I am starting to become more immersed into the European culture. I am finding that folks here are really committed to life outside of work. I know we talked about that in the US, but they really live it here. 8 weeks vacation, parties all througout the day and night, music playing everywhere, maybe it's just the Netherlands.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Week 1 in Holland - Learning....
It is a bit of a struggle to work in the Nieuw-Vennep office since I have no staff there. Initially I was slated to move to England which is where most of my team is situated. A few email exchanges and one or two phone calls was the extent of my contact with them.
Day one was mostly getting my mobile phone and laptop ready. I did get my HR paperwork. It was all written in Dutch and didn't receive much help in filling it out other than "let me know if you have any questions."
The rest of the week involved learning. I made a commitment before I even started to begin by learning the business. I've found that it really involves two parts. The first part is understanding their area of expertise, their product lines, their bundle packages of products, their custom turn-key solutions and client side integration capabilities. The second part is regarding their business strategy.
I focused almost exclusively on the second part. What I found is that I do pick up some of the product information in the literature and videos I have seen that describe strategy, however it is clear that the alignment within IT to the business requires a firm understanding of the strategy. I can probably get by with limited knowledge of the product line but cannnot succeed without a firm understanding of their direction.
I wish I would have made the move to Europe earlier. I love the culture. I get 8 weeks of vacation to start. I used to get 2 weeks. I plan on taking full opportunity of this travelling Europe. I hope my children appreaciate the opportunity they have but at their age (10 and 13) I am sure that they will not. But that's OK.
Day one was mostly getting my mobile phone and laptop ready. I did get my HR paperwork. It was all written in Dutch and didn't receive much help in filling it out other than "let me know if you have any questions."
The rest of the week involved learning. I made a commitment before I even started to begin by learning the business. I've found that it really involves two parts. The first part is understanding their area of expertise, their product lines, their bundle packages of products, their custom turn-key solutions and client side integration capabilities. The second part is regarding their business strategy.
I focused almost exclusively on the second part. What I found is that I do pick up some of the product information in the literature and videos I have seen that describe strategy, however it is clear that the alignment within IT to the business requires a firm understanding of the strategy. I can probably get by with limited knowledge of the product line but cannnot succeed without a firm understanding of their direction.
I wish I would have made the move to Europe earlier. I love the culture. I get 8 weeks of vacation to start. I used to get 2 weeks. I plan on taking full opportunity of this travelling Europe. I hope my children appreaciate the opportunity they have but at their age (10 and 13) I am sure that they will not. But that's OK.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
4-June-2011
Woke up at around 11AM. Still haven't adjusted my biological clock. Went to the a plaza called de symfonie which has several shops and a grocery store. I ended up with a brush, mouthwash, razor, then at the grocery store purchased bread, peanut butter, jelly, and some beer.
One thing of interest is the cashier's always want you to give them change so they can just give you back full euros. Two purchases, two requests for change. Still not comfortable trying to ask if they speak english or if I should just start speaking english. I'm just using grunts and hand signals right now.
One thing of interest is the cashier's always want you to give them change so they can just give you back full euros. Two purchases, two requests for change. Still not comfortable trying to ask if they speak english or if I should just start speaking english. I'm just using grunts and hand signals right now.
Friday 3-June-2011 (First day in the Netherlands)
I arrived at the Schiphol Airport at arround 12:00PM Netherlands time. The airport is located 20 minutes from the southwest portion of Amsterdam. While I was waiting for the flight to Holland at the JFK airport I started thinking that this was the last time I would be in the United States for some time. I began to think about my great grandfather Giuseppi Lo Guidice who travelled to America from Reggio, Calabria, Italy back on April 16th, 1903. I wondered if he was concerned about the same things I was concerned about. Would my family be able to sell our home? Would the kids be good while their were home with his wife? Was he wondering if he would go to his destination and be a complete flop? As I was flying over the Atlantic I kept thinking that over 108 years agon he was on a boat called the Palatia just below. He must have been a little scared.
After getting my bags I caught a taxi. It was a Mercedes. Funny that I thought my Toyota Highlander back home was much more luxurious. Anyway it was a €35. I gave him a €10 tip and he was very happy. Next time €5.
I arrived at the hotel in Nieuw-Vannep and they said that the house Moog was renting for me was available now so I went there. It was right across the street. The house was fairly large for Holland. There were four bedrooms so I took the largest one. (There will be an American couple and an engineer from India arriving later in the week) Hopefully they won't hold a grudge against me for taking the big room.
A few hours later I found that the internet required a password so I called the hotel because they also own the house which they rent out to companies for short stay visitors. They said that they made a mistake and asked if I would give up the house for a couple of days. So back to the hotel where I crashed because I was exhausted. I ate nothing and in the evening had trouble sleeping because I just kept thinking about food.
No air conditioning so that stunk. TV stunk too with very few english speaking stations.
After getting my bags I caught a taxi. It was a Mercedes. Funny that I thought my Toyota Highlander back home was much more luxurious. Anyway it was a €35. I gave him a €10 tip and he was very happy. Next time €5.
I arrived at the hotel in Nieuw-Vannep and they said that the house Moog was renting for me was available now so I went there. It was right across the street. The house was fairly large for Holland. There were four bedrooms so I took the largest one. (There will be an American couple and an engineer from India arriving later in the week) Hopefully they won't hold a grudge against me for taking the big room.
A few hours later I found that the internet required a password so I called the hotel because they also own the house which they rent out to companies for short stay visitors. They said that they made a mistake and asked if I would give up the house for a couple of days. So back to the hotel where I crashed because I was exhausted. I ate nothing and in the evening had trouble sleeping because I just kept thinking about food.
No air conditioning so that stunk. TV stunk too with very few english speaking stations.
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