One year in Switzerland

One year ago I took an important decision when I quit my job as Security Specialist in Caixa d’Enginyers, a Spanish small bank and I moved with my family to Switzerland joining Kudelski Security as Cyber Security Officer. I remember that it was a stressful time: starting a new job in a new country, managing the movement, finding an apartment, doing all the paper work required, etc..

Now, one year later, I think it’s the right time to look back and evaluate the experience acquired during this first year.

At personal level, I’m quite happy with the change. It’s true that the lifestyle is a little different in Switzerland than in Spain; as you can imagine, there is less culture of leaving and eating outside, winter is really cold so it’s difficult to enjoy it unless you like to sky or other winter sports (and it isn’t my case), and the sum of these little things makes a big difference. It’s also true that people here are really kind and makes big efforts to facilitate the adaptation of foreign like me. On the other hand, considering the Spanish economic difficulties I really think it’s a good opportunity for the whole family.

At professional level, I’m also happy with the change. I’m improving my English, learning French and seeing new approach of doing things. Again, there are some little differences that together make a bigger one. I’m enjoying working with people from around the world so having big opportunities of learning and growing at personal and professional level. Some of my colleagues are really brilliant professionals and it’s a pleasure to learn from them as much as I can. It’s been also exciting to work in a ‘start up mode’ where things are evolving and changing continuously so I’m having the opportunity of doing really different things and I’ve learnt a lot during this first year here. For example, I’ve had the opportunity of working in risk assessment, cloud security, SOC services, security trainings, security project management and other security topics during the same year.

And that is what I really love; learning, having fun and getting paid for it.

So I can say that was the right decision coming to Switzerland and joining Kudelski Security. Let’s see how it works during my second year here! I’ll keep you posted. :-)