Basel, Switzerland BLOG
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Background
Anyone who knows me, knows work tends to take me away from home, for some odd reason there is just not alot of IT Project Management work in Peterborough, or East Anglia for that matter. And I find myself on the road again, as the cheesy song says...
This time work has taken me to Basel, Switzerland.
OK, now that you are saying where? Well look at the map below.. duh!
As you can see, it is very near the French and German borders, in fact, the office where I work is bordered by France on one side, and Germany is just 200m or so up the road, rather cool I think.
I am working for a company called Novartis , a massive multi-national pharmaceuticals company, who were built up through mergers and acquisitions, and if you wear contacts and have ever used CIBA Vision products, well that is a Novartis company.
As you may or may not know, I was working the first part of the year in London for Cable & Wirleless, but rather lost my taste for London after having far too close a call on July 7th when bombs exploded on 3 tubes and a bus.
The tube which was bombed on the Piccadilly line was the train I chose not to get on, in favour of waiting for the next one, and in fact, I would have been more or less stood right next to the chap who blew himself up. Needless to say this close a shave left me very uncomfortable and for a few weeks I was really not happy commuting to London, this couple with a change in management and direction of the project led us to part company a month or so early in my contract and I was on the job hunt again.
It was good timing as it let me get ready for my inline marathon, and I started the job hunt.
After the marathon I had some very interesting discussions for a role with Norwich Union in Norwich, and 2 days before my phone interview I was called from Hays IT in Zurich. They asked if I was interested in a Project Manager role in Basel, and would I be available for an interview, in Basel, the next day! As it was already 1500h, I had to think fast. As the role was working for a pharmaceutical and I have no pharma experience, I thought, "Best to invest in the flight and wow them with my charm... :) "
I booked the flight and the next day I would be having my interview and then have 6 hours to kill in town.
The interview went well and I headed into the town centre to look around. It was very quaint and I got to use my horrible German skills and luckily my not quite so horrid French as well.
I wandered around quite a bit, and liked what I saw, and while in town had my phone interview with Norwich Union. I decided to do some research into both locales when I got home and see which held more appeal.
I soon found out that Basel had 3 ice rinks compared to Norwich's 0! As both roles involved working away from home Monday to Friday, you can see why I chose Basel. And I mean, come on, Norwich or Switzerland? Which would you choose? :) No offense Caz... (Not my Caz, our mate Caz from Norwich)... notice I say 'from' don't live there anymore do ya, huh? :) )
So then it was time to see who would make a better offer.
In the end Basel won, and it was time to agree a start date and book some flights...