First year (and something) in Vienna

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10 days after this call, I was on the train to Vienna, carrying 2 suitcases, 2 bags and accompanied by Anna, who was studying in Vienna since we finished the College in Innsbruck. My friend Mara, who would from now on be my new superior, picked me up from the train station. For the next 2 weeks I would live at her place, work in the same office as she did and go out with her. It was a little bit like marriage 😉

So after 2 weeks in Vienna, I had already found a nice flat. I shared it with a girl from Styria. She studied journalism and it seemed as if we could become friends. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to. Somehow, our schedules were too different to give us a chance of spending time together.

Still, we had a great time. Sometimes we would go out together, or cook, or watch a movie. Basically, we could have been friends, but did not invest enough energy.

My job was interesting, the girls in the office were nice, still I was not 100% happy. Maybe, because there was only girls. Maybe, because it was lots of work. Maybe, because a private life seemed to be not important to our boss, and at some point not even to our superior any more. Arriving at 8 a.m. is usual in Austria, working 40 hours per week would mean to leave at 5 p.m., including a 1 hour lunch break. In theory, we started at 8 a.m., had a 30 minutes lunch break from Monday to Thursday, leaving at 5 p.m., and could leave earlier on Fridays (without lunch break). This was a great idea, as I could go home for the weekends without arriving too late.

Why did I mention “in theory”? Because we pretty much NEVER left the office by 5 p.m. – it usually was 6 p.m., and often even later, as there were events to be taken care of on site. This meant going to some places all over Vienna, Burgenland and Lower Austria, including up to 2.5 hrs car drive (one direction), and getting back home around 11 p.m.

One day, after I had done this, I sent my superior a text message saying I was too tired after that day and I needed sleep badly and I would come to office a bit later the next day. But instead of sleeping in, I got up as usual – and checked the job ads on the austrian job agency (AMS). That day, I got serious about what I wanted to do since 6 monts into the job. I wrote applications, and I wrote serious ones. 3 hours later, I had an answer to one of them in my email inbox. It was the invitation to a job interview at a small software company. Two weeks later, I signed the contract.

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