New Beginnings

Three and a half months ago, I started a new job. I haven’t talked much about it yet on this website, except for a very brief note in my June’s “Recently” article. I’ve been wanting to write a little bit more about it, and I feel like now is the right moment.

Last year, after a long period working at a fully remote company with people from all over the world, I transitioned to a fully on-site company - what a change! At the time, I shared my thoughts about this transition, how I felt working on-site - which also changed after some time -, working with people in a physical office, the new tech stack, among others.

Looking back, it was a good time, with ups and downs. It was definitely a learning experience for me: not having had varied work experience before, I wouldn’t also know what I really wanted. The image of what I wanted was becoming more and more clear, and I knew that what - and how, where, who - I was doing was not what I wanted. One year after, I changed jobs again.

So a few months ago, I joined a small team in Utrecht working on the same digital realm: verifiable credentials, digital identity, and so on. The big difference - when it comes to work itself - is the open source focus, which is something I realized I really did miss. Maybe having started my career within this world turned it into a very big motivation for me.

The office is in Utrecht, very close to the station. That also means I sometimes commute. My goal is to go to the office once or twice a week, also depending on whether others are going or not. The train trip, on itself, is around 50 minutes, which means that my door-to-door trip is around 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes.

Trading an office on the same street for an office on a different city hasn’t been an issue. I also like the train commute and it’s great to catch up on some reading, or just listening to a podcast or music. And since it’s not something I do every day - and perhaps can’t even been considered a real commute - it’s not bad.

It’s been now almost four months and what incredible four months it has been. It feels much shorter and also much longer, since so much has happened: I’ve organized a coworking day at my place in Eindhoven, we’ve done a vegan streetfood cooking workshop as team activity, and the work itself has been going great.

I’m very grateful for the opportunity and the new team. Looking forward to all the work we’ll achieve!