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Study Abroad - Blog

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Filtering by Category: Success Story

Georgy Volkov - MBA Student From Russia

Yana Immis

Georgy from Moscow wanted to study and work in Sports Management. Life prepared for him hospitality & event management instead and the current job of a store manager, how high were the odds? Read his story here to know more!
   
Place of Birth Moscow, Russia
Nationality Russian
Where did you live? Moscow (Russia)
Education Level Prior to Relocation Bachelor Degree
Reason of moving to Germany MBA Program
When did you move? 2014
How old were you? 26
Are you still in Germany? Yes
What is your current occupation? Working full-time
What is your future goal? Executive job or gathering knowledge for the own company
Would you like to stay in Germany? Yes

Chapter 1: Russia

I have been living in Moscow all my life. My mother is Russian and my father is from Georgia.

I started skiing from 5 years old. I was reluctant first but then I started liking it. I was in a Moscow national team for professional skiing and I visited half of Europe 2 times a year due to championships: Austria Italy France Switzerland. I guess, my love for Europe developed back then.

Languages were always easy for me to learn: I studied in an English specialized school in Moscow so I learned languages from an early age. In the 8th grade I chose German as my 3rd language. I don’t even know why. Now I definitely do not regret it. I always studied languages at ease. I did my home assignments with the left leg and still was successful. I am choosing the next language now: Chinese or Arabic? I am not sure. Any advice?

In a Russian school until 8th grade, we studied British English. From 8th grade we got a new teacher with American English. Why though? I had a conflict with the English teacher and that was the reason I switched school. I am a rebel! I refused to study American English.

I travelled 3 Summers in a row to the UK to learn English. I liked it a lot, but London is way too expensive and really for no reason. I started studying at a university in Moscow and finished a 5-year degree. That’s where I got my best friends’ group. And that’s when I developed my passion towards sports management. I got into football.

I graduated in 2010 and then helped my mother with our family business (managing restaurant). I am thankful for this experience because I realized: never again family business. My mother and I had absolutely different ways of managing business.

Afterward I worked with a daughter company of Lukoil for 3 years. I loved it and I got to know the racing teams. I love cars and races since then, let’s call it my weakness. I like Rally, Formula 1, I visited Sochi Formula 1, WTCC in Europe thanks to my connections from Lukoil, travelled to Austria and Belgium to watch. I do not race myself, but I am good at carting 😊

Afterwards I wanted to do a step ahead and to study abroad (2014) but I would never dare. The reason I started to think about it was when the universe gave me a sign (literally) -  half of the company was fired including me to cut costs.

So I decided, I wanted to study Sports Management in the USA, but my parents said it was too far. The UK I disregarded right away, due to costs and we came up with Germany. I spoke German, relatives lived around Tegernsee, I did winter sports and it was not far away from Moscow.

I was choosing between Munich and Berlin and the program was predefined: MBA in Sport Management. Hockey, Football, Tennis, Skiing, Racing sport – I wanted to study that. But the universe (again) had different plans for me.

I chose Munich over Berlin because I visited both cities and there was no room left for hesitation. Berlin is very international and has less of a traditional German charm, which Bavaria has.

Chapter 2: Germany VS Russia

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When I arrived, it was really hard. Bureaucracy drove me nuts: extending the visa or searching for a new flat. I was lucky with the flat though at first. I also couldn’t get used to the fact, that life stops at 8 PM. Everything is always closed, especially on Sundays. No people around; and it seems that Munich had Zombie Apocalypse or something.

In Germany, when things are promised, they are fulfilled. The people are neat, they are not in a hurry. Moscow is very chaotic and disorganized sometimes with walk-throughs. I got used to the order in things and life, to plan in advance and to schedule appointments.

In Moscow you can go to 24/7 shops and buy everything and you never plan.

With planning, you get so much free time because you prioritize your activities well. Cinema, museums (so many in Munich, love it), football, tennis, going to the lakes – so much more free time appears due to a well-planned day.

I missed friends and family but then I got to know new friends as well and it was easier afterwards. My friends from Moscow and my parents visit me 1-2 times a year.

I found a group of people, who travel to Austria and Italy. You pay participation fee 50 Euro per event, which includes transport back and forth as well as the ski pass and we travel to ski with them. This is incredibly cheap and this is a great group of people! You can find new friends everywhere.

Difficulty was finding a new flat – you take 3-4 months to find it. You write to 100 people, only 5 will reply. So take care of this in advance.

But okay, new country – new rules. I must follow them. I had to accept this fact.

