For most of us, working on an international team means getting used to names, messages, and video calls from different corners of the world. We know the people we work with—but often through a screen most of the time. However, every year our regional director coordinates a meetup of our US team in Tulsa and later he organizes a meetup for the members based outside the US. The international meetup is in Europe.
The annual meetup gives us a chance to put some distance between ourselves and the everyday routine—to catch up with people we already know, get to know people we don’t, discover a new place, and collect a few stories that probably wouldn’t happen during a regular workday. Being able to grow these relationships is important for the positive work culture that we have built throughout the years.
Whether sharing ideas or planning next years improvements, our team is lucky to have such a fun way to engage with each other.
One of these international employees is Hassan. Today we will be sitting down with him to get to know more about who he is and hopefully give our readers insight on one of the driving forces in the support team.
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Tasha – “Thank you so much for sitting down here to talk about getting to know you, who you are and what you do for this company. We appreciate you and before we get started I would like all the readers to know that we have such a variety of teammates from various cultures all around the world at Hostek. One of them is Hassan.”
Let’s start off with what’s your role at Hostek, and how long have you worked here?
Hassan – “Hey Tasha thank you for giving me the opportunity. I am currently TX 2. So it’s technical experience level two at Hostek. My journey here has been a long story. I originally joined in 2022 as a sales agent. Then I was moved into account management for the UK and then the US. After that I had to leave for the changes in the business needs. Shortly after that I rejoined in November 2024 as a TX 1 and I have worked all the way up to TX 2.”
Tasha – “Thank you for that. Wonderful. And I know you do a lot of handling of bigger tasks and we see a bright future ahead for you.”
Tell us a little about yourself personally.
Hassan- “Outside of work I am like a very family oriented. I’m an only brother and live with my family; my parents, my twin sisters, and my lovely wife. I enjoy learning new things even when I’m not working. I also like physics. Even if I’m in the technology field, I still like physics. So, I learn about those things. I also like walking. I usually do around 500 meters or three miles I guess, of walking every day.”
Tasha- “Wow! That’s definitely good. I bet you’re getting in the 30 walk times that are wonderful Director, Josh has implemented them.”
Hassan- “Yeah, that was needed and was a great step.”
Tasha- “Nice.“
What got you into tech?
Hassan- “Yeah, I tell this to everybody who has asked me this question. Behind every success story there is a mentor, always. I was very lucky to be honest. When I was in sales my direct manager was Mr. Luke. He was the CTO at the time and he always pointed me the right direction. Whenever I had a question instead of just giving me a direct answers he usually would tell me “go find out” or “these are the steps that you need to take on a server, or anywhere, to find the answer.” And he was backing me up on every step. Maybe he probably realized that I loved technology and I love exploring things. So, he just helped me out with that and that curiosity then turned into a career.”
Tasha- “Wow, that’s pretty cool. Thank you for explaining that journey. Sometimes you go into it thinking you will be going one way and then you end up going towards another, and in this case you had Luke who I can agree that he doesn’t give you all the answers. He’s the type that wants to see you dig for the results. Thank you for sharing that.”
What does the typical day look like for you?
Hassan- “I’m from Pakistan and I’m on night shift. So, I start my shift at 6:00 PM my time till the 3:00 AM. After finishing my shift I go for a walk and then I get back to bed at around 6:00 AM and wake up at 2pm. Next up I eat breakfast and spend time with my family. Sometimes I go out as well and sometimes I stay at home. Then, back to 6 PM to start my shift.”
Tasha- “Alright. That means since you live with your whole family there’s probably a lot of the times when you’re having to go off into a small area to find a quiet space to work in. I had to kind of allocate an area at my house for this. My family knows if they come into that area to remember I am at work.”
Do you ever deal with people walking in or maybe forgetting that you’re at work and start talking to you or anything like that?
Hassan- “Yeah. Sometimes, especially when I’m in meetings, my mother comes in and she opens the door without seeing what I’m doing and she goes like, “Hassan, do you want to eat something?”. Hahah. So that’s the only thing. Ha Ha. But other than that, everyone else here first opens the door, sneak in, and see what I’m doing. If I say yes, they come in, and if I nod my head no, they go away.” *chuckles*
Tasha- “Right. That sounds like it’s the same over here too. That’s funny. Alright thank you for that.”
