"My parents held my older brother up as an example, and I always wanted to surpass him. Medet Serik says, "That's why I tried my best to study so that one day I could say, "Mom, look, I'm better than him!"

Medet Serik, 28, simply calls himself an IT consultant, but the conversation revealed that he is just being humble. He participates in many negotiations at the headquarters of Huawei in the city of Shenzhen - the Silicon Valley of China. Medet develops strategies, establishes and maintains relationships with executives of Fortune 500 companies. Medet's task is to find solutions for the digital transformation of the world's largest corporations and explain the advantages of certain hardware solutions to top management.

"Building a dialogue is my main task," Medet explains his job, "Imagine, you're meeting with the CEO of a major corporation, for example, the Volkswagen. And not only do they not have an education in information and communication technologies (ICT), they do not really know anything about our company. They may not trust us or have stereotypes. You need someone to explain everything in terms they understand, answer questions, show examples, conduct some kind of experiment. And when they start to understand, they start to trust us. They are no longer afraid to use our digital solutions. That being said, it is not necessary to sign a contract with them immediately. This company can contact us in a year or five years, when they have some problems."

During his two years at Huawei, Medet held hundreds of consultations, thanks to which contracts were signed with more than 200 Global C-Suite executives to create solutions not only for enterprises, but even smart cities. Of course, Medet is not the only IT consultant in the Chinese company, there are dozens of such specialists. But Medet is the best one. Proof of this is his landslide victory in the Best Solutions Consultant competition held among new employees in the first year of Medet's work in the company. When asked how he did it, Medet answers, 

"I am an engineer. I know all these technologies, I once created or tested them myself. And I know how to explain them to people. I like that I can be a guide to the world of high technology."

ICT is Medet's main specialty. However he spent years mastering communication skills. The basis was to become fluent in English, to which Medet devoted a very long time. He hired a tutor, traveled to America under the Work&Travel program and even completed technical translation courses. Reading English literature also helps Medet in learning vocabulary to convey important information.

Medet conducts daily consultations for top officials of global corporations and entire states. Seven people were invited to a meeting with the Prime Minister of one of the Latin American countries during the pandemic, and Medet was one of them.

"I remember standing between the CEO of our company and the Prime Minister and thinking, God, what am I even doing here? Why me? Why do I need to make a presentation and give detailed answers?"  Medet laughs.

Now the IT consultant is used to such events, but when he only started at this company, he wasn't as calm. Every time before a presentation, he was very nervous, afraid to say something wrong, because it could damage not only Medet's career, but also the reputation of the brand. However, regular trainings increased his confidence.

"We are constantly learning," Medet continues seriously, "Since the company offers a wide range of ICT solutions, they organize trainings for us. We need to know about each solution, we study its characteristics and advantages and only then explain them to the client. If the engineers themselves tried to explain, people would not not understand."

Antenna to the future

Medet claims that his job is his dream job. However, to get the desired position, he had to wait several years until his resume was noticed by Huawei's HR department.

Of course, sitting idly waiting for an answer was not part of the engineer's plans. After completing his master's degree at Beijing Technological University, Medet tried to get a job at the Ministry of Information and Communications of the Republic of Kazakhstan. But at the very first interview he heard, "Thank you, we will call you." He did not wait for the call and returned to Beijing. Here he got a job in China's largest automotive conglomerate BAIC Group, where he spent two years developing an antenna system connecting cars and a cloud platform. Medet still reaps the results of his work there and considers the work on antennas one of his achievements.

"The development of 4G/GNSS/DAB antennas is one of my biggest projects," recalls Medet Serik, "I onced ordered a DiDi taxi, and the car that arrived had an antenna I developed. I couldn't resist asking if the connection was working properly, if the sound was distorted. The driver replied to me that everything worked just fine. And I was so pleased."

Then he received an invitation to Shanghai, where the young specialist was offered a job at Volkswagen. There Medet led an inter-functional group of research centers in Wolfsburg and Shanghai, the goal was to localize the electronics of Volkswagen cars for the Chinese market. After working in this position for six months, Medet finally received the long-awaited invitation to Huawei.

"The principle of antenna design, whether for cars or for telecommunication systems, is the same. I've been studying, designing, testing all this for many years. And when I saw the opportunity to explain all this to people and help them in digital transformation, I, of course, gladly seized it. I enjoy doing it every day. It is very rewarding, because you receive feedback from people. And when they applaud me after the presentation and shake hands, I feel that my work is worthwhile," Medet shares.

Lights of the far abroad

Medet Serik is from Zhezkazgan. After graduating from high school in his hometown, he studied ICT in the Karaganda Technical University. This choice he explained simply: he went for the major with more allocated grants. Even during his studies, Medet knew for sure that he would already enroll in a master's degree abroad, that's why he signed up for technical translation courses.

When time came, he chose the Scottish University of Edinburgh. He applied and even received an invitation, but Medet's family could not afford the tuition. Then Medet found an article on the Internet about a grant in the Beijing Institute of Technology. Without hesitation, he sent the documents and a month later he was on the list of applicants and in the top five. He got a full scholarship grant for two years.

"I didn't know Chinese, so I chose to study in English. However, I understood that after completing my studies, I would like to stay here to work, and I went to intensive Chinese language courses. Now I know this language very well, even during my studies I took first place in Chinese competitions among foreign students," Medet says.