Back in the Game, part 1

It started innocently enough. 

Realizing that I was nearing the end of my greater Munich area sightseeing list, and that we would be staying for at least another year or two, it seemed like a good idea to look for something to do outside the house.

My team, minus our web developer

I’d casually looked before, including volunteer positions where I could help out with presumably less language pressure than in an everyday office environment. 

But postings with refugee organizations were surprisingly scarce and a local animal rescue group only needed volunteers who had a car.

So after several months I updated my LinkedIn profile and turned on the job search function, not expecting much. Within a few days, however, I’d been contacted by several recruiters. 

The messages in German I replied to with a “thanks, but not qualified” note. Another offered a job in English but required German skills beyond my basic functioning.

Then there was Celonis. A German software start-up offering a job writing in English, in an English-speaking office. Intriguing.

I contacted the recruiter late on a Friday and she responded over the weekend. We talked at the beginning of the week then two days later I went to their office for an in-person interview with the recruiter and my boss-to-be, the head of creative marketing.

I completed an at-home writing challenge, a week after that had an interview with the company’s newly hired CMO, then a couple of days later I was signing a contract. That was a Friday, and I started working the following Thursday.

Despite the whirlwind nature of it all, the recruitment and orientation proceeded smoothly, and I was thrilled at the prospect of being on a creative team again.

This whole returning to work thing was going to be easy, I thought...