My story so far
As per the title I am Stephane. Half greek, half french 24 years old web-developer living in London.
Grew up, went to school and studied (well..kinda since I never graduated) in Greece.
Why did I not graduate? It was definitely a choice. A choice I deeply regret.
Not because I had trouble finding a job, or careerwise.. but because I hurt the feelings of people who loved me by lying to them about it.
"Is graduating university worth it?" is a topic that seems to interest a lot of people these days, so I will give a more in-depth explanation of my point of view on a future blog.
How did I escape misery?
I was going through a phase of denial. Was not able to appreciate the beauty of Greece and just wanted to disappear. Go live in another country, where the majority of the discussions wouldn't be somehow related to the economic crisis. I did not want to pick up my studies, I wanted to create things in the real world.
I needed a lot of positivity and a challenging goal to achieve!
All this took place 3 years ago when I decided to make the impossible happen.
Escape!
Being a man with no university degree, no real expertise in any area, I decided that leaving Greece was a good idea.
The plan was simple but not easy:
- Find an easy to go destination, with available jobs of any kind
- Calculate the cost of living there for a month
- Gather all this money
- Book the tickets and go!
As I was brainstorming with a few friends of mine I figured that London was the best option. My, at the time, girlfriend was studying in London, so I could stay with her, plus in my mind, London has always been the European land of opportunity. The competition is incredibly high, but you will always be able to find a job if you are motivated for it. It was the perfect destination. After updating my CV, working a lot on my Linkedin profile, but especially preparing myself mentally the time came.
The day that I would start a new life, start following my dream and being a pro-active action taker in my life instead of letting it pass by had come. I was finally flying to London.
One month is more than enough for me to find a job, I was thinking.
I was wrong. Life in London is hard and you have to figure out how the system works, which can be tricky.
It's lonely, it's cold, it's rainy, you know no-one and you are 100% out of your comfort zone pretty much all the time.
I found myself approaching companies asking them to hire me as a developer, to essentially teach me how to code.
My skillset was not enough for what companies needed even for entry-level positions.
Time passed and the last week of the month came. I decided to be proactive and reach out as many recruiters as possible and fearlessly ask for a job. I even wrote that I was willing to work for free. I packed the whole week with interviews and was hoping for the best.
The week passed and I hadn't heard from any of the companies I went to.
Last day arrived. I had my stuff ready for my evening flight back to Greece when I received a call from a recruiter to have an interview the same day.
That company had a startup mentality but had gotten bigger due to its success. Not much of a chance of them hiring me I was thinking, having the momentum against me and self-confidence level to the ground after all my failures.
The impossible then happened! I went to the interview and smashed it!! The people who interviewed me liked me, I passed the technical assessment because of all the knowledge I gathered during the previous interviews and the moment I got out of the building the recruiter called me to congratulate me about getting accepted as an "Associate Front End Developer" at Nexmo.
I think that is the best day of my life so far!! Goal achieved! I had a job and was able to pay my expenses on my own in a tough foreign country!
That day, life taught me, no matter how cliché it is, to never give up and always fight for my dreams till the last second.
Having the same mentality, I made a lot of changes in my life since that day and I am here to share them with you!
I hope you enjoyed this article! Please follow/upvote/resteem
Can't guarantee success but I can assure you that we'll fight for it together!
