Avaloq

Two and a half years ago, or thereabouts, I left my first professional job at CGI. Recently, a new opportunity presented itself, and last week I once again realigned my career trajectory towards pastures new.

I worked at Avaloq for more or less the same length of time that I worked for CGI. When I joined, into a team comprised entirely of other young engineers, into a company (or at least, an office) that seemed to understand how to encourage and get the best out of its employees, it was a breath of fresh air compared with the prison-esque shirt-and-trousers code-farm that I’d just left. Moving from a place where ‘free hot water’ was treated as something of a luxury, to a modern ‘start-up-style’ office was something of a culture shock. I almost felt bad for drinking so much of the coffee.

Since my start date, my entire team has one by one left Avaloq, or at least the team. It is inevitable that people will move on at this stage of their career, in this industry, but not all of the losses were on necessarily good terms. I found myself becoming more jaded as time passed, frustrated at the Zurich-centric company ethos, and struggling to find a real direction to try and lead towards.

I enjoyed working with most everyone I met, but I have been honest about my disagreement with the corporate restructuring that has occurred over the past year or so. As a result, when the opportunity to change field, to an office that is a shorter commute, it didn’t take much persuading for me to take the interview. I know that this is the right move for my career, and probably at the right time too; Danny and I have talked about our futures, and we’re likely to reach some major milestones in the next few years (a third dog is the one I’m looking forward to the most), so finding a job I love is going to be easier to do now than it will be later.

I will keep in touch with my old team, at least for the next few months as we have a standing arrangement, but I have no plans to leave Edinburgh, nor to drop off the face of the earth. I’m excited about my new path, but I’m not planning to burn any bridges on my way out.

I do have to use a Macbook for work now though. I’m not sure how I feel about that yet.