August 21 - 27

Monday

This day I was hoping that I would hear something from actually two of the job interviews from the week before. It's a little stressful waiting around for things! Also I had a job interview at 2pm. I was feeling a bit frustrated having all these job interviews at weird times of the day that stopped me being able to plan things. Usually I would have a few job interviews per week, and it might be just one interview at 2pm would mean I couldn't go out hiking for the day, because I'd need to be somewhere stable at 2pm for this half hour thing. So this day I decided to go for a ride in the morning before that time.

So I just decided to go for a casual 40-50km ride up the river and back. While I was riding, at some point I checked my email about the one I'd done a coding test for the previous week. "thank you for taking the time for the test. We are very impressed with it and would want to continue and finish the hiring process". I was filled with some happiness at reading this. I saw that message about the time I saw the monastery in the picture below. I continued my ride with a light air.

Later I stopped to take a picture of the river and stand in the shade for a while. And I got a call from the recruiter who hooked me up with the job. He was saying to me "have you heard anything from that company?" and I probably said "oh yeah I heard they were happy with my test" and then he was saying they were really happy! And that they wanted to put me forward for the senior developer role, rather than the lower ranked one that they'd originally put me forward for. They were really impressed with the coding I'd written for them haha. This felt really nice to me. Over the weekend I had sacrificed some adventures to see if I could do something slightly fancy with that code (dynamic routes and things like that. I also created a mock server with Nest.js with a simplistic type of pagination for results) and I was thinking "oh when will all these applications end! I'm just locked in my room doing coding, and everyone is turning me down" and then it all worked out.

In the evening it seems like I was having a nice look at these two books and my guitar (pictured there). These two books are an excellent compliment to each other: the book behind is essentially the most detailed analysis of drop 2 voicings for guitar. The book in front is a systematic look at the theory of jazz harmony.

I was feeling very happy. I did my 2pm interview with the company from Stuttgart. I wasn't sure if I should just cancel it. But I was thinking "what if something weird happens?" I still had bad feelings from the other company, who invited me to meet the team and then it turned out they had a better candidate. I was feeling quite happy but also like I couldn't trust anything. So I went ahead with it, in a weird state of mind. They are a company who build some interfaces for companies that are off-line. Manufacturing companies etc. I think I impressed them pretty well. (later they sent me a coding test. I actually forgot about it because it turned out I didn't need to do it. I noticed it when I had about 1-2 days left before deadline. I did it. I got maybe 85%. Some weird question in there. Better than most who did it? But I haven't yet heard from them a week or so after. Maybe they wanted a very punctual attempt? )

But also there was the other company I'd applied at, who I was hoping to hear something from. The one in Berlin. At around 4:30pm I walked to the supermarket. I got an email from that company asking me if I could have a call with them to hear their feedback. It sounded quite cold. I was expecting they might turn me down. I said I would be free within around 30 minutes (when I got home). "phone or video?" "let's do video" I said. I got back and did the call and... they also offered me a job! Then it was weird. I wanted the job offered to me here in Munich, so I told her that I just had a job offer around an hour earlier (in the morning the first company just said "let's proceed" but then later that day said "we want to hire you!") and so I said I'll need to think about it. I didn't want to throw away an offer now that I had two of them after having none for so long. It was so weird.

The recruiter for the first company called me to ask me what I would do, and if I'd heard from the second company. People were a little nervous if I'd accept the first one. The second company had sent me a specific contract! But the first one (in Munich) had just said "we want to offer you a job!" but no specific job. So I couldn't turn down the second one yet without yet seeing a specific contract. Some days later the first job sent me a specific contract and so I turned down the second one. I sent them a nice message. I hope it works out for them!

Then I cancelled my upcoming interviews with other companies!!! Big joy.

Tuesday

I was in a real weird mood. I went for a hike near Schliersee near an old decayed castle! It was very nice. I felt like I could walk in a slow way without the feeling like I might need to leave in a few weeks. I had a real chill walk. Up the hill. Saw the ruins. Down through a valley. Excellent visuals. Not a long walk.

Wednesday

At 4pm I went into the office to meet my new company! The office is very fancy. It's a publishing company I may not say the name of. Very nice looking office. They made a movie about the head of this company.

This week had a bit of time with me just feeling a bit surreal. What do I do now?

Thursday

On this day I had a phone call with the HR person for the company, going through the contract. Then I think I started looking at sorting out my visa application.

Friday

On this day I had to change my registered address in Munich so that I could apply for my visa properly. To do that you need to make an appointment online and then go to the office at the time of your appointment. It all seemed to work out okay! At the office the german lady asked me "have you changed your name on the letterbox [at the hotel]" "uh, yeah". Great. Address changed.

Saturday

Parkrun, as usual. I love it. It seems like in the afternoon I travelled to the Decathlon store at the Olympia-einkaufzentrum (Olympia shopping centre) to buy a poncho! A rain poncho. A few days earlier I'd gone for a hike and got caught in the most epic rain storm up on the mountain and gotten drenched.

Sunday

On this day I mustered up all my will power and figured out how to apply for the visa. It's really a bit stressful. Did I have all of the documents sorted out correctly? Yes, I think so. I put them in a folder on my computer to organise everything. I filled out all the forms. Uploaded stuff. Hit apply. I got an email to confirm it, and then it was said it could take some time! Maybe 8-10 weeks. Then another email said 2-8 weeks. Which is correct? Maybe neither one. So now I will wait. Will the company be okay with it? It seems that in Germany it's usual for people to need to give 3 months notice when they get hired at a new job! So, yes, they could be okay with it.

It was a sort of stressful few days and a little surreal.