Mostly I was using the English language everywhere, but my German drastically improved with no particular effort. If you come to study here and you want to stay, you definitely need to learn German if you want your salary to be higher.

I once went to Hugo Boss with my mother to buy a jacket and I spoke to the personnel in English. Then I switched to German and the service improved by far! They even gave me a present at the end. You see the difference how people treat you when you learn the language. They like it.

There is Hoch Deutsch – official German language – the one they speak in Hamburg, as an example. For me, Bavarian would sound cute and soft.

I graduated from my MBA and received 18 months job seeking a visa. How to find a job in Germany? The first step: proper CV with professional photo – employers right away see if you are serious about applications. Condensed efficient information, recommended 1 page with key points. Do not write much or a soap opera in your CV, you need to be as precise as possible on 1 page.

I recommend for the whole week long to apply to 20-30 jobs if you aim for quantity initially. If you are denied in the job applications – you either get no reply or a general reply. You will never know why you have gotten denied.

I found a job right away in event management and hospitality. I worked in Bayerischer Hof and Hilton hotels. We helped room service and managed banquets with VIP guests for Breakfast Management (for luxurious hotel rooms).

Finding a job in Germany has never been a problem. Finding the right one for me was.

I applied through LinkedIn & XING – these two websites I would highly recommend to everyone searching for a job. I have been working for 18 months to find my dream job, but I haven’t found it and my visa expired.

I was working for a company and my salary wasn’t good enough to extend my visa. I got job offers from different hotels, but I denied them because I did not want to go into hospitality. Not only that I didn’t want to do that, KVR (Immigration office in Munich) would not allow me to do so.

  • The first job of a foreigner must be related to your previous studies and it is always connected to your employer. It will be written on your visa and you cannot simply quit so be careful!

  • 2nd visa for work is independent and you can work for any employer in Germany.

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Chapter 3: Germany

I came back to Russia for the time being and returned quickly after, as my classmate from Munich offered me a job. Of course, I came back! After I lived in Munich for 4 years and then I came back to Moscow, I was incredibly depressed.

While I was surviving in Moscow for 8 months… Simon – my Munich classmate and a good friend from the Czech Republic started a franchise for British & American sweets in Munich and we decided to work together. I am currently a store manager. We are located at the central station in Munich and our shop is called The Candy Store.

I couldn’t work in the family business. But working with a friend is great. No conflicts, no problems – clear division of work and friendship. I like how Simon is a genuine businessman. He grabs every opportunity to develop business.

I would not think of opening my own business now. Maybe someday in the future. I love to be an executive, it is not for everyone to open a company. Let me first get my permanent residence in Germany and then we will see what the future brings.

We are launching an online shop soon for British & American candies. If everything goes well with the online shop, we are thinking of opening a second store in Munich. Once we are stable there, we will aim for the other big cities and expand. Pay us a visit! I love how much I learned about suppliers, renting prices in Munich, work with customers and I highly appreciate that opportunity.

It was very difficult to get a license to sell drinks, one of the beauties of Bavaria (sarcasm). Because of USA & UK not having the same “Pfand” (recycling) system. So we had to get the specific stickers and translations for that. It took quite a while but we finally got it running.

Who would think, from Sports Management to Hospitality to Store Management? When Life Gives you Lemons, make a lemonade!

I aim to stay in Europe, I did not consider other countries, because Germany is for me!

Will Germany be for you? Perhaps. If you follow this advice from me (below) you will be successful here!

  1. Learn German!

  2. Choose a good university! Not all universities are accredited or recognized. Many universities say they grant German degrees, but in reality, they issue British or Italian degrees or degrees with no accreditation. Always ask a consultant on territory for help!

  3. Germanize yourself! To the traditions, way of life, rules

  4. Be patient! Not like me – learn from my mistakes

  5. Be initiative! This is something Germans appreciate

  6. Don’t give up! You will have culture shock and you would want to come back home. Do not do that! You will only regret. I wanted to come back home, I was stressed and unhappy here first. But overnight everything changed and I never regretted staying in Germany after

Not everything will be perfect here, there will be ups and downs. But this is life. Accept it and move on!

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categories Success Story
tags 2019

Yury T. - Bachelor Student From Ukraine

Yana Immis

Meet Yury, a talented young man, who knows you can learn everything yourself. Coding? From the book. German language? From Netflix. You can read his study in Germany success story here.
   
