What’s it really like to work at one of the world’s leading educational technology companies? ProQuest asked a few of our colleagues about how they got here, what they do, and what makes this such a unique place to work.
Today, we interviewed Tawhid Alsharif, Senior Account Manager.
What do you do at ProQuest?
I work as a Senior Account Manager for the Middle East.
Why is the work you do so important to our customers?
The Middle East customer’s culture in terms of sales and support incumbent face-to-face visits. Therefore, having a Dubai office provides us with a big advantage over our competitors who are not available on the ground. Having said that, regular visits to our clients is crucial for them as well as important to us in terms of developing our territory and increase our customer base.
What’s your professional background – anything interesting or unique to share?
I come from a Software Engineering background; where I have utilized my technical background in library science. I started my career working as a technical support engineer for Library Automation Systems (ILS), which is what got me into this industry, and gave me the foundation of the library information and sciences.
What motivated you to get into your current field?
I was working with a local agent as mentioned earlier, as a technical support engineer, which was the first step, but secondly and more importantly, when I was promoted to work as an Information Resources Specialist – in the same local company – I was responsible for the sales of content for a good number of the publishers, aggregators, and provider of electronic resources, of which ProQuest was one of them.
What brought you to ProQuest? What’s one thing that surprised you about working here?
Mainly representing ProQuest, in my previous company, brought me to ProQuest, after a couple of recommendations from ProQuest colleagues who I was constantly in touch with. Moving up a step in the ladder of my career, by being employed in a Global Professional company such as ProQuest, and covering/managing a wider geographical area, is what is the most exciting.
What do you like about working here – both the job itself and the rewards/benefits?
Without exaggerating, I like every single part of my job; starting with the regular meetings with my clients and helping them achieve their objectives (making their life easier with PQ solutions), to traveling, attending the Global Sales Meetings, and meeting/learning from the SLT colleagues from all around the world, but mostly, working on big projects such as MBRL, and House of Wisdom is an outstanding experience, which I’ve learned a lot from, and eventually seeing full satisfaction of our deliverables in their eyes is speechless.
What are your ultimate career aspirations?
I don’t have limitation to my career aspirations, but at the same time – after being here for a bit less than 5 year – I am still learning every day from ProQuest professional team, superiors, and SLT teams, who don’t hesitate to provide any kind of support to us.
What other fun and interesting things do you enjoy doing? Have you found anyone at ProQuest that shares your interest?
As a father of two children (Lynn, who is nine-years-old & Soliman, who is four-years-old) raising them and watching them grow up every day is interesting.
On a personal level, I am a big fan of the cryptocurrencies, but my colleagues try to avoid my long “boring” talks about this life-changing technology.