The American businessmen Robert Townsend once wrote: “If you shoot for the stars and hit the moon, it’s OK. But you’ve got to shoot for something. A lot of people don’t even shoot.” In that sense, let me tell you that my star will be Australia: At the end of this year I’ll migrate from Germany to Australia.
It’s a lifetime dream of both, my wife and myself. We didn’t participate in a school exchange nor later in an exchange of students. More than 3 years ago we decided to do it now, before we’d have kids.
In August 2009 we started to work on our visa. We wanted to have a so called Skilled Independent Visa, which would grant us to work in Australia wherever we want. This type of visa normally takes about 2 years. One has to hop through dozens of loops to get this visa, but eventually we made it. During this journey we also got married, so it took us 3 years overall (about 2 years net) to get our visa.
We spent our honeymoon travelling through Australia. It was a great way to find out if we’d like the place – and we loved it! We decided to move to Melbourne.
On December the 2nd our plane departs from Frankfurt, Germany. On December the 4th our dream will finally come true as we’ll arrive in Melbourne, Australia. We’re so looking forward to that day!
Jobwise I still want to work as an Agile coach, trainer, and consultant. This is where my strength and passion lies. What I heard about Down Under so far is that they have a very strong Agile community and market. I’m looking forward to seeing this for myself and becoming a part of it.
I haven’t decided yet if I want to be an independent Agile coach and start a business, work for an interesting company in a challenging position, or do something completely different.
I’ve already started to get in touch with fellow Agilists in Oz. I’d be happy to talk to you, too, if you want to share your experience, learn from mine in Germany, or know of interesting opportunities in the Agile community in Australia.
Feel free to contact me to chat or if you know another Agilist or know someone who knows one. Once I’m in Oz we can then catch up in person during a cup of coffee.
Please pass the message on. I’d appreciate it!
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