Nationality Ukrainian
Where did you live? Donetsk, Kharkov (Ukraine), Bucharest (Romania)
Education Level Prior to Relocation 1st Year Bachelor
Reason of moving to Germany Bachelor Program
When did you move? 2016
How old were you? 17
Are you still in Germany? Yes
What is your current occupation? 3rd Year Bachelor Student
What is your future goal? Blue Card, Work Projects in Fin Tech
Would you like to stay in Germany? For now yes

Chapter 1: I have no idea what I am doing, let’s try to change it

There is not much to tell before my relocation to Germany. I started my studies in computer science in Ukraine, but I only studied there for around 3 months. Afterward, I decided to move to Romania to be closer to my brother.

When I started paying more attention to studies though, I quickly realized that my skills in Physics (which surprisingly enough is quite intense in CS program) are very poor. Even though the course was held in English, it was tough for me to catch up with scientific disciplines. After having spent approximately a year and a half in Bucharest, I caught myself thinking that maybe for me it would be better to move someplace else for studies.

I didn’t know at that moment what I wanted to study instead. I realized that even though I was interested in programming and computers, I didn’t want to study computer science at university just because it changes too quickly. I didn’t make as many friends in Bucharest, because I didn’t speak the language and also because of that, at the time I couldn’t find any work, so I decided to explore other opportunities.

I came across an Educational Fair in Bucharest – an exhibition of private universities from abroad talked to a few representatives and signed myself up for newsletters. I didn’t really think there would be any result out of that. 

Germany has never been on my radar, but, one day, I saw a full scholarship competition at a private university there. The scholarship paid for the entire course (approximately €39000 in tuition fees). The task was to write a marketing strategy for the company that sold smart thermostats across Europe. 

It hit me that I wouldn’t be able to get the money to pay for the tuition fees myself and I needed to find a scholarship, that would pay for the entire thing. So I decided to try and to win it.

It was pretty fun to write it because my strategy was to invest much more effort and time than anybody else could possibly invest in writing a case. So I locked myself in a room for 2 weeks writing the case full-time. I only took occasional breaks for getting muffins from the nearest gas station.

It was fun when people actually started checking on me whether I was ok because I completely went ‘full monk’ and didn’t go online. 

After waiting 2 weeks for the results, it turned out that I won and it took me a while afterward to realize it actually happened. 

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Chapter 2: I still have no idea what I’m doing, but something started to change

My first three semesters in Germany were a stressful mess with all kinds of possible immigration issues and hardcore studying. I’m probably the only person who read all the textbooks mentioned in the course syllabus. At the end of the 3rd semester, I saw that focusing on studies only is not doing it. I had to do something real, I wanted to practice. I wanted to understand how real companies work.

Luckily enough, 4th semester was a mandatory internship, where you have to go out and find an internship position pretty much anywhere you like.

How did I find my internship? I applied. I applied a lot. I sent around 1500 applications in 2-3 months time range and I tried all kinds of approaches and it was quite hard emotionally to stay positive about doing something for so long without any apparent results.

After going to a bunch of interviews, I ended up with 2 most appealing offers. 2 companies that offered me a position were: Allianz Technology Headquarters (Project Management Internship) and Finiata - Fin. Tech Start-Up in Berlin.

I was faced with a choice. 

Should I go to a big corporation or choose a startup company?

Most people who I asked for advice told me that I should go with Allianz. However, I wanted to learn some hands-on skills, so that I could use them in my own companies later on.

And for some reason, I was strongly biased against working in big companies because I assumed that my backlog would mostly consist of bringing coffee to a specified table and scanning some random papers all the time.

As a result, I was on my way to Berlin. 

My first day was a real deal. First of all, my paranoia hit me and I thought that when I was ironing a shirt in the Airbnb in the morning I forgot to turn off the iron.

So halfway to the office, I’m returning back and come to find the iron turned off. Cool, next step is sprint running back to the subway station. When I arrived at the subway station I realized that now I’m all sweaty and I really need to go back and change. 3 hours after the specified time…

…I show up at the office thinking that I’m about to get fired on my first day. 

This was the day when I realized that I liked startups because even though I thought I had made a mistake that would cost me a career, my colleagues were really nice and said that it was all cool. And even more, messed up was the fact that I was literally the only person dressed up formally and I was getting friendly mocked for the rest of the day. 

After this, I started paying attention to work and turns out that the relaxed atmosphere in startups doesn’t mean you don’t need to work. You’ll have to work and you’ll have to work a lot.

