My First Visit to Hamburg
My first visit to Hamburg took place back in Summer 2010, namely on 13th of June, 2010. I memorized the exact date because it was the beginning of completely new and exciting chapter of my life.
It was a warm and sunny Summer day when I first arrive in Hamburg airport. I didn’t know at that time that such a nice weather is rear in Hamburg, at least, if compare with Yerevan, where it’s sunny most of the time, even in winter. I went out the plane and immediately found myself in the crowdy airport building.
Following the “Ausgang - Exit” signs I went down the stairs past the large poster with “Welcome to Hamburg” greetings written in dozens of languages (didn’t find Armenian letters, unfortunately). I didn’t need to wait for my luggage, because my trip must be short, and I took only a backpack. Of course, my photo camera was also with me. I caught a taxi and headed up directly to the hotel.
While being in the taxi I didn’t pay too much attention on surrounding and was focused on the main purpose of my visit to Hamburg - the job interview. Three days long trip included arrival on day one, passing (or failing) the job interview on the day two and finally return flight on the third day - not too much time for relaxing.
Looking from the cab’s window I thought about the past few months preceding my visit to Hamburg. The phone interview, exchange of many emails, negotiation and planning for an onsite interview, complex visa application procedure in German embassy etc. All these were in the past now, and I should, perhaps, feel a deep relief, but couldn’t - so much time and energy invested, and it would be pity to fail on the last stage. Yeah, I admit, was really nervous.
This time I decided to avoid my previous mistakes and reserve significant time for taking enough rest and sleep, especially after long journey and nightly flight. Studying in university, bazillion tests, exams and interviews have taught me a simple empiric rule: fresh brain is almost a half of the success. The only thing I had to do was finding the company’s office in order to save time the next morning. Fortunately the hotel was located in a couple of hundred meters from the office, and I’ve easily found it - I knew where to go next morning.
The hotel and the office settled on the territory of the former gas factory. The surrounding had (and still has) a very authentic design - all buildings built of red bricks were preserved from the factory, but internally were transformed into modern offices occupied by multiple small and large companies.
I was walking around, exploring the buildings and went further along a street without knowing where I go. I didn’t care, actually, as everything was new and interesting. I recall very well small open street cafes in the neighborhood, dozens of men sitting at the tables outside with bottles of cold bear and watching a football game (FIFA World Cap 2010 in South Africa) on large TV screens. They were really loud and expressive about the game. Some looked suspiciously at me holding a large EOS camera1:)
Streets were unusually quiet and calm with only a few pedestrians2, however I spotted some interesting ones too. All these immediately built up a special feeling of the city, which preserved until now.
The company that invited me to the job interview was rather small, but prominent one (unfortunately the company doesn’t exist anymore, and this is the second company I worked in that disappeared). They produced a famous GUI test automation tool, which was widely used, especially for Qt based applications.
Combination of C++ programming language, Qt framework, test automation and being small and startup like made the company very attractive to me - it corresponded to my skillset and was exactly what I was looking for.
When next morning I first rang the doorbell and stepped into the office I saw a relatively tiny but cozy space, split into even smaller rooms occupied by two computer desks each. Although, at that time the company was already seven years old, it still preserved the startup mood with a minimum of bureaucracy and was led by two co-founders sharing responsibilities of CEO, CTO etc.3 I never saw such a small company before, but liked the working spirit within. Inhabitants welcomed me, introduced themselves and enthusiastically told about their work and experience. I met a few engineers with the wide range of technical skills. Surprisingly, there were no managers, leads and other formal hierarchies - only a self organized community of engineers.
The interview itself went well. I introduced myself, told about my past, the present and the career path. My previous experience as a test engineer seemed to be beneficial for the company whose main product was a test automation tool. We’ve found many aspects in common in what I did before and what the company currently does and going to do. It built up an impression that I’m a good fit to the company. Finally, I’ve solved an algorithmic coding task on the whiteboard with the detailed explanation of the solution. After all the questions were asked, the interviewers offered me to leave and wait while they are discussing their impressions. Although I was trying to stay calm, I was very excited, but ready for any decision. In 15-20 minutes both co-founders came and told me that they liked how it went and want to offer me a job in the company. That was a great news, and I was trying to suppress my excitement and happiness. It didn’t take to much time to decide to accept the offer to join the team.
When I was going to leave the office one of the co-founders offered me to meet in the evening for a short city tour in Hamburg. I was surprised by such an attention and gladly agreed, because, as mentioned earlier, I hadn’t had a chance to walk to the downtown or somewhere else except the hotel’s surroundings on the day of arrival, and it would be a great opportunity to see the city. I also thought that we could get to know better each other in a less formal atmosphere. In the same evening we met in the hotel’s lobby and drove to my first city tour in Hamburg. Along the Elbe river to the harbor full of huge containerships, then to the downtown, where I saw the beautify city hall, tall churches, Inner Alster Lake with its yachts and boots, crowded narrow streets with expensive shops. I was impressed how all these were harmonized within a single city and I started to feel it.
The idea to offer a city tour in addition to the job interview was a great and wise move from the company side, because I immediately feel belonging and got being accepted by the company and the team not only formally, but also emotionally. Such a personal treatment of new hires can boost the motivation and engagement. Unfortunately I never saw such moves from other companies either before or after.
I had to leave the hotel next morning. The cab has arrived perfectly on time, and the driver was a friendly guy. As he spoke English we chatted while headed up to the airport. He was curious about what I’m doing in Hamburg. When he knew I’m a software developer, just got a job offer and going to move to Hamburg to work here he smiled and told: “That’s great! We need highly-qualified guys in Germany”. Perhaps, it sounds a bit naive, but this phrase has built up in me an inner confidence that I’m on the right way and everything will be fine.
When the airplane finally took off, I looked from the window on Hamburg below. At that moment I just realized how beautiful it is from above: the harbor, the Elbe river, Alster, greens and parks. This view has built up my feeling of Hamburg as a city which stays with me until now.
When I was back to home my wife asked me: “What do you think about Hamburg?”, I immediately formulated my impression in one sentence:
There are cities that have parks inside, but Hamburg is a park with a city inside…
P. S. At that time we didn’t know that it will take about six months to finally move to Hamburg. But it is another story.
At that time built-in cell phone cameras weren’t that powerful and good as nowadays in smartphones. ↩︎
I realized it later that it was Sunday, and nobody (well, almost) works on Sundays in Germany. Most of the stores, supermarkets are closed. ↩︎
Actually the company was never a classical startup founded by an entrepreneur. They always had a product to ship and no investors’ money, AFAIK. ↩︎