After being without a job for 1 year and a few months, I finally started working again today.
I had originally planned to graze into the work force by joining a 3 month education program that led to employment if you passed the course. I thought that this new country provided an opportunity for me to restart my career as a developer. I feel I have been in denial for the past 10 years.
By some tremendous fortune, I had posted about my plans on LinkedIn and one of my acquaintances from a previous employment had found out of my intentions. They had then invited me to interview and here I am. Today marks the day we became a 2 career family here in Sweden.
I have to say, I had lots of apprehensions about it. We had been a two career family in Singapore but we were able to employ help at home (neither my husband and I are Singapore natives so we couldn’t take advantage of extended family support). We now do have some family here but of course we don’t want to be over-reliant as they too have their own lives to live.
Luckily, the company I now work for allows for flexible working hours. We decided that I would take the early shift into work while my husband take the kids to school. That would enable me to leave work at 4.30 to pick up the kids. It’s a bit challenging that they are in two different places right now so we have put our younger girs in a queue to the daycare closer to my eldest’s school. For now, we’ll have to work with the double pickup.
Now that it is summer and we don’t have as much clothes to put on the kids, I think it is easier. But I think we will need to do some time re-calibration when the rain / snow season hits.
Coming home, we did dinner. I took care of washing the dishes while my husband took care of washing the children. All in all it was a pretty good day. If everyday can be like his, I think we will be alright. When I first came, I wasn’t sure how we would manage without help but now it is looking a lot more feasible.
For me what helps, first and foremost, is having a partner who is fully supportive of me having a career. He has said that he would fully support me if i chose to stay home as well (or did i just imagine that..hah!) but I don’t think it is for me. It’s been a little over a year off work and while it was pretty hectic the first few months when I was home with my youngest, it got much easier when they had all started school/daycare.
I had started going full time to Swedish school, so I think even if I didn’t work, I would have ended up doing a full time study program of some sort. But after much deliberation, I decided to go to work. I have three little ones that I want to inspire to chase after their dreams of making stuff. I want to be able to tell my story to them and make them proud.
Another thing that definitely helps is having employers who understand that employees have lives outside of work and allow for working arrangements that will benefit both parties. An employee who has peace of mind in his personal matters becomes an employee who is productive when they are at work.
I’m grateful and excited about my new opportunity. I’ll check in again in a month or two, hopefully I am still feeling the same level of positivity :p
being in tech 