September was all about job interviews and a bit of travelling.
Job
After being out of the job market for nearly a decade (I got jobs via personal connections), this month I started actively looking for work. It’s a weird feeling because all those years I’ve been interviewing people myself, and now I had to switch sides. Turns out we currently live in the golden age of software engineering jobs where every developer can almost auction themselves for potential employers.
I didn’t really know what I wanted to look for, and I didn’t want 100% programming position. Over the years I made multiple attempts at leaving engineering career behind only to come back to it again. My new job had to be some kind of mix of software engineering and other activities. Anything really where I could be of help. This was my criteria #1.
Over my career I’ve never really worked for a large corporation, only a short stint at NCC Group as a security consultant. But I know how interesting can a job at a startup be (also rewarding and exhausting), so I wanted to continue down this path. Luckily finding one in Estonia is an easy task. With Skype and Wise alumnis founding so many companies, there is a lot to choose from.
Finally, and while this may sound strange in 2021, I wanted to work in an office. At least some of the time. Having worked remotely for the last 7 years I was craving for some small talk, coffee chats, going out to local cafes to grab food. Also commuting is a nice part of it since I can also catch up on a huge queue of podcasts and audio books that I normally don’t have time to listen to.
These were my criteria, and so I went applying for jobs. Over the course of 2.5 weeks I received multiple offers, had to reject several companies mid interview, and in the end made a really hard decision at choosing one.
There were many reasons why I had to look for a job, one of them being of course finances. Shipit doesn’t yet bring enough money to support myself and my family, so I had to make a hard decision and turn it into a side project. Time will show how it goes, but I am quite optimistic as working in another environment should also give me lots of new ideas.
Another reason was burning out. Having spent 2.5 years building the product, and doing so almost alone for the last 1.5 years is hard. Either I needed a long break, or a sudden change. I chose the latter.
Finland
It’s been more than a year since I’ve been to Finland to visit friends, and now with a bit more relaxed travel we went to Heinola to see some friends.
Every time I travel to Finland these days, I keep comparing these trips to the one I had 10 years ago after graduating from the university. It was a car trip from Helsinki all the way up north, across the Sweden to Norway. And then back. Both Sweden and Norway were mind blowingly beautiful and interesting, and Finland was pretty crap. So on the way back we skipped it completely and just drove on the highway. Turns out the country is amazing with lots of places for hiking and camping. That time we just didn’t find those places.
Even though the trip was just 4 days and we stayed at friends’ house, it was a breath of fresh air. Coupled with autumn colours, everyone came back positively excited.
Misc
There isn’t much in terms of reading, personal projects, or music that happened in September.
Half of the month I spent listening to classical music like Bach, Beethowen, List, Mozart, switching to contemporary classics like Max Ritcher, and then adding some opera in between. The rest of the month I played good old Nirvana, Muse, and Guns N’ Roses. It’s a weird mix for me given I never liked either of these genres while growing up, but I find them pleasing to my ears these days.