Although 2008 already ended, its never to late to look back a little and recapitulate.
For me personally, for my family and for some of my friends, the last year was full of movement, literally inf figuratively.
Starting with my person, I moved twice the year. First time end of Feb from the outskirts of Stuttgart into Stuttgart, second time end of June from Stuttgart to Zurich, the first move was planned, the second wasn't.
The year 2007 ended not that good for me, especially because I was not very satisfied with developer job in the Boeblingen lab I worked in. I was close to quitting (actually I had already a written contract from another company) but I gave the company another chance, talked with several colleages and managers and decided to join a services team in the lab. I wanted out to the "front", to the customers, travel a little around etc.
When 2008 started, it seemed, that the job change would have been only be a matter of time then and I therefor planned to moved to a smaller flat to be prepared for more travelling in the service job, reduce my monthly costs an my houshold. So far, everything went on as planned.
Not two weeks after the move - it was Tuesday 3/11 - my former manager in the lab told me, I can't join the Lab Services Team for up to a year. The reasons have been purely political. He didn't told me that directly, but it was obvious. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. I saw no other option but leaving the lab, I searched in our internal job market and - as luck would have it - found a couple of interessting Service jobs, one at IBM Germany in Stuttgart and two at IBM Switzerland - that was the same day at evening. These job offerings helped to made my mind leaving the lab. Next day I prepared the application documents and slept a night over the decision. On Thursday 3/13 (the birthday of my father who died 7 years ago) I sent out the applications. On friday I received the first respones from the Swiss managers. Wow! That was quick! To this point, I've waited half a year for anything to happen in my old job and now my whole perspectives and options changed in only 4 days! I was totally surprised that anything could also happen quickly in this company. In the end, I had 4 positive answers from 5 applications and decided to go to Zurich and join the ISSL team in July. This was the best decision I made last year and one that had a tremendous impact on my life so far and also improved the image I had of IBM enormously. Well the rest of the year I spent in getting warm in the new job, visited lots of friend around Germany, visited lots of concerts, traveled a lot and gained ground in Zurich.
But beside of me, there was also movements in my family. My brother finally decided to leave the University and gave up his ungrateful fight to do a doctor's degree and joined another company, but stayed in Leipzig. And also my mother (56) did a great and brave step. She finally also quit her job and moved away from the town I was born to a city north of Hamburg to her partner and also started a new job. Considering her age and her situation she totally earned my deepest respect for this step. And same as for me - she didn't regret it so far.
So all these movements left me somewhat rooted out. I have no parent's home anymore, I have no family as it used to be, only individuals like my brother, my mother or my aunt, no grandparents anymore - the last grandmas also died last year. And no "own" family so far.
I admit, this all feels strange somehow and makes me sometimes feel like I am a floating particle drifting through space and time hoping to bounce somewhere and sometime and just stick, without knowing where and when that would be. At the moment, I feel no boundaries, no limits, I am full of energy and its just like pushing forward in any direction, its like running blind in a direction to find the next wall :) hoping to find a new orientation landmark, some ground I am willing to put new roots in. Well, the new roots stuff, this is my Plan A. But unfortunately, this is something I can't influence directly, it is something I will know when time comes, when it just feels right.
For the time until that point, I need a plan B, something I can influence and something that will increase the probability of fulfulling Plan A earlier :) So that's the major direction for 2009: follow Plan B ;)
2009, here I come!
For me personally, for my family and for some of my friends, the last year was full of movement, literally inf figuratively.
Starting with my person, I moved twice the year. First time end of Feb from the outskirts of Stuttgart into Stuttgart, second time end of June from Stuttgart to Zurich, the first move was planned, the second wasn't.
The year 2007 ended not that good for me, especially because I was not very satisfied with developer job in the Boeblingen lab I worked in. I was close to quitting (actually I had already a written contract from another company) but I gave the company another chance, talked with several colleages and managers and decided to join a services team in the lab. I wanted out to the "front", to the customers, travel a little around etc.
When 2008 started, it seemed, that the job change would have been only be a matter of time then and I therefor planned to moved to a smaller flat to be prepared for more travelling in the service job, reduce my monthly costs an my houshold. So far, everything went on as planned.
Not two weeks after the move - it was Tuesday 3/11 - my former manager in the lab told me, I can't join the Lab Services Team for up to a year. The reasons have been purely political. He didn't told me that directly, but it was obvious. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. I saw no other option but leaving the lab, I searched in our internal job market and - as luck would have it - found a couple of interessting Service jobs, one at IBM Germany in Stuttgart and two at IBM Switzerland - that was the same day at evening. These job offerings helped to made my mind leaving the lab. Next day I prepared the application documents and slept a night over the decision. On Thursday 3/13 (the birthday of my father who died 7 years ago) I sent out the applications. On friday I received the first respones from the Swiss managers. Wow! That was quick! To this point, I've waited half a year for anything to happen in my old job and now my whole perspectives and options changed in only 4 days! I was totally surprised that anything could also happen quickly in this company. In the end, I had 4 positive answers from 5 applications and decided to go to Zurich and join the ISSL team in July. This was the best decision I made last year and one that had a tremendous impact on my life so far and also improved the image I had of IBM enormously. Well the rest of the year I spent in getting warm in the new job, visited lots of friend around Germany, visited lots of concerts, traveled a lot and gained ground in Zurich.
But beside of me, there was also movements in my family. My brother finally decided to leave the University and gave up his ungrateful fight to do a doctor's degree and joined another company, but stayed in Leipzig. And also my mother (56) did a great and brave step. She finally also quit her job and moved away from the town I was born to a city north of Hamburg to her partner and also started a new job. Considering her age and her situation she totally earned my deepest respect for this step. And same as for me - she didn't regret it so far.
So all these movements left me somewhat rooted out. I have no parent's home anymore, I have no family as it used to be, only individuals like my brother, my mother or my aunt, no grandparents anymore - the last grandmas also died last year. And no "own" family so far.
I admit, this all feels strange somehow and makes me sometimes feel like I am a floating particle drifting through space and time hoping to bounce somewhere and sometime and just stick, without knowing where and when that would be. At the moment, I feel no boundaries, no limits, I am full of energy and its just like pushing forward in any direction, its like running blind in a direction to find the next wall :) hoping to find a new orientation landmark, some ground I am willing to put new roots in. Well, the new roots stuff, this is my Plan A. But unfortunately, this is something I can't influence directly, it is something I will know when time comes, when it just feels right.
For the time until that point, I need a plan B, something I can influence and something that will increase the probability of fulfulling Plan A earlier :) So that's the major direction for 2009: follow Plan B ;)
2009, here I come!
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