation and to order management and sales operations. This way, I am able to develop leadership skills and cooperate with employees optimally.
Apart from my daily work, I am actively involved in different HPE projects such as introducing the concept of digital selling to fellow Account Managers, writing the Newsletter for our team as well as participating in the Ambassador Program for best practice sharing on a global scale.
Also, just recently, I became the social media point of contact for the Prague HUB which I highly enjoy and would like to pursue further in the future professionally.
Upon realizing that I only have one shot at this thing called โlifeโ, I set myself two goals: Changing societies by bringing disruptive technology to emerging markets and making a difference in other peopleโs lives by sharing my cultural insights.
All in all, I am thankful for this experience that HPE provides me with and I donโt know how to express my gratitude optimally. Every day, I am trying my best to contribute to HPEโs success in the market โ how, you say? Well, YOU are the face of HPE, so you should be able to represent HPEโs values wherever you are. I am excited of what my future holds but all I can say for now is: It was the right decision to join HPE.
Take care!
About the author
Serife Yildiz is a technology enthusiast, polyglot and culture explorer, smartphone photographer, forward thinker, solution-oriented doer, and a passionate learner.
Born in Germany to parents from Turkey, she attended college in Germany and China. After graduating in 2013, she started her professional career in Consulting in Germany before joining Hewlett Packard Enterprise in Prague.
Not wanting to be solely defined by her work, she pursues a variety of non-work passions such as smartphone photography and public speaking.
Connect with Serife on LinkedIn https://de.linkedin.com/in/serifeyildiz
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.
