In 1997, Huawei had just entered the C.I.S. market when I joined the company after graduating from university. At that time, our office was in a flat and there were only a few colleagues from the headquarters in China. I started my work in Huawei as a Russian in-house translator.

It was a difficult time for Hauwei. Nobody would seriously consider a Chinese hi-tech company and the common belief was that products made in China were cheap and of low quality. Unfortunately, the situation became even worse with the 1998 financial crises. Most global companies stepped out from the CIS or stopped developing their business there to watch what would happen next.

Huawei was one of the few companies that decided to stay in Russia and mobilized resources to consolidate the presence in the market.
I decided to stay with Huawei as well. I felt that Huawei’s employees were exceptional people with creativity and a very good business sense. I felt they were diligent, persistent, and I admired their sense of achievement.

With time, Huawei’s persistence during that difficult time started to pay off. After the crises, we signed many important orders in a short time and grew rapidly in the market. We moved to a high-quality office building where well-established companies like Intel and Microsoft were our neighbors.

In terms of career, I also grew fast in Huawei. I was promoted to PR manager when Huawei needed to deal with local business issues. At the same time, I worked as an assistant to the president of the regional representative office. Then, with the development of the market, I became the PR director for the C.I.S. As more and more local employees are joining Huawei in the C.I.S., I was assigned the role of deputy director of the human resources department to help the top management communicate with the local staff effectively.

My career development is a common path for many local young managers in the C.I.S. who joined Huawei as fresh graduates and could grow to become experienced managers in just a few years. They are now controlling a huge amount of capital and managing a large telecom market spanning the Ural, Siberia, and the Volga. They influence the life of the local population with Huawei’s communications equipment. All this gives them a tremendous sense of accomplishment that is hard to feel in other companies.

We currently have a large number of employees and Huawei’s future in the C.I.S. looks bright. We all feel part of a process and we now fully understand what it means to grow with Huawei.