It was just a few years back when we sat down with Alex, an intern in Russia filled with enthusiasm, energy, and willingness to leave his mark in everything he did. Four years later, it still amazes us how far he has come and we can't wait to share with you all, his inspirational story:
Hello there, my name is Alex, a.k.a. “That EPYC Guy”. In my current role, I’m responsible for the alliance between Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and our strategic partner Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) & CERTA (Central & Eastern Europe, Russia, Turkey & Africa) regions. As for the nickname – that’s easy, AMD Server Processors have a code name EPYC, and this is my focus product.
I am 27 years old now, living in Stuttgart, and I celebrated 4 years with HPE in July 2021. My hobbies include writing poems & stories in English, reading, cooking, and gaming. I am fond of storytelling & stories, and I’d like to share with you today my story with the company.
I started in HPE Russia in Moscow as an intern in July 2017 – in the regional Category Management team with a big focus on business analytics. I quickly grew my business understanding through numbers & analytics, but most importantly – through engagements with others. My buddy and our team lead Stephane gave me one of the most valuable pieces of advice during the internship, which helped me a lot in getting where I am today. The advice was very simple, yet, so powerful – get to know others, their roles, perspective, path, knowledge, experience and share the work you do with others. This pushed me out of my comfort zone and helped me to develop an open-minded attitude and be relentlessly curious.
Then, as I was driving a number of projects during my internship, including also one in the employer-branding space, I got an opportunity to continue with the permanent position in HPE and get relocation to Prague, Czech Republic, where then I spent 2 years working on the category & then strategic alliances teams.
With also more product focus, which I was really looking for, and support from the team & the manager, I got the opportunity to lead product & business development of products with our strategic alliance partner – AMD. With hundreds of internal & external presentations & meetings internally & externally, with partners & customers, across a big range of countries, I gradually became a recognized HPE-AMD product expert in my geo and across our 2 companies worldwide, which opened even more opportunities to learn and provide value.
I was able to visit 11 countries & 3 continents during that time, with roadshows, enablement sessions, business and team meetings in Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Russia, UAE, South Africa, and the USA to name a few, and I am so grateful to HPE and all the team members across the Globe who provided me their support, guidance, feedback, as well as challenged me and helped me, in the end, to become better professionally and personally. One event stands out – it’s visiting the US and meeting with our HPE-AMD team members across the Globe, during Master ASE Summit in Orlando 2020, it was an incredible opportunity to meet with the whole worldwide team face to face, and get to know other people better.
Embracing bold moves & a push for a better mentality, I felt elevated and extremely motivated to stay on track & learn even more, maximizing the value I can provide to all parties. At the same time, throughout all those years I’ve been supporting our interns & graduates to feel in HPE like at home and encouraging them to become a better version of themselves by providing mentorship & advice, as well as leading ex-interns (Alumni) team and participating in a number of initiatives in this area. As you are reading it now, it didn’t end up there.
At the beginning of this year, in the midst of COVID-pandemic, I was finally able to reach my new destination – Germany, putting the focus into our business in DACH, across Germany, Austria & Switzerland, and getting to know so many great people, partners, customers, and cultures. While I’m still settling in Germany, at the same time I continue to drive the business, working closely with the teams in both HPE & AMD companies, as well as to live by one of my key values – putting “We” before “I”, increasing our partnership and collaboration. I already had an opportunity to represent our HPE-AMD Alliance on Cloudfest 2021, as well as HPE EMEA TSS and several other events with customers & partners. It is awesome!
I am extremely grateful for everything Hewlett Packard Enterprise gave me throughout my career already, and I want to say from the bottom of my heart huge thanks to everyone who I met throughout my career with HPE.
It has been truly an unbelievable and unforgettable experience, and I’m looking forward to what’s next.
I would like to end up my short story with the key advice I’d like to give everyone who is either starting their career or would like to accelerate it – speak up, learn more, get to know your why and what you want to do, gather feedback, expand your knowledge and improve your skills, and find sponsors or people who believe in you throughout each & every step of your career.
Cheers to the exciting journeys!
About the Author:
Passionate about new technologies, storytelling, solution sales & circular economy.
Have an entrepreneurial mindset, great attention to detail, and experience in public speaking for both technical & non-technical audiences, including executive management teams. I’d be happy to connect with you via LinkedIn and exchange our stories & experience.
To learn more on how to join HPE's Graduates Program and Internships, don't forget to click here. And, if what you are looking for is to explore career opportunities at HPE don't forget to stop by our Careers Page.
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.
