Buried in the marks of memories are questions one often wonders – what is it that made me who I am today? The world we live in is an amalgamation of cultures, languages, people, and their experiences. Hispanic Heritage Month is a celebration of this intricate web of relationships – to acknowledge and honor where we come from and how it shapes us
One such wonderer is Efren Montelongo. Efren currently works as the Sales Director for Grupo Fármacos Especializados. His work is dedicated to the distribution of specialty pharmaceuticals with a large amount of responsibility with regards to patients, medical organizations and decision-making.
The impact of values on careers
Efren’s professional journey benefitted from his background in pharmaceuticals and his experience working with Johnson and Johnson for which he also lived in New Jersey for a year. As Efren takes us through some impactful life experiences, the expertise and wisdom he has gathered over the more than 20 years of his career become very visible in his anecdotes.
He explains how his father, too, worked in the domain of pharmaceutical sales. His family business, started by his father and currently being handled by his siblings, is also in this industry. As we discuss the impact of family ties and cultural backgrounds with Efren, it becomes clear that his experience with family businesses and values shapes his approach to work even today.
He notes how he chose Marketing as his educational major in college and worked in the marketing department of Hasbro, which he had to leave eventually due to an ongoing economic crisis in Mexico. Efren then decided to pursue an MBA from one of the best institutes in Mexico. A semester abroad led to his employment in Johnson and Johnson, an opportunity that led to a 9-year stint at the company in varying profiles. As he left the company, he joined his father’s pharmaceutical company for 5 years, helping him structure the company and its operations. He talks about his experience of working in a family business and reveals how building something together is one of the best parts of the job.
“It was a very good experience because our customers were big pharma companies and I learned a lot from my father as well…its not the same to be a son as it is to be a coworker so I gained a lot of wisdom.”
Upon receiving an invitation from his current company to handle relationships with various pharma companies, he decided to take it up. He left the family business and joined this organization because he wanted to learn something else. When he joined, Efren notes, he didn’t expect to be a part of it for almost 10 years. His organization had not adopted Machine Learning and Data Science yet, leading to his decision to upskill with data-driven skills.
Making learning an unending journey
Efren’s professional and educational journeys are fused in such a way that it would be wrong to try and differentiate between them. With every recollection of both journeys it becomes evident to us how much he values the process of learning and excelling. As he talks about his role models, Efren tells us how he believes in taking some values from different people to build his own idea of a model.
“From my father I take the values and discipline, and I transform the things I receive and try to do something better and different…it is difficult for me to follow an established role model. I try to invent what I want to become or where I want to things from these values…”
In between these insights, he teaches us how important it is to take ownership of the person you want to become. By building his own role models from the values he sees in those he looks up to, he builds an ideal for himself to aspire to. Efren’s years of experience do not just add to his professional journey, they also show us how much work he has consciously put into his own growth as an individual. This drive to build a better version of oneself resonates with Great Learning’s efforts towards upskilling for professionals to realize their potential.
Find out more about the PGP in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning here.
