How the Female Sponsorship Program helped prepare one employee for her next career step

[Radka_Rusovich]

Talent wins games, teamwork and intelligence wins championships - Michael Jordan

When Antonio was announced as CEO I immediately felt the change of spirit in the company after several challenging years of consolidating and streamlining the newfound HPE. The way he approached our company, the vision he shared, and the HPE Way he was trying to build immediately inspired me and I wanted to be part of building this new HPE.

At the same time, I saw the possibility of applying for the DACH & Russia Female Sponsorship Program and gave it a shot. I thought as a manager I would have an even bigger chance of making a difference for my team and for HPE.

I honestly was quite surprised that I was selected for this program, especially after I met all the other talented women at our kickoff event. Back then Eva Faenger saw something in me and probably even in all of us, I did not see in myself just yet.

Having Aron Precht as my sponsor in this program was great news for me as I was able to get a bigger picture of HPE in DACH with all the different roles and teams as well as a lot of the first-hand experience he collected over the years. His knowledge was incredibly valuable for me throughout the process and I appreciate the trustworthy relationship we built during the last year. Furthermore, he helped me in reaching out to Heiko’s Leadership Team, to meet more of the leaders, broadening my network, and get to know the teams and functionalities.

Shortly after the program launched, my manager Till Stimberg restructured his team and asked me if I would be willing to put my skills to test as a team lead. Taking on this new challenge allowed me to take everything I learned from our L&D trainers Sarah Bass and Darlana Lee along with all the good advice I received from Aron right into practice.

For me, it was really a learning-on-the-job experience which was extremely valuable for me and helped me to grow into my role over the course of FY19. Not only did I learn a lot about myself, but also about management and especially how HPE sees the role of management.

Another key learning throughout the year was that you are much stronger if you work and collaborate together and not against each other. Getting to know the other female talents, supporting each other in our development, and exchanging our experiences and learnings was one of the biggest advantages of the program.

Finally, I feel extremely humbled for being promoted to manager back on February, 1^st and I feel perfectly prepared for the future tasks after attending the Female Sponsorship Program. A special thanks to Eva Faenger and the Org Team for putting that much heart and soul into the program. It was definitely worthwhile.

If interested in exploring our career opportunities, don't forget to visit us at HPE Careers and apply to your #dreamjob today!

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Stefanie Hahn bottom left

About the Author
Stefanie Hahn is currently working as a Core Compute Category Manager for HPE's Hybrid IT Business Unit, DACH.

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