What was the transition like, working for an Indian company, then Portuguese, then Dutch?
Initially I was having a little bit of a challenge. Here it is just totally different than where I come from. Indian food, Indian culture, the way we are living… just very different. But the best thing here, is the people. They’re all very welcoming. Though, they don’t speak English much and I wasn’t able to speak Portuguese. I still don’t, but we use Google Translate to understand each other. It took a moment, but now I am a lot more comfortable here in Porto. It doesn’t take long for me, to feel comfortable somewhere else.
Looks like you are an easy traveler then, is that true?
Yeah, with any other thing than food, I would definitely say that. I’m a vegetarian, so the big trouble was getting vegetarian options here. If you go out for food, there just isn’t much on the menu. I started exploring many places and now I’m ok.
How was your onboarding at Conclusion Enablement?
The onboarding was really good. We had a 3 day session in the Lisbon office and also Steffan was there from the Dutch colleagues. We had lunch and watched a football match. The European Championship was that month. To be honest, I was not much of a football fan. India is the country of cricket, so watching this game together was new to me. After that I started watching football as well. It’s a good game!
How did you experience the kick off in your new team?
Working in the Azure team was quite convenient. Initially it was just onboarding stuff, access and everything. After that I joined the project and started working. It went well. The support I received was quite good and I’m enjoying my time so far. I haven’t learned many Dutch words, but I can say hello. Last year I went to the Netherlands and I learned some new words then. But within the team, we speak English.
Did you experience a culture shock?
In India, we don’t have much interaction with management or have one-on-one time with our managers or HR. That’s the best thing I have been observing here. We have regular meetings now and if there’s an issue or any challenge we can discuss it. I really like that about Conclusion, they care about the employees.