When it comes to being in technical Support, what skills do you think our most important for someone working as a technical support agent?
Hassan- “I think curiosity. I have it. Patience…. and technical skills of course. These are things a person should have if they are working in any Technical role.
You don’t have answers to everything immediately. Sometimes it’s about how to find the answers. You should be comfortable saying “I don’t know yet but I’m going to figure it out”. Now you have Ai as well. You should know how to use Ai and you should never trust the AI answers blindly. Always verify before using any of the AI commands.”
Tasha- “That is for sure. Anytime I use AI for assistance, I’ll always prompt “Can you put a green check mark next to a safe command”. Even then I’ll break the command down in my head like, okay, yeah, that is safe.”
Hassan- “Yeah. It can be incredibly useful for research and learning and everything, but you also need to understand what information is safe to share and what not.”
What are you enjoying most about working for Hostek?
Hassan- “I love the colleagues here to be honest. You can go to anyone, if you have any questions, and they’re always ready to help. This is the top on my list if somebody asked me what I love here. It is the team here. So, that’s what I love.”
Tasha- “I agree. It’s certainly one of the top things we have going on here. I’ve never had a professional relationship as strong as I do here.”
What’s the most rewarding part of solving a difficult technical issue?
Hassan- “The moment when everything finally clicks. You spend a long time looking at logs, testing different possibilities, configurations, and everything. You’re like what am I missing here. Eventually you come up with an idea of trying something and that work! It’s working now! That’s the best part.”
Tasha- “Great answer.”
Hassan- “I have been through this a lot. Spending thirty minutes on a task and a single word pops up in mind and that’s the fix!”
Tasha Hunter- “Alright, let’s get into rapid fire round. These are just going to be yes or no, one or the other, or a quick answer off the top of your head. Alright, we’ll start off something easy.”
Windows or Linux?
Hassan- “Windows.”
Dark mode or light mode?
Hassan- “Dark.”
Coffee or Tea?
Hassan- “Both.”
Night owl or an early bird?
Hassan- “Night owl.”
Do you like cats more, or dogs?
Hassan- “Dogs. I like dogs but I don’t have any.”
Tasha- “I feel like we all end up leaning towards one way or the other when it comes to these animals. Sounds like you lean more towards the dogs.”
Last question is what’s your favorite comfort food off the top of your head? What puts you in your comfort zone makes you feel good? Anytime you smell it, see it, or when it comes across your head every now and then. What you got?”
Hassan- “I’d go with Chicken Karahi, its our traditional dish here, its a spicy curry.”
Tasha- “Oh, the Karahi! Sounds yummy. Alright, alright, let’s get back to Hostek before we go.”
Are there any new products you want to mention that our users may benefit from?
Hassan- “Monarx and CodGuard. These both are security products and you know how important security is these days. So these both protect your sites from threat and malware. I would have to recommend these two products.”
Tasha- “Agreed. Monarx and CodeGauard work so well together. Especially with users that utilize a CMS like WordPress or Jumla. It provides you an easy way setup preventative security action and an easy one click restore option as well.”
Is there anything else you would like to say to our readers before we go?
Hassan- “I always like to say ‘Either you win or you learn.’ You should always have curiosity in everything and a hunger to know why for everything. If you learn something from the experience, even if it didn’t work, it’s not a waste of your time. You have learned something.”
Tasha- “Thank you for ending off with that. I think that is good advice no matter what field or profession you are in. Thank you for that positive tidbit to leave us off with and we appreciate you sitting down with us. As always work hard, continue to do your best, and we appreciate you Hassan. Have a great rest of your night.”
Hassan- “Thank you Tasha. You too.”
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The trip was filled with days of laughter, card games like uno, handshakes, and delicious foods. Then, as always, the meetup came to an end. Suitcases were packed, photos were taken, goodbyes were said, and everyone eventually headed back home—to their own time zones, their own routines, and their own side of the world.
Until next year.
In the meantime, we’ll keep doing what we do best: working together as a team to provide excellent service no matter where we may be in the world.