Nico wasted no time after leaving school. He started his training as an IT specialist with us straight after leaving school, which he successfully completed. Since then, he has been working as a developer in the area of our cloud solutions - CIS/4 Cloud. What sounds like the perfect start to his career had a catch. He didn't have the opportunity to take a longer trip, as many people do after leaving school or university. Nico's idea was therefore to spend a year travelling around Australia by car, but still remain part of the company and part of his team. This was not only new territory for him, but also for CONCETO, as remote work over this length of time, time zones and across national and legal borders had never been done before. In addition to the legal hurdles, it was above all Nico's team that made the year abroad possible. The framework was created from the usual work processes so that Nico could continue to work and be kept 'in the loop' despite the huge distance. Among other things, a team colleague agreed to act as the main contact person and link; anything but easy due to the time difference. At the same time, our HR, Nico and the team worked together to develop a solution that offered a high degree of flexibility and the greatest possible leeway for the year abroad. We now want to find out from Nico himself how well this concept has worked in practice.
Welcome back! Glad you made it back to Bonn in one piece. Before we get to the work-related questions: Do you have an exciting story from the outback for us?
Of course, in addition to one or two animal encounters, we once had a flat tyre in the middle of nowhere, almost 200 kilometres from our destination of Alice Springs. At around 40 degrees in the middle of the desert, it wasn't the most pleasant thing that could happen, but we got through it safely.
Where is Alice Springs in Australia and where else have you been?
That's relatively easy: pretty much exactly in the centre. And where else have I been? Pretty much everywhere except the north-west. Apart from that, we've been to all the coasts and travelled right through the middle. So we've been to all the tourist spots and then we've seen a lot more.
In the office or home office, you have a spacious setup, high-speed Internet and access to a fridge, toilet or coffee machine at all times. What was your working environment like when travelling in the car?
You could call it cramped. My girlfriend mostly drove and I used this time to work instead of watching a series as a passenger or looking out of the window. So I mainly worked while driving, but sometimes in the evening from the roof tent or rarely at night when it was more critical. My setup was very simple: I had my laptop, which I could charge in the car, headphones for making phone calls and that was it. The internet ran via mobile data from a local operator. It worked quite well on the coast, but the further inland you got, the more sporadic it became. There was only internet every 300 to 400 kilometres at the petrol stations, where I could push my changes into the repository. Otherwise it was all local and without internet.
What is your area of activity as a Consultant at CONCETO and what has changed during your time in Australia?
I am a software developer and work internally for our CIS/4 cloud products. I rarely have any customer contact and none at all in the last year. As I couldn't guarantee meeting deadlines, the tasks during my trip were less time-critical, but no less complex or time-consuming. I simply didn't know how good my internet would be tomorrow, where we would sleep and whether there would be enough power to work for long. Since everything was uncertain, it is of course difficult to give someone a task that you have to be able to rely on being finished in a certain amount of time. That's why I was given the less critical tasks. Once a week, I liaised with my contact person Andreas, who gave me a package of tasks that I could work through if time allowed. One example: In one week, I completed 3 out of 5 tasks as planned and therefore had 2 tasks left as a buffer. This meant I was able to carry on straight away the next week, even without the internet. And that went really well, I can't complain at all. The task packages themselves were still exciting and relevant to the projects, but not particularly urgent.
"Although I worked a lot at times during my trip, I was still relaxed and really happy most of the time. Simply because the flexible organisation meant I was able to experience and get to know a lot on the side. It was just perfect, I loved it!"
Were there any problems working as a team over the long distance and time difference?
Because we work closely together anyway, there was more communication than just the one fixed weekly meeting. So it was often said: "Come on, let's talk about it tonight". A bit to the chagrin of my girlfriend, who then had to put up with me in the roof tent in the evening when I was working next to her at 10 pm. Of course, that was a bit of a disadvantage for my private life and my girlfriend, but it actually worked for me.
The communication worked really well - basically much better than expected at the beginning. It was a pilot project for CONCETO. We tried it out without knowing how it would work in practice and in what form it would work best. The approach was dynamic, so we would have changed something if we had any doubts. This actually took the form of me increasing from 16 hours a week to 20 hours a week after just under 4 months, because I was able to work well and my performance was good. I am incredibly grateful to the team for making this adventure possible for me. After all, it involved extra effort here in Bonn, especially for my contact Andreas.
In general, I was very happy with the way I worked in Australia. I'm definitely more of a night owl than an early bird, so it suited me personally that I had the meeting at 5 pm, whereas in Germany it was at 9 am. That's much more convenient. I'm not tired in the coordination meeting, I've been working for 6 hours, I've got a lot done and I'm fully motivated. So it was great for me.
What exactly were the general conditions for your work during your year abroad?
The whole thing looked like this: The contract stipulated a fixed hourly rate, which initially totalled 16 hours. The regulation for the hours was that I could organise them dynamically. Subject to basic compliance rules, it didn't matter when and how I worked as long as the end result was right. So I could have done everything on two days and then taken the rest of the week off or worked 2.5 hours every day, which is fine under labour law. If there were weeks when I didn't manage 16 or later 20 hours, then these became minus hours. I would have had 3 months to make up for this, because I was always paid quarterly. However, I never slipped into the red. I was paid for the extra hours I worked in overtime. As a result, I could even have not worked at all one month if I had worked twice as much the following month. As long as, of course, there was coordination and the tasks that were communicated were completed. It was all very flexible and therefore perfect on the road trip. Not being tied to fixed times, so that you could visit a place of interest for half an hour or go to the beach for a while, was ideal.
Did the year abroad change your attitude to work?
The attitude in general is limited, but I've become a lot browner and my English is definitely much better now, but people don't understand me as well because I speak with a strong Australian accent.
Apart from that, I realised once again how important it is to lead a happy and balanced life outside of work. Although I worked a lot at times during my trip, I was still relaxed and really happy most of the time. Simply because I was able to experience and get to know a lot of things on the side thanks to the flexible organisation. It was just perfect, I loved it! I also realised how important it is to be self-motivated and enjoy doing the things you do. And that's when I realised again how much I love my job. I did everything on the trip voluntarily. In the evenings or at night and voluntarily more than was required, simply because I enjoyed it.
Do you think the working model is suitable for everyone?
It always depends on the personality of the individual. You have to want it. You can't just see it as a "then I can earn a bit of money on the side". No, it's a permanent job and with it comes responsibility and obligations. Otherwise you run the risk of the project being cancelled if it doesn't work out. On the road, you also can't be too demanding when it comes to the workplace and working conditions. You have to be more flexible than in the office and be prepared to do the coordination meeting in the evening after dinner. You definitely need a fair amount of self-discipline to work while travelling, even though you're on a dream beach and could go swimming all day. Even when you're travelling, you have to sit down and work hard. It shouldn't just be seen as a holiday. But it worked wonderfully for me. I would recommend anyone to give it a try - definitely. It's difficult to predict whether it will work out in the end because it's an unknown situation that nobody can prepare you for. Somehow, things always turn out differently than expected on the road.
Thank you very much for the interview! I'm delighted that you had such a good time in Australia. But I'm also glad that you're back here in Bonn and that we can work together in person.
That makes me happy too. It's really nice to be back on site with my colleagues after such a long time. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who made this extraordinary adventure possible for me. A big thank you goes to the entire CONCETO team for giving me this unique opportunity. I would also like to thank my travelling companions, who supported me and did not blame me despite the many hours of work in the evenings. Many thanks to everyone for this unforgettable time!
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