International Migrants Day — Learn How to Join an International Team
Tags: Migrants, Migration, Anynines

Migrants

Who are these awesome people?

People who:

have tried hard enough for the first steps of migration

have packed their whole lives in one or maybe 2 pieces of baggages

have said goodbye to a familiar place where they lived for a long time, mostly their whole lives

have the necessary bravery to face cultural challenges

are flexible enough to adopt the new culture

And last but not least, people who are swimming against the tide.

We, at anynines, really like these people, appreciate them and we are very proud of them.

Migrants at anynines

We decided to celebrate this day, appreciating our colleagues who have started their new chapter of life by joining us at anynines, a German-based company with an international environment.

We asked our team members who have experienced migration, to write about themselves and their experiences.

Happy your day! Thanks for joining us.

Get to know some of the people behind our products and services:

Bukola Johnson

Hello, I am Bukola Johnson from Nigeria. I migrated to Germany a few weeks ago joining the Enterprise Platform Operation(EPO) team of anynines as a DevOps Engineer. I studied computer science at the university after which I have always worked in the tech department/industry. It’s been an amazing journey so far due to the versatile nature of technology and the need to keep innovating. This requires us(techies) to keep learning to stay attune with innovations and I find this quite interesting (and fun) because this helps me to make positive impacts wherever I find myself which serves as my primary reason for being in the Tech world.

Before moving to Germany, I worked in the Fintech sector in Nigeria whereby we make payments seamless and provide financial access/service for the people (especially the underbanked). I worked with several technologies such as Kubernetes, cloud services including AWS, and Google. As a DevOps Engineer, I am tasked with the primary responsibility of automating deployment processes and helping to improve the reliability, scalability, and availability of products by deploying and managing enterprise solutions (though I am not limited to this primary responsibility)

After working for several years in Nigeria, my spouse and I decided to try something different in other advanced countries and we discussed and agreed to explore Germany after being impressed with the information and figures of Germany tech startups we gathered.

Next, we started researching how to get opportunities in Tech companies in Germany, visa/sponsorship requirements, settling down in Germany, and a few other things, though the language difference was a bit of a concern to us. Using LinkedIn and sites (such as Germany startup jobs), I started applying for jobs that fit my skill set.

Though we received several not too encouraging feedbacks of them preferring local hands or EU citizens😔😔😔, I kept pushing until I saw opportunities with anynines. Quickly, I read about the organization, what they do and I was quite keen on the technology (Cloud Foundry😁) as it’s an opportunity to enrich my expertise as learning new concepts/ideas are things I look forward to. I then applied to anynines and was super-excited when Jessica (HR manager) reached out to me and I later got to have a session with Nico and the team for the technical interview. I got shortlisted after the successful interview and assessment and I was offered the job.

Yay, I was super elated🤩💪. Then applying for a work visa from Nigeria to Germany took me several months, but in all of this wait, anynines kept in touch with me while I waited for my visa to be approved by the Embassy.

My story will not be complete if I do not mention the part that anynines played in all of these. Jessica’s professionalism and caring nature is one of the reasons I am here and excited to join anynines, she showed empathy during the lengthy visa situation which lasted almost 10 months. After finally receiving my entry visa in February and billed to travel in March, the Covid-19 situation and restriction strikes like a ‘Sledge Hammer’ and my entry visa expired during the period, so I was close to giving up at that point.😑😑

Finally arriving in Germany on the 2nd of November 2020 was indeed a journey🤩, but in all, I am grateful for the opportunity anynines is giving to me.

Settling down in Germany is another experience entirely because I could not travel with my spouse as his visa for family-reunion is not completed yet. So it’s been quite challenging for me to be here all by myself but anynines staff has been great in helping me to achieve this.

Jessica helped me a lot with accommodation, Melanie helped me with my apartment movement as well as other logistics. The most amazing part is the fact that they helped me stock up my apartment with enough groceries that will last me for my quarantine period even before I arrived 👌😘. They are both amazing.

Shopping winter outfits and all have been with the help of Helena (my wardrobe consultant🤩), she’s been so attentive when I rant about the best winter jacket I can use to keep me warm. Manu, my teammate in the EPO department, has been such a kind person in welcoming me to the team and Benjamin has been my coach in this new world of Cloud Foundry, and to Nico for believing in me. All these people are so wonderful and my story of migrating and living in Germany will not be complete without them.

So far, I love it here and I do not regret making the decision to move to Germany and most importantly joining anynines, though the cold is dealing with me because Nigeria is always very warm so this is a different experience for me but I know with time and with the best winter outfit I will be fine.