Since the job that I had at the TV-station ORF wasn't full time I was looking for something that gave me just that, and Open Systems was the name of the company where I got "stuck".
I really got into the networking-branch in the right moment, internet was just about to become the thing to talk about (Yes, there was a time actually before Internet). The job was really what I felt for at the moment, no more programming (it gets pretty lonely and isolated just sitting in front of the computer), instead I got the possibility to be more outside, visiting customers, checking out their networks and installing/upgrading network-equipment.
Through the company I went to courses in London, Stