Recently I started working at a German Open Source company. Now the first week is over, and it’s time for the first review.
Last week I started working at the Open Source company credativ in Germany. Now, some days and a weekend later the first buzz is over, and real work life begins to settle in.
That includes, of course, a regular work day, with a fixed set of hours. Coming straight from the university this is something I’m not really used to, but I hope I will get used to in some weeks. Anyway, the more interesting aspect is working in this special company: people address each other usually with the first name (which is still not common in Germany yet and was unthinkable 20 years ago), the hierarchy is quite flat, you have core times, can work from home if necessary, etc. – and you have a house fully packed with Open Source power. In case you want to know anything, you just walk to the next room, and you can talk to an expert: Database specialists, Debian release managers, network monitoring gurus, enterprise spam fighters, and so on. That’s really exciting.
But also, since the company has a lot to do, and since the ecosystem of Open Source Software is incredibly huge, everyone has to work himself into new fields once in a while. For me as a beginner this is even more true. And I enjoy it, because I like to get to know new programs and new tools. Also, the atmosphere in the company is not pressing, but encouraging, which make it even better.
Of course these are just the first days and I will see how the next weeks and months will look like. I don’t know yet, but I’m pretty confident 
One thing left: in case you would like to work at an Open Source company and are ready to move to Germany (or maybe Great Britain or Canada), credativ is always looking for skilled Open Source people. Right now they really need database experts, php programmers and of course in general people who know their way around Linux. If you have any questions you can just contact me.
And now its back to work. Open Source work.
July 10, 2008 at 16:47
Good luck on your new job, it seems great!
July 10, 2008 at 17:16
Good luck.
July 10, 2008 at 17:50
Good Luck. I think it will be great
July 10, 2008 at 17:55
“everyone has to work himself into new fields once in a while.”
Heh, I do R+D, which essentially means everything my boss (a really nice guy) or I find some library, application, technology or idea which might be interesting and/or useful for the company, I learn the basics about it, develop some prototypes and a) either discard it right away or, b) teach someone in production the basics, then they start using it and I’m back to learning something new. I’m learning something new every two weeks! Never boring!
July 10, 2008 at 18:51
Ooops, that should have read “or I find INTERESTING (some library,…)”
July 10, 2008 at 20:47
“people address each other usually with the first name (which is still not common in Germany yet and was unthinkable 20 years ago),”
Actually this has been the case everywhere were I have been working until now (7 jobs if I remember correctly).
Alex
July 10, 2008 at 21:39
Alex, nice for you, but there are still many jobs were that isn’t the case, so while it is spread, it is not common I would say. Having said that, I haven’t read statistics about it…
Pau, that sounds cool, good for you
July 10, 2008 at 22:34
Roland,
I’d like to take you up on the offer of talking to you. Drop me an e-mail at the e-mail address that I’m posting.
Tschüß!
July 11, 2008 at 10:33
Keep on posting about your Job!
I’m a (german) physicist, too. Still writing my diploma thesis, I’m very interested in all kind of job opportunities for young physicists
July 12, 2008 at 2:20
Don’t forget you could always cross into the applied physics realm and do geophysics for massive dollars
(that’s my plan, anyway)
July 12, 2008 at 22:23
Troy, I do wonder: what do you think how long could I “come back” (if I would ever). I mean, if I haven’t done physics for 20 years, no one would take me back. After 6 months nothing would be a problem. But what do you think, where is the limit?
July 13, 2008 at 10:48
Roland, I hope you’ll still have the time to post here. Like all changes, they take time to adapt to.