Deadlines are mostly tight and almost all startups by definition fight for survival. I quickly realized that my theoretical knowledge wasn’t nearly enough and I needed to learn practical skills fast. For this, I asked my boss to give me a reading list of all he wanted me to learn and I tried to put in as many hours as I could. 

In order to sum up my experience, I think it’s important to cover different sides of it:

Berlin - I really loved the place

The city is very versatile. The nightlife is really impressive, especially for someone who has never lived in a big city before.

Prices may either make you happy or sad, but for me, prices in Berlin were really low compared to Munich. If you are looking for culture, Berlin has a lot to offer and I’m not even talking about galleries and museums so much.

It’s just interesting to talk to people. Most have opinions on almost everything and it doesn’t matter so much what you are interested in, you can find someone to discuss it with. I am a big fan of this city, however, if you are looking for a quiet place, I think you would be disappointed. City is full of life and almost never sleeps. 

Work - once again I loved working there

The only problem was that it was my first actual work and I took it too far and burned out. Turns out the sleep is important and if you don’t rest enough your work is pretty much worthless.

But everything else was really great. You want to chill for a minute and send a meme to a Slack channel, it’s cool. You want to go and distract yourself from work - go to the resting area. You want to go and have a fancy lunch - pick a cuisine.

Where I worked there was a really cool atmosphere of meritocracy. So get your stuff done and do whatever you want. 

In a retrospective, computer skills were really useful. Almost any business these days relies on digital to a certain extent. This means that if you know major web technologies, you won’t be lost. If you know them well - you will be useful. I was mostly working with marketing platforms and website management and had to learn a lot of things from scratch. If you learn quickly and adjust, you’ll most likely do well in startups. 

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Ok, now I understand what I like to do and where I want to move further, but my internship is over. After I finished my internship, I didn’t want to stop working. I started to look for a job right away and my former boss gave me a good reference and recommended a travel startup in Munich - Fineway. I started as a working student in Marketing, but later on, I transferred to data science. Short side note, I started learning Python in Berlin and this was a very good call because it opened up to me the opportunity to switch to data science and ditch Excel for good.

Meanwhile, I was helping out my brother and his wife with their projects and my experience from work really changed a lot in our family business. 

Chapter 3: I know what I’m doing and why and kind of understand how to get there

Currently, I am finishing up my business administration degree and plan to stay in Germany and work here for a couple more years.

After you’re done with your studies and have your diploma you can apply either for a work-seeking visa or directly for working visa, if you already have the contract signed.

You have to meet the minimum salary requirement, which is lower for tech and scientific workers, than for business people, but it’s pretty doable considering the German level of wages. 

In the end, I came back to technical specialty, but studying business and working in marketing was a huge game-changing experience. Unless you have a business point of view, it’s very hard to understand what technologies you need to learn and why. Also, nobody said you can’t mix the two. For example, my bachelor thesis topic is: “Application of Artificial Intelligence in Entrepreneurial innovation”. 

Piece of advice for people who would want to study in Germany:

  • Do not solely rely only on your degree

The degree is important, but it’s not everything. Unless you have good references, heavy hands-on skills, experience, and social skills, it would be very hard to find a good position based solely on your diploma. 

In short, start working as soon as possible and learn a lot. 

  • Choose a program with a mandatory internship

I believe that the internship was the most important part of my studies. It allowed me to understand how real business works, meet really cool people. My opinion is that you can learn this lesson either the hard way or just take what I say. I honestly can not picture how someone would be able to find work without internship experience. 

  • Programming skills are like language skills

Programming or other technical skills would be useful almost anywhere in the future. My approach was close to the one that Linus Torvalds had. Just code something that would be useful for you. Start with small simple stuff, like building a command in bash that would open links for news and tell you the weather, then make more complex stuff. 

The diploma is a must if you want to work in Germany, but additional skills like languages and tech expertise would make it easy for you to find a job. To be honest, you don’t even need instructors for this. I recently went to language school and placement test distinguished that my level is B2.2 even though I only learned German with a book that I bought and Netflix. The same goes for programming, I mostly read O’Reilly books and looked up programming tutorials on the web. Yep, that might be hard if you are not used to it, but nobody said that it’s supposed to be simple.

  • Read a lot!

The reading really changed everything for me. It was a real shift in the way I see everything after I realized that there is a ton of books on the issues, that I really need to know about. There are good books on almost any topic: psychology, management, marketing, finance, personal life, managing emotions, and programming. You’d be surprised. I don’t read fiction books as much at the moment(max. 2-3 per year), but non-fiction literature can get you very far.

