SO I figured I'd bump this old livejournaly thing just for fun. You know it's weird, looking at the post above I realise that we haven't been talking in here since before fossa started his own company. It's weird to see him ponder it just a few posts up and know that by now he has actually realised that dream. Congratulations!
Anyway, I figured I'd bump this mostly because big changes are coming for me. They're partly tied to the economy, but partly my own desire as well. As ardent readers of this thread might recall, I work as a process design engineer for a big consultancy company. For the last 1,5 years I've been working for a single customer close to home, learning a lot about the oil refining business. But that's all over now.
You see, consultants like me sometimes come in to solve just one specific problem. But we can also be hired for longer periods, when a company doesn't have enough manpower to fulfil their own obligations, but are still wary of hiring new employees. When I started with the current customer, that was exactly the case. They had more work than they could handle, but since a recession was already somewhere on the horizon they didn't want to hire more people. SO I did the same work as they're own process designers, sitting in their building and working exclusively with them. But now the recession has hit them as well. No more consultants can be hired, and everyone attached to the company is being cut loose as they now have surplus manpower. So that means I need to find something else to do. Unfortunately, most other businesses are struck by the recession as well, there's no one that I can be rented out to.
Except... About a year ago I floated the idea past my boss that I'd like to go abroad. I've been silently working on that, having a few promising places fall through. But with impeccable timing, around the time it became clear that there will be no new work with the current customer, it was confirmed that there is an opening in Sweden. I speak the language and have most of the credentials, so come August I'm moving to a new country to work. It really worked out well, since the alternative here would probably have been to be included in the next set of layoffs. Instead, I get to go learn new things about how stuff works.
It's not all roses of course. My significant other is straying behind, since she is still studying. The trip isn't long, but having lived together for 3 years it'll still be very odd to be apart so much. Once I get my flat she can easily come over and visit, but I'll be spending the first 2-3 weeks in a hotel where that isn't as easy.
So anyway, I'm heading to Sweden. Where are you heading?
