I loved my student life at university, they are some of the best memories of my life. While writing my final thesis and working as an intern in a small technology company from my region in Spain, is when I started to feel afraid and overwhelmed about jumping into a professional career. My thoughts were as follows: โFrom the day I choose a company to work for, my performance will impact more than just me as an individual, but will also affect my colleagues, clients, and the companyโ. The thought of it was, and still is an intimidating one, isnโt it? So how did I overcome this fear and start a successful career path of 15 years and counting with Hewlett Packard Enterprise? Well, if you keep reading, you will know how I was able to start, the amazing life it has given me and the career opportunities that have come with being part of Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
As a final year student at university, we had a series of discovery days to meet recruiters from different technology companies. After jumping from one booth to another, โHP Inventโ caught my eye. My first thought was: โWhy is HP, a printer and laptop company, recruiting Telecommunications engineers?โ Soon after I learned that HP was also creating consumer devices while working with Telco carriers around the world to set up and configure services on the network, so people could be interconnected with each other.
That encouraged me to leave my resume with the recruiter, which initiated a series of interviews and a two-month long learning course at HP with other candidates. I spent my whole summer, after graduating as an engineer, with other candidates learning about the HP business and having exams every Monday without any certainty that I would be hired. The course finished, and I started going to different interviews with other companies because I wasnโt sure I would be finally hired. The same day I got an offer from HP I got offers from other companies I had interviewed with. At this point I feared making the wrong decision, however, I chose HP Invent. Not because of the salary or company name, but because I spent my summer learning about the company and trying to get in. I had worked harder to get into HP than other companies, so I chose it to feel that my summertime learning about HP wasnโt a waste. And this is how I became an HP employee in the consulting department for the telecommunications business.
My first day at HP Spain was September 11, 2006, how could I forget! This was my first professional job, and I was nervous, but all my fears went away as soon as I was welcomed to an amazing team. It was the perfect combination of new and experienced employees, amazing professionals with a lot of experience in the field. I started as a technical consultant in a mediation and billing project, learning from some of the best software and telecommunication engineers I could ever imagine. A saw a poster of HP Garage Rules in the office, and it immediately clicked with me, I felt I belong there, and since then Iโve made those rules my mantra.
My professional journey had started, and I worked endless hours, but it never felt a lot because of the team I was with. I worked hard to learn and catch up with other members of the team. It was fun and exciting to be part of this small work family. I was lucky enough to work extra hours to learn about HW and overall network, software infrastructure design and installation while being part of the laboratory team. The leader of this team was my unofficial mentor and still one of my best friends to this day, รlvaro Barge.
During my second year working at HP, I realized that being a multinational company offered the possibility of travelling internationally to work on projects overseas and even being able to move regions. I wanted to keep working and being able to see different countries around the world, so I started learning English to at least be ready when the opportunity came. After three years in the company, my hard work paid off. I was engaged with projects in the Americas, Canada and Rio de Janeiro. The Americas team needed technical consultants and solution architects with the proper expertise in the telco field to expand their business area.
There I was, four years in the company and I had the opportunity to move across the globe from Spain to Canada. My nerves resurfaced because this time I was moving to a new country and with a new title as a Solution Architect. I overcome my fear of not being able to speak English properly and I moved to Calgary, Canada in October 2010, where I still live today.
I have been in the Americas for over 10 years now. During these 10 years, I have had to adapt my schedules and learn how to work with a team that is spread across the globe. Itโs very different to what I was used to in Spain, where we were a small family, seeing each other every day. Since I am in the Americas, I had to adapt to building trust with a team that is not seated side by side.
On the other hand, I have travelled a lot, (Europe, North and South America and Japan) and have met amazing colleagues with the same enthusiasm I have about creating and building new solutions. Thanks to these trips I was able to work with well-known mobile carriers and had the opportunity to lead a strategic and key project at Verizon Wireless with Apple. This project was the base software I used to create what has now become an official product at HPE.
The Entitlement Server was a functionality that could transcend Appleโs one-use case and become a solid device configuration functionality in the carrierโs network. My dear colleague and friend Jerome Sicard, who passed away over a year ago, supported me and helped to give me internal visibility so that HPE management could realize its potential. Jerome built a business case with me after I led and integrated the first version of a standardized version of an Entitlement Server with a second carrier in the US in 2013.
We called the product Device Entitlement Gateway (DEG), and itโs still the name of the product in the Digital Identity portfolio. Go check it out! HPE DEG is currently the number one platform around the world enabling eSIM devices on cellular networks. HPE is one of the main contributors working and defining together with the GSMA group the Entitlementโs Functionality standards.
Since 2013, Iโve been helping to grow the Digital Identity portfolio business. Integrating various products within different mobile carriers all over the Americas region. All while helping Jerome brainstorm the next solution or functionality that would help cellular and non-cellular devices to connect to mobile carrierโs network, interconnecting users and making the communications among them simpler.
In some of these brainstorm sessions, we decided to create a patent for the functionality that would associate a cellular subscription with enterprise credentials for seamless Wi-Fi access and policy assignment. We filed the patent in 2020, so we need to wait a few more months to see if it gets approved. I hope it does, not just to accomplish the last HP Garage Rule โInventโ that I always dreamed of, but to give Jerome the recognition of all his great work in life. He is missed by all of us, and we will always remember him as an amazing friend and exceptional professional.
As a summary of my career at former HP Invent and current Hewlett Packard Enterprise, I have to say that HPE is a great company that allows its employees to grow personally and professionally. The team and the colleagues Iโve met during these 15 years have been extraordinary. As my first mentor at HPE and dear friend said to me one day, โHPE human resources do a great job recruiting good professionals and better peopleโ. I couldnโt agree more with that statement because the success of HPE is certainly its teams, and the teamsโ success is our own too.
I am happy about deciding on joining HPE and finding โThe 11 Rules of HP Garageโ, from David Packard in 1941. These rules helped me during these 15 years, and I hope they will keep guiding my professional ethics for many more:
1. Believe you can change the world.
2. Work quickly, keep the tools unlocked, work whenever.
3. Know when to work alone and when to work together.
4. Share โ tools, ideas. Trust your colleagues.
5. No politics. No bureaucracy. (These are ridiculous in a garage.)
6. The customer defines a job well done.
7. Radical ideas are not bad ideas.
8. Invent different ways of working.
9. Make a contribution every day. If it doesnโt contribute, it doesnโt leave the garage.
10. Believe that together we can do anything.
11. Invent.
She is the Lead Solution Architect at HPE CMS Digital Identity Solution Family in the Americas region since 2020. With 15 years of experience in the Digital Identity portfolio, Marta has worked as a technical consultant and solution architect in the delivery and pre-sales teams. Her experience includes consulting, selling, implementing, leading, and managing telecommunications projects focused on the Communications, Media, 5G, 4G/LTE and IMS domains.
Marta was born and raised in Ermua, Spain and currently lives in Calgary, Canada. She enjoys spending time outdoors with her friends and family, the beach in Spain, along with hiking & skiing in the mountains of Canada. She keeps enjoying her childhood hobbies like sketching and dancing, together with her passion for playing sports: equestrian, soccer and running, being a Boston qualified marathoner.
Stay connected to Marta via LinkedIn and if you are interested in exploring careers within our CMS group click here.
BELovattUK
Recruitment marketing and content specialist. Seeking stories from the people within HPE to amplify and share with the world. Huge believer that authenticity of brand and voice will attract the worlds top talent.
