María Eugenia E. Irigoyen Castillo, Secretaria
E.P.I.M.S.A.
Monterrey, México


OK, my name is María Eugenia Irigoyen. I work for Electrónica Profesional Integral de Monterrey, S.A. de C.V. It is a company that is dedicated to selling electronic medical equipment and gives technical service and maintenance for doctor's equipment in the metropolitan area and in Mexico. A typical day for me is to arrive at 8:30 in the morning, every day it is the same, I don't like to get to work late. If I can, I arrive a little early, five to ten minutes is better, I say good morning to all of my work associates, and I get organized and see what things are pending from the previous day. I make calls to clients and take care of collections and prepare the bank deposits or checking account transactions of the company. I get out my pile of what's pending from the day before and generally the work goes smooth. When we have a lot of activity is when the doctors come to visit to see the equipment that we have, what we offer them, and then I begin the paper work, right? which is the contract that is made from the sale, which is prepared with the doctors, the date, address, telephone, what stays, the value of the equipment from the sale, the guarantee that is offered to them, and the signature of the company's representative and the buyer, right? A guarantee certificate is prepared which applies to the equipment that they are buying, if the equipment is delivered to them, a receipt for the equipment is prepared along with the delivery conditions and the place where it will be delivered. If they make a prepayment of their bill, a cash receipt is prepared, otherwise an invoice that coincides to the value of the equipment that they are buying is prepared. What else can I say, I take telephone calls, offer information about the equipment, prices, equipment in stock that we have, requests from the doctors so that they can run their equipment, estimates, budgets.

What I like most about my work is dealing with the public, I have always been in sales, dealing with the public, talking with them, trying to be friendly and courteous like I would like them to be with me at any given moment that I go to buy or get something. I try to also smile, to be in a good mood, get along with the other work associates and as I said, trying to be polite with the people that come to our office.

I enjoy my work, I love my work. It is a pleasure to do it. Not really for what I get monetarily but because I like it, what I do and the things I learn that I can apply to my work.

The most difficult part of my work is taking care of the associates in the office which in this case is the business manager, the sales manager, the salesmen, we have two or three salesmen. And as to the technical part it would be in people who ask me about repairs, the budget for some acquisition that we have to lease some equipment. This is a little difficult because all of a sudden two or three companions want some paperwork or want attention, the phone rings, they send a fax, it is a little difficult but I try to organize myself to have enough time to be able to do it all well, and this is really important, right?

OK, technical training, well what I have learned here is what I have seen from my work associates and when they test the equipment. I have learned a lot about medical equipment and as to training, the company here has given me a six month English class, that I have been practicing because we have our suppliers that speak English, the English language and I have been able to practice it a lot with our suppliers. They call and I can answer them, greet them, take down information and I feel better about it.