  • You can do a lot. It takes luck and skill, but the initiative is very important. Just try stuff

Your personal experience, skills, and interests are significant, no matter how inapplicable they may seem to you. Just try yourself in anything that interests you. It may take a while to figure out what is genuinely interesting for you. For example, it took me 3 musical instruments and 8 years of studying in musical school to understand that I don’t like making music. However, it doesn’t mean that it was useless. The music industry is vastly ignored and overlooked and there is a lot of interesting stuff that you can do there - take Spotify. 

You can be into movies, sports, computer games, watches, parties or whatever. Business education would help you to understand how you may make money out of it. And if you don’t know what you’re interested in, business education may eventually help you find this out. 

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categories Success Story
tags 2019

Osanna Lechner - MBA Student From Armenia

Yana Immis

A girl from Russia with Armenian roots and temper proves us that women can do an MBA, excel in career and have a family at once. You can read her study in Germany success story here.
Place of Birth Yerevan, Armenia
Nationality Russian (by passport) Armenian (by heart)
Where did you live? Yerevan (Armenia), Moscow (Russia), Munich (Germany)
Education Level Prior to Relocation Bachelor Degree
Reason of moving to Germany MBA Program
When did you move? 2010
How old were you? 25
Are you still in Germany? No
What is your current occupation? Family & Working In a Bank in Switzerland
What is your future goal? Career Advancement
Would you like to come back to Germany? Yes

Chapter 1: Moscow

I was born in Yerevan in 1985 and I lived there until I was 9 years old. This was my carefree and happy childhood. I was like a tomboy, always outside with friends, climbing trees and rooftops, stealing apples. My parents are patriots and they love Armenia. They would have never left if not the conditions. It was a very hard time for them, because of USSR collapse it got to the point that we had not enough to eat, we had no light, no electricity, no water. We were not living, we were surviving. One day, my mother simply couldn’t stand it anymore.

My parents’ main language was Russian (they learnt it in school) and they decided to take a risk and relocate to Moscow. They were 39 years old when they moved with nothing but the baby and 100$ in hands. They achieved everything themselves.  My father was a very influential person in Armenia, but for Russia, he was nobody: no connections, no work experience. He had to accept not the job he wanted, but rather any job available on the market. He was literally downgraded to hand working jobs. My mother was working in 3-5 different places teaching English. They worked all day. Every day. For 5 or 6 years. I didn’t see my parents at all.

In 1996 we finally managed to break even and start family businesses (Mom with her travel agency, Dad with his construction company). With the peak of tourism from Russia, my mother successfully launched a travel agency and brought 40 people-tours to Italy on a weekly basis.

I had the opportunity to study at a university and to travel and I would like to thank my parents for this opportunity. They earned money with hard work but instead of saving money, they spent it on the family. We know the value of money: we travelled, we went to restaurants, we gave each other presents. My parents are amazing and I am so proud of them. To pay back, I worked for around 5 years for my mother’s business in Russia.

The idea of studying abroad came to me spontaneously. A lot happened in my life that made me leave Moscow.

My argument: I wanted to live abroad or I had to marry a guy (all of my friends got married, got children) but no normal Armenian man from a good family was on the radar. And since, in Armenia, you do not marry a man, but rather his whole family, it was rather challenging to make everyone happy.

My mother’s argument: it was her dream for me to study abroad.

My father’s argument: he was against. Simply against. A Caucasian Armenian man always keeps the only child nearby.

But things changed with 2008 – 2009 crisis. My father noticed young MBAs flooding the companies in Russia: with no knowledge or work experience, but with American or European education. For some reason (what always surprised us) anyone with an MBA was earning a better salary from scratch. My father decided I should get an MBA as well.

Of course, my father aimed very high and I could not keep up with his ambitions. We applied to the best Business Schools in the world, but I didn’t have the English language test. I missed all the deadlines as well while waiting for the test results. I didn’t know where to go what to choose: which university, in which language, private or not…

At one of the study abroad fairs, I met a university representative with spot admission and I secured myself a place at a Swiss university. After we analyzed the costs of Switzerland I decided to choose the same major German program.

My father gave me and my mother a present for the 8th of March (Women’s day – it is a very big holiday in Russia) – a flight to Munich. I loved it with all my heart: it is something between Yerevan and Moscow. You can walk to the center from any corner. It is a beautiful city. Some people are kind and some are snobs - the usual.

Chapter 2: Munich

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I arrived in Germany with a lot of hopes and excitement. I was scared a bit, as it was the first time I would be living alone. I found an apartment through an agency renting out furnished flats.

