Today, one year ago, I started my new journey with We4IT. It's remarkable how time flies. The story how I got there and what happened during the last 12 months is subject of this post.
First contact
I first met Stefan Sucker, CEO of We4IT, in 2012 in Fulda at the DNUG conference. Except of having some small talks during the event we didn't stay in contact during the upcoming years. It occured that I saw a message he posted on Xing that We4IT was hiring Notes XPages developers in November 2014. As we were connected on Xing eversince the DNUG event I texted him and asked for details. Two days and a phone call later I was hired. Due to my contract I wasn't able to change before April 1st 2015.
The Plan
In late 2014 just before I resigned my contract with my former company I got an approval to attend the Engage.UG conference in Gent. My problem: I was sure that I won't be allowed to attend after I resign. Another phone call later I got the approval from Stefan to attend Engage.UG and ICS.UG that took place some days before Engage.UG. The plan now was to manage to get 7 free days in a row to be there without getting a conflict with my old company. As I had to take 5 days of remaining vacation I was sure to make it. And I did. We4IT covered all the costs although I didn't even start to work there. And I also got the chance to be on the legendary "Lotus BeerBus V2.0" which took us from Bremen to Gent.
The last year
I joined We4IT to become a member of the Aveedo development team. I am still working on Aveedo together with some of the smartest guys you could imagine. I am working in my homeoffice which is perfect for me. Sometimes I travel to the We4IT headquarter in Bremen which is also great and a nice variation.
One of my wishes when joining the company was to get a chance to attend conferences as I enjoy face-to-face meetings with customers and other people from the community. I am actually being encouraged to submit session proposals to them to have a chance to be there - and this is great! During the last 12 months I was able to attend 7 (seven) events in Europe - and this year are a lot more to come!
Another great thing is that I have the opportunity to get in touch with international customers. I really enjoy conversations in English which is not my mother's tongue but this helps me to improve it. My British colleague Simon Peek is a great helping hand and I insist him to correct me whenever I am wrong.
Thank you!
This is the right time to say thank you to all from We4IT for the warm welcome, for the great help, work and cooperation within the teams and for letting me do what I love to do. 