It's been over half a year of scrolling on LinkedIn, sending out résumés left and right... and I wasn't getting any interviews. My interview-to-application ratio was around 1%! After some time, I started ruminating what would happen if I didn't get a job, and how life can spiral out of control because of a few missteps or unlucky situations, or (often) a combination of the two.

But then I got an interview last week, and got invited to a second one this morning, and it went pretty well. And earlier today, the team leader called, and they're sending me the contract! So I'm super happy! Now, I'll be working in a completely different field, far from what I used to do. I have a degree in biology, and I'll now make IoT solutions for a machine manufacturer. Quite the leap, huh? So I have a ton to learn and it'll certainly be challenging, but the exciting projects and responsibilities will help me to overcome the daunting mass of things to learn.

Another funny thing was that the interviews were in German, and I'm not very comfortable speaking an elegant, interview-type German. Things like "Kunden einweisen, Erfolgsbilanz, Anforderungen aufnehmen, Analysestrategien ausarbeiten" just don't come to my mind, and I have to allocate part of my brain to thinking about the form (Did I even say the verb? Should I say mir or mich after ermöglichen? What is the gender of Prozess?) when I'd like to focus solely on the content. But I have a very good memory, and since, as they say, the first impression is key, I chose to learn the presentation of my background almost by heart, and... the interviewing committee played a reverse uno-card by asking me to answer this question in English 😂.

I'll probably not have as much time to learn Russian from July onwards, but I'll keep reading and listening to audiobooks, so I think I'll still improve slowly but surely. And I guess it's now really time to learn at least the basics of Swiss German because it's the main language spoken in this company, and I don't understand one word of it.

For those of you currently looking for jobs, don't despair and keep sending out lots of résumés, try to modify it and think of what a recruiter wants to see. It may take time, but there's a job for you somewhere, and you can find it!