Apartment viewing predefined my future and I had no idea about it. The flat was great, I moved in right away; the landlord was a very nice and charming German guy, we bonded right away and became really good friends…

… and that was the beginning of my life in Germany. In a few years, I started calling that flat home and that landlord became my husband. Our son is Russian-German and we are living in Switzerland now.

I started my MBA in Munich. But I was crying at home after classes. I was so much interested in the subjects, but I could not express myself in the English language. Things changed when I made friends with my amazing classmates. Every day we went out – to see the city, or to a club, bar, or restaurant. I registered at an expat forum, InterNations, and started attending events and parties. Living alone without parents is great - you can use your time how you want. Day time for yourself. Evening time studies. Weekends for enjoying life.

Mary, Juliana, Ioulia, Catherine

You helped me graduate. Thank you so much, girls!

After I graduated, it took me 3-4 months to find a job. I went through all possible interviews and despite my work experience in Russia, I did not feel comfortable applying for a job. I only applied for internship positions (worth 500-900 Euro monthly). I didn’t know the German language and I only wanted to get work experience from Germany on my CV.

No one offered me a job and I gave up. This is a definition of overqualified.

Now I know. Don’t do my mistake. Never downgrade yourself, rather aim higher! You can always settle with a company.

I called my mother and told her I would be leaving Germany with the first flight to Moscow.

A company found me on InterNations, contacted me and offered me a full-time position (instead of an internship). To quote them precisely: “Are you nuts? You are not an intern. Are you 19 years old with no experience? No! We will offer you 2500 Euro instead of 500 Euro.” Thank you Jurgen and Dan!

I called my mother and told her I would not be leaving Germany with the first flight to Moscow.

I set up an accounting system and organized a PayPal shop. In fact, I also helped 2 of my classmates to get jobs here: Marisa, Alina. I stayed with this lovely company for 2.5 years until my relocation to Switzerland to support my husband in 2013. Due to the nature of his business (investment), he realized, market conditions there were much more attractive than in Germany.

Chapter 3: Wollerau

Osanna Lechner MBA Student From Armenia 3.JPG

If someone like you would lend a hand back then (7-8 years ago), when I was planning my study abroad trip, it would have been great. You know why?

  • I had trouble with the English language. I didn’t qualify for many schools because I didn’t have any language certificate. I only had 5.5 IELTS which was lower than what the majority of universities require. First half a year was very difficult because despite understanding the material, I couldn’t explain myself

  • I had trouble with the visa. When I was writing my MBA thesis, I didn’t have permission to work. I had to find the way out myself

  • I had trouble with the job search. I was about to give up and leave Germany after Graduation because I just couldn’t make it. It would have been great to have someone to talk to back then, who understand, who is around the corner to help out

There are many students who want to go abroad from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Armenia. They do not know where to start and where to find information. Who can help them apply? What is required and in which language & format? If you are a person in Germany, who can help and direct, it would be so great for prospective students. If you existed, when I was thinking of applying to study abroad, it would have made my life easier. I had no one in Germany to ask for help from. But at least (*giggle*) I did not have trouble with accommodation search.

After Yerevan, Moscow, and Munich I was shocked when I realized I need to live in a village with 7,500 inhabitants. It takes me 40 min to get to Zurich and to other big cities. At first, I had no friends, no university, no work. Only my husband, who was working all day long.

That same feeling I had when I first moved to Munich. I felt horrible. But things changed: I got engaged in the Russian speaking community and was often travelling around Switzerland and home to Russia. We got a baby boy and once he received Russian and German passports, we moved to Moscow to my family for the time being. I am working in Switzerland and my child is here. I brought my family here to the flat nearby. I am working in CIM bank with Russian and English speaking clients as a Relationship Manager for the last 2 years: I like my job, I love my family and it is not that bad here at all.

I am from Armenia, I thought we would never leave, but we did. Russia was my home afterward and I dreamt of moving to Italy. Nope, I moved to Germany. I hated it at first, but then I fell in love with the city and didn’t want to leave, but obviously, there seems to be a trend – I left for Switzerland to support my husband. I hated Switzerland, but now I found my home and my family here. What happens next?

It is like a circle, everything gets aligned. I would have never imagined marrying a German. But hey, he is the only person I know, who can handle my explosive Armenian character. I want to be back to Armenia one day, but we have to make complicated choices in our life and family is a priority above all.

Bottom line: life never happens as you wish. Things will change upside-down, so don’t even bother trying to plan. 

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categories Success Story
tags 2019