Friday, October 26, 2012

Prepare your visas!

Thanks to those of you who answered my previous poll about visiting me in Myanmar. Luckily for you it was anonymous, but I do expect at least 3 lucky visitors to knock on my (guesthouse) door during my stay there. That may not sound like much, but benchmarking to Geneva visits, it's not a bad number. Can't wait to show you around, take some pictures with monks, see some lakes.

Dream job / no dream job

So my consulting dream job fell through. After months of a stretched process, the answer came on Wednesday evening, but at that point it wasn't surprising enough to make it seriously disappointing. On the one hand, I sure wanted that job - fast track to knowing everything there is to know about management, while working on cool things with the smartest people and even getting a really nice paycheck. On the other hand, I'm not too disappointed that I get to go on my adventure, and that I'm not committing to this hectic 60-hour-workweek-away-from-home lifestyle. It's interesting how life develops, and at the end of the day, I feel happy with the way it's going.

The extraordinary opportunity from Haiti seems to have disappeared, since my contact person never got back to me. Actually, that job would fit in perfectly with the advice I got from my consulting interviewers: spend the next few years on learning, try and be a big fish in a small pond. I would love to be a big fish - not for the power, just for the learning opportunity - and I'd take even a tiny, muddy, puddle.

But I've come to realize there are so many exciting opportunities already in my baseline Myanmar plan, even though I keep getting distracted from it. This report from the Asian Development Bank about the transition and opportunities in Myanmar was one recent trigger to remind me how excited I am about this journey and how I'mm bubbling with ideas for what I might do there. This report was shared by an ex-colleague who's trying to get involved in the country and who I'm meeting this weekend to brainstorm ideas of what he might do and how I can help once I'm on the ground.

Yesterday I started packing - two big boxes of stuff to put in storage and two (much smaller) boxes of stuff to give away. Giving up stuff is such a challenging and cleansing task in these modern times!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Here, there and everywhere..

With our departure date not even one month away, this seems like the right time to be finalizing our flight arrangements, getting our visas, buying whatever last items we need, packing, etc.
Instead, I am ALL OVER THE PLACE. Still pursuing that local dream-job opportunity (Europe-based), I recently received an initial offer - practically out of the blue - for a very different but very aspirational position on the other side of the globe (west from here, this time).

This is quite confusing. It's a new skill for me to be able to be excited about THREE very different and completely-conflicting plans (though doing that for TWO different plans over the past few weeks certainly helped prepare me). Google must think I'm crazy with the breadth of the geography and sectors I've been searching over the past few days.


Pics: where will I be celebrating my 30th birthday?

                                      

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Why we are all going to fail in having a great career

..and maybe why I'm going to Myanmar. A worthwhile and very personally-relevant TED talk by economics professor Larry Smith (15 min.)

"..you're afraid to pursue your passion, you're afraid to look ridiculous, you're afraid to try, you're afraid you may fail"

Friday, October 12, 2012

Three Updates

1. Looking in two
In the past few days the obvious probelm came up, that us two world explorers are looking for similar occupations in parallel; we each have different contacts and a different story, but in the end our needs are quite similar. Not only is this probably sub-optimal for our efforts, but might well lead to us finding ourselves in very different places in Myanmar (it's a big country+ transportation is poor = not an option). Since our contacts are after all - strangers, we probably shouldn't bother them with our complex dual-case.My idea would be to minimize email contacting, and try and have meetings upon arrival, which would allow for greater flexibility. Any ideas for strategies how to address this?


2. Photography project
A kind colleague suggested during our farewell coffee that I do some photography in Myanmar. We do own a pretty good camera and I do love taking pictures; I've been trying to look up ideas for a photography project I could do during our trip. I saw several ideas online: taking a daily picture, taking a picture for each letter of the alphabet, documenting something that interests me, etc. Ideally, I'd really like my project to reflect the country's development; to demonstrate the change happening over time (and I do expect that to be quite noticeable, even in a period of less than a year). Do let me know if you have any ideas!

It's probably going to be easy to get this kind of photos.
Update Oct 19:
My newest idea for the photography project is to put together a list of top-10 photos - either famous ones or photos of things I love in my current life. Then my project would be to find parallel photographs in Myanmar.

3. Progress
Following up on the promising lead I mentioned 1-2 posts ago: it has developed to a near-offer to undertake a small amount of work on the ground, which - while not exactly the kind of work I was looking for - could be a great learning opportunity for me, as well as an opportunity to get better integrated and fain a better understanding of the Myanmar landscape. How exciting! I didn't expect anything that concrete to come up at this stage, so even though it's quite small, it really makes me happy.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Baby Steps

Time is passing, and while normal life - working, travelling, laundry - is getting in the way of seriously sitting down and planning our departure, some slight progress can be seen in my networking efforts. I'm spreading the word that I'm going to Myanmar, trying to talk to everyone I can.. and just recently some potentially-interesting developments have arisen from a surprising direction. I'll keep you posted if it materializes into anything.

And yet in the back of my head (and in my shiny new google doc), our "to do" list is getting longer: entry visas, vaccinations, travel insurance, cancelling our local contracts (phones, insurance), and oh so much more. I'll try to remember to post that list when ever it seems complete - might be helpful for someone in the future.

I did spend yesterday evening checking out guesthouses in Yangon, after discovering last week that we will probably not be able to rent an apartment (legally; at least until we have an actual working contract). Prices have been going up steeply in the past year, so what we're planning to pay might buy us something like this:

Tripadvisor traveller photo of one of the highly recommended guesthouses in Yangon;
Somehow the smaller sized image makes it look a bit cosier.
Well, in all fairness, that was the most depressing picture I saw. The rest of that guesthouse actually looks quite nice and the included breakfast is supposed to be amazing (with freshly squeezed exotic-fruit-juice), but calling that room home for a few months, or even a year? shudder.

Yet excitement is certainly rising. I only have 2 more days at work, after which I can be completely free to look up all those things-that-require-lookup, start packing, read the recommended books (2 historical novels were recommended: my grandma gave me "The Glass Palace", a novel taking place in Mandalay in the days of British occupation, and a colleague recommended Orwell's "Burmese Days".) We'll also watch "The Lady", a recent Hollywood movie about Myanmar's NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Between these, I of course plan to enjoy a last taste of beautiful Swiss life.



Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Distractions

The last few weeks have been filled with distractions.

A 10-day home visit allowed me to focus on nothing else but seeing family, and friends, while doing a tiny bit of beautiful tourism.

I returned directly to a job interview, at 7.50 am the next day.
Let me explain: this is the only job I applied to in this part of the world, that might hold me back from going on my big adventure. It's been my dream-job for years. It's hard to say whether now is the best time or the worst time to get it - but honestly I'll grab it if I have the chance.

I completely flopped the interviews. After 3 of those and a written test, we got a lightning-quick casual lunch with some of the company's employees, which I tried to enjoy despite the feeling that they shouldn't be buying me lunch after my poor performance.

The feedback that came after lunch surprised me; they invited me for the next and final round of interviews. Exciting!

The next two weeks promise to be confusing: it's somewhat challenging to be excited at the same time by a move to volunteer in Burma and a corporate job in Geneva, but somehow I think I'll manage it.

If I do get an offer, I promised my beloved we'll still go - for a break of 3 months or so. He deserves it, and maybe so do I.

And to set matters straight - either way, I still plan to change the world; only now it's clear that I don't yet have sufficient tools to change the world. These tools, as I see it, can be developed through better management practices or through field experience - so regardless which of these 2 exciting paths I take, I feel I'm on track for my long-term plan.