I’m moving to Berlin for a year after what feels like a lifetime in San Francisco. Pivotal Labs is opening a new office in the city where East meets West. I’m going to help work with clients, hire designers, get our name out in the community, and setup the office.
It’s easy to be blinded by the sexiness of moving to a cool city and overlook the work it takes to make a new office feel natural and comfortable in just a year. But that’s the challenge and I’m game.
Of course, I’m wildly excited. I’ve been to Germany several times with my family and I spent some time in Berlin nearly a decade ago. That pic above is me with my favorite part of Berlin: Doner Kebab.
Everyone tells me the city has changed so much since then. It’s a place that’s always changing, with people coming in and out, with wonderful reasons to love it, and real city problems that are hard to solve. But if anything, that sounds a lot like San Francisco. Living in the United States, and on the West Coast no less, is quite isolating. I’m moving to be closer political world in Europe and closer to the Middle East, Africa, and even parts of Asia. I want to be immersed and engaged in world affairs.
I hope I’ll evolve my design philosophies. As a minimalism enthusiast, I want to live and breath the less is more philosophy where it’s the norm not the exception. I want to practice training up a small design team. Someday I think I’ll be a creative director or do something like help run a design shop. I want opinions and practice doing that. And this goes without saying, but I’m going listen to electronic music a lot.
This move is not to escape my life in San Francisco, start over, or eat-pray-love reinvent myself. I just have a few things I want to learn and Berlin is the best city for me to do that.
But, the transition period is chaotic. Here’s the minutia about what I’ve been thinking about:
- Am I making a sound and thoughtful decision if I really, actually want to pick up my personal life for my work? I’ve always prided myself on coming to San Francisco for music, people, art, nature and great work opportunities. It personally struggled with moving to a creative city also facing gentrification since I’ll primarily coming as a tech person.
- Will my work visa come on time?
- What’s it like there with so many refugees in the city? Is Berlin safe? Is it less safe for Indians?
- What stuff do I want to bring with me? If I don’t need it in Berlin, do I need it at all? So I sold my car, my bike, and donated lots of personal belongings. It was a true konmari.
- What will it be like having a new manager?
- Who else is going to Berlin? Do I want to work with them? Do they want to work with me?
- How much will I miss San Francisco’s everything-on-demand conveniences?
- What’s the right phone plan for me? Will I fall off the face of the earth without my US number?
- Do I need to change bank accounts?
- What’s healthcare like abroad? I had to put a rush on getting my wisdom teeth out.
- How does my roommate feel about my move?
- What do I want to do with my mail?
- When should my family visit?
- Will too many people visit? Will no one visit? Will I have time?
- Where do I want to live? Will I like the choices offered by the relocation company?
- What kinds of designers do I want to hire in Berlin?
- What’s the best way to transfer the designers who report to me to their new managers?
- How the heck am I going to keep doing the work I need to do locally so I have a good exit?
- Am I really prepared for Berlin winters?
- When will I have time to learn German?
- Will I make friends? Will I enjoy dating?
- I have too much to do right now, do I have time to go to the gym?
- Who do I need to spend time with before I go? Is there time to get together once more?
- I’m going to do a lot of things solo for the next year. Is that ok?
- I’m going to miss home sometimes. Is that ok?
- I’m going to love it! Will I love it too much? Will I want to stay forever?
- What am I forgetting?
The list obviously goes on. I’ve done two other big moves in my life (first for college, then to San Francisco). I’ve worked in London and Tokyo. Joining a foreign professional environment is exciting but also hard. There are a lot of cultural norms to learn quickly while also trying to the job like a local. But it’s great and I keep re-learning people around the world are good, kind, and want to help. At this point, it’s been so much work and planning, I’m ready to be there already.
Ok! Let’s go!
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