The Trigger

While scrapping notes from the beginning of the year found something like: analyze what would mean to live abroad for a few years (pros/cons) …

By that time we were in Cluj (Romania). Now we are in Copenhagen (Denmark) and already feel that we know the city.

Considering Romanian standards we had really good jobs in Romania, we were a bit upset on the political situation … other than that, maybe a bit bored …

You finish your studies, you have your first job, you get your second job, you try an amazing third job, but that’s it!? Buy a car, a house, build a family, raise children? … and finally wait to be garbage collected. Sounds standard, somehow traditional …

By mid-february, Andi got contacted by a Microsoft recruiter for a position in Copenhagen. First, she didn’t give it too much attention as she felt comfortable with what she was doing back then … but after an initial call, she got an invitation for interview in Copenhagen.

I remember asking: what if you get an offer? … and the answer was something like: don’t worry, for sure I will not get an offer …. Guess what!? Andi did great on the interview and an offer came … and now what!? Panic!

We had to take a decision in a few days. Started to read about Denmark, Copenhagen, Danes, Vikings, IT industry, called the parents and decided to give it a try. Only afterwards we realised what we did.

The Move

We are in the beginning of March and Andi had to start the new job on the 15th of May. What followed was something quite new, maybe a bit stressful, but definitely not boring!

We had to quit our jobs and this was something quite difficult . In any job, you usually develop personal relationships with colleagues and you care about the projects you work on. Quitting might be a bit hard, but if the decision has been made, doing it as soon as possible helps you avoid unnecessary stress.

Getting a new job. I was fairly confident that I could easily find a job so that by the 15th of May I can also actually start in the new place. I targeted Data Engineering roles, as this is the technical role which I liked most in the past.

Started by cleaning-up and update my CV. Got Linkedin Premium so that I can get a bit more information about the companies from Copenhagen and started to apply on the jobs that I found on Linkedin and Glassdoor.

After around one week, as I didn’t get too many responses, got a bit worried and started to think about alternatives:

reach people I knew in Copenhagen

connect with recruiters on Linkedin

grow the personal Linkedin network with professionals from the same field I was interested

search local start-ups; thehub.dk is a great place for this

search jobs on alternative platforms; found on stackoverflow.com/jobs some really interesting job posting

Putting all this together, I started to have interviews and by the end of March I was considering three companies:

easysize.me - an interesting small start-up

jayway.com - a software studio

tradeshift.com - a not so small start-up

For the final decision I considered the last two. The tradeshift.com role seemed the most challenging and interesting, but visiting the jayway.com office made the decision quite complicated as the discussions and the people there were amazing. In the end I picked the unicorn (tradeshift.com).

Having this sorted out, the next item on the list was to find a place to live. Rents in Copenhagen are quite expensive (probably it is difficult to find an apartment in a nice area with less than 1500 euro / month), a considerable deposit is required (we’ve seen on average sums equivalent to 3 months of rent), the contract are usually long-term and the apartments are usually not furnished. This seemed too complex to get it right remotely so we started to search for alternatives and we found lifex. lifex is a Danish start-up that tries to address this problem. You lose a bit of privacy, but you get nice people around and you stay in amazing apartments in the center of the city. In a few days we already had a contract for a room at lifex.

Next thing on the list: do something with all the stuff we gathered in Cluj. We always had in mind the fact that we don’t have too much stuff. We were wrong, but we couldn’t believe how much stuff we had. The majority of the things were never/once used and on some small things you could get emotional … anyway … we managed to ship nearly everything to our parents and we both remained with things that fit into a suitcase and a backpack. There is a particular article that helped on this: Getting Rid of All Your Stuff Feels Like Taking a Big, Dreamy Dump.

Finally, trying to meet with all people we care for. This can be quite emotional and definitely it’s the most difficult part.

The Landing

It was 1st of May when from the sunny and hot Cluj, we landed in Copenhagen where it was raining and the temperature was a bit higher than 10 (celsius) degrees. We got scared, but there was not much to do about it.

Next day it was better and we started to do the paperwork (we reserved 2 weeks for this; movingtocph.com is a great guide that explains all the necessary steps). Practically, we went to the International House and the whole process (EU registration, Social Security Number, Tax Card) took around 90 minutes. It took another 30 minutes for a bank account. This is how we ended up with nearly two weeks of free time. We packed our stuff and had a few great days in Berlin, came back to Copenhagen, packed again and had a few more beers with our friends in Cluj.

By the time we came back the weather became perfect, the parks were green and full of people and we were ready to start the new jobs.

It’s been 3 months and contrary to what we expected, the summer was quite hot and cooling systems are not really a thing here … I don’t even remember when it properly rain last time. As this was completely unexpected, the bikes we bought paid themselves; exploring the city with the bike is amazing (Copenhagen is the most bike friendly city I’ve seen) …

It’s been 3 months with new people around, new jobs in a totally new place for both of us. We had to adapt and sometimes it felt a bit difficult but getting outside the comfort zone makes you feel alive and the new experiences that you have will probably be the memories you will share and think about in the future.

We didn’t move to Copenhagen to retire here, we moved to Copenhagen because it was a great chance to do something different and to avoid getting too rusty … and it seems to be working.