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From Studying Computer Science to Leading Veritas' Iberia Region an Interview with Valentin Pinuaga

ZoeSands
Community Manager
Community Manager
Employee

As part of the #LifeAtVeritas blog series, I have been catching up with various team members across the business to find out how they got into the tech sector and why they decided to join Veritas. In my latest interview with Valentin Pinuaga, Country Manager Spain & Portugal, he shares his career journey and highlights, what motivates him and how he motivates his team and why people should join our diverse Veritas team. Without further ado here’s the interview:

Meet Valentin PinuagaMeet Valentin Pinuaga

Zoe: Hi Valentin, thank you for agreeing to be interviewed for the #LifeAtVeritas blog series. Lets set the scene and tell me what made you choose a career in IT?
Valentin: I have always been interested in technology since I was a kid. Topics like robotics, automation, electronics, etc. have interested me since very early times. I chose to study Computer Science because of all of this and on top of this, I have been very lucky living in a period of history where technology is at the very heart of everything we do in life.


Zoe: What advice would you give to those trying to secure their first IT role?
Valentin: In general terms, I would advise that he or she is prepared and equipped for a constant learning exercise during his/her work career. Any kind of job in IT requires a constant effort in learning and adapting to change, but especially nowadays where we see that the changes happen at a pace that sometimes is difficult to keep up with.

Zoe: That’s great advice for those starting their IT careers. What has been your career highlight to date? 
Valentin: Difficult to answer this one, to be honest. I think that the best decision I took was to orientate my career in front of customers rather than belonging to a customer in the IT department. That decision allowed me to have (in my opinion) a broader vision of the market. Being in sales is extremely satisfying (although frustrating at times too) and gives you the chance to observe many different situations and many different challenges.

Zoe: Moving onto your current role. What do you enjoy most about your role at Veritas? 
Valentin: Dealing with people. I think Veritas is a company that has two great assets: technology and people. Our products are great and enjoy a leadership position in many spaces and the people that form the Veritas family are of great professional and human quality. As I said, the part that I enjoy the most is talking and listening to people, regardless if they are customers, end users, managers, sales reps or presales.

Zoe: What leadership traits make a good leader? And what’s your leadership style? 
Valentin: Leadership is probably one of those words that have a vast number of definitions and therefore everybody understands leadership in a different way. I think it’s very dependent on everyone’s personal experience with leadership. I like leaders that a) are visionaries, that is, they see what everybody sees and what no one can see, and b) leaders that lead by example. In my case, I always try to lead by example. I also like direct relationships and try to avoid politics as much as possible.

Zoe: Who are your role models and influencers?
Valentin: I have tons of them! Personally, I like reading history and I do like to get deep into the life of great leaders in history. John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther, Napoleon and Hannibal Barca, are some of them. They were all people with a great vision for the future and with the bravery to step in front of very challenging situations.

Zoe: What motivates you?
Valentin: The best motivation for me is having a great environment at work. That is, great people that you can work with and learn from, great managers that lead you and your team to success, and great products, goods and services that you can bring to your customers. If you have all of that I am done on motivation.

Valentin Pinuaga enjoying his cycling passionValentin Pinuaga enjoying his cycling passionZoe: How do you define success?
Valentin: Success is a word that comes from the Latin word “exitus”, which means exit. Therefore, success is relative to finishing a task with a positive result. Now as you can imagine there are certain grades of success. In the world of sales, succeeding means not only achieving your goals but also doing it the way that the company and the management want us to deliver it.

Zoe: Why should people choose to work at Veritas?
Valentin: Veritas is a company that has a bright future and that is going through a transformation. Transformation means change and, to some extent, it may be uncomfortable at times. However, I have great confidence in our leaders and in the strategy, they have defined to take us to our most immediate goals and to the long-term goals.

Zoe: I agree Veritas has a bright future, which is built on market-leading products. So, what’s your favourite Veritas solution? Or Veritas product?
Valentin: Maybe someone will kill me when he/she reads this answer, the product I like the most is Data Insight. I think it is a solution that provides the customer with the ability to understand what is exactly going on in their storage systems and to have a much better understanding of the type of information content they have.

Zoe: Describe Veritas in one word?
Valentin: PROTECTION.

Zoe: Finally, what technology can’t you live without?
Valentin: That’s easy! My iPhone.

That wraps up my interview with Valentin Pinuaga, it was great catching him. Key learnings for me from this conversation are; we are all motivated by different things but essentially when it comes to professional motivations we can all agree on that; we like having a great place to work, with great people and managers and good products, that’s the icing on the cake. So, when thinking of information management there’s only one company that can fully PROTECT your data and that’s Veritas. I also like Valentin’s point on great leaders are those that have a great vision for the future, lead by example and possess bravery to step in front of very challenging situations, this reminds me of something I read some time ago “feel the fear and do it anyway”, don’t let your fears control your destiny.

Did you enjoy this #LifeAtVeritas blog post? Then do stay tuned as there will be more interview style posts published shortly. If Valentin’s experience has inspired you and you’re interested in joining our sales team, then check out our latest job vacancies and apply today. There are plenty of opportunities at Veritas! Why not join our growing team? Finally, watch out for more #LifeAtVeritas blogs and podcasts coming soon!