Joshua Kohn has always set high goals for himself.

And when he learned about the President’s Cabinet Award at Verizon Wireless — the company he works for — things were no different. Throughout 2015, the Kirkland resident who works at the Verizon store in the Bear Creek shopping center in Redmond, has worked hard to make the cut.

His hard work paid off as he recently returned from a trip to Switzerland, where he and about 200 of his Verizon colleagues and fellow Cabinet Award recipients from around the United States were recognized for their accomplishments from last year.

The award is the highest honor a Verizon sales employee in the company can receive and recognizes individuals who performed in the top 1 percent nationally for the year.

“To be a leader in an incredibly competitive industry, you need to hire and retain top talent,” said Greg Haller, president of Verizon’s Pacific market. “Over the past 16 years, we’ve created a performance-based culture that rewards our employees for delivering excellent results. President’s Cabinet is just one of the many benefits that make Verizon a great place to work.”

Haller, who has been with Verizon and legacy companies for 27 years, said the President’s Cabinet award has been around for as long as he can remember — in some shape or form.

Kohn said he was “quite shocked” when he learned in February that he would be receiving the award, thinking that he was too far behind to make the top 1 percent. He had accepted that fact and was prepared to put in the work for this year.

“I was extremely surprised,” he said about learning he would be receiving the award, adding that their district manager came into their Redmond store to deliver the news.

Kohn, 39, has been with Verizon since November 2014. Prior to this, he worked in the restaurant industry in his native Chicago and then San Diego before moving up to the Pacific Northwest. Despite being new to the field, he has always enjoyed working with people and helping them — which is how he describes his job as a solutions specialist.

Kohn said it is his job to come up with solutions that will help customers in their everyday lives. He learns a little bit about them and helps pick out the right device to match the individuals’ lifestyles.

“I’m kind of a talker and a people person,” he said about how this career path suits him, adding that being able to work with and help people is his favorite part of the job.

Kohn said it was rewarding to be recognized for his work in 2015 — and especially to be honored alongside such a limited amount of people.

For the President’s Cabinet trip to Switzerland, Kohn said each award recipient was allowed to bring one guest, so he brought his fiancee.

“It’s a pretty extravagant trip,” he said.

In addition to staying in a nice hotel, the awards ceremony and enjoying fancy meals, the Verizon employees were also able to participate in a variety of activities and excursions pre-arranged by their company. Kohn said these activities were things he “wouldn’t ordinarily do on a vacation.”

Out of the 10 the different excursions they could pick from, Kohn and his fiancee settled on a train ride through the Swiss Alps, a helicopter ride over a glacier and snowboarding.

“Turns out, I’m not a natural snowboarder,” he said with a laugh.

For Kohn, who had previously only used his passport to travel to Toronto, the best part of the trip was the helicopter ride — a first for him.

“It was just one of the most incredible experiences of my life,” he said.

The Switzerland trip was from March 12-18 and Kohn and his fiancee extended their travel plans a few days to visit Paris.

Now that he has returned stateside, Kohn is back at work, going for the Cabinet Award once again. He said the trip for next year’s recipients will be in Rome.