Listen to the Experts :: My Week at Work
Who are you?
Name:
Roberto Adjakou
Age:
n/a
Job title:
Systems Engineer
Employer:
Cisco Systems
Systems Engineer
Roberto is a Systems Engineer for Cisco Systems in Senegal covering Service Providers Line of Business in West and Central Africa (21 countries). Here he shares with us some of the top activities that occupy his time during the week.
Team Meeting - As a Systems Engineer, I am part of several teams: local, Service Providers, Strategic accounts, Technical Virtual teams, Project team. Team meeting can be physical or virtual using our collaborations tools (Webex, MeetingPlace). I typically run at least 4 team meetings per week, which keeps me in the loop on the latest development for each team.
Team meeting with Technical Virtual Team
Remote design session. Typically, this exposure exercise consists of a presentation of a design proposed to a customer. The main idea is to share knowledge and best practices with colleagues and extended teams and collect critics and suggestions to improve the design if needed.
In the afternoon I focus work on an important project for a partner as Partner enablement/support is an important element to my job as a Systems Engineer. Due to our sales model, partner engagement is critical. This activity can be linked to a specific project or technology depending of the plan of Channel organization.
Today I don't have a team meeting as I am leaving on a business trip to visit a customer. Trips are a large part of my job and they include travelling for physical meetings, Instructor Lead trainings, etc. In West and Central Africa, regular business requires 3 trips per month. While I am away from my office I try and stay connected to stay ontop of my work and respond to any problems that may arise. This is not always easy since Internet connection is poor in some of the countries I cover.
Team meeting with Project team done virtually via WebEx from the hotel.
I am here in Douala, Cameroon for a customer visit - I visit customers as frequently as possible, especially with high touch accounts. During my visits I show demos, give technology updates, speak about business alignment, give advise, deliver design sessions, identify new opportunities, discuss Cisco Value positioning, etc.
Later in the evening I will work again remotely to complete some personal training assessments. These trainings are technical, business and sales oriented as well. They are mandatory and contribute to Systems Engineers specializations. - Cisco internal graduation; can be compared to technical certification.
One last meeting with the customer key persons (running project manager, CxO) and/or a partner meeting.
Finally, the last team meeting of the week, this time with Strategic Accounts before returning to home. Often, I run this meeting while in airport lounge (with all my trips, I benefit of frequent flyer privilege from several companies).
Another long and busy week, but satisfying as I enjoy my job as a Systems Engineer! What is really enjoyable in my job? To be trusted by your customer, to deliver what you create as expectation, to close a deal because your crate the opportunity and demonstrate your company and solution alignment, to help your customer do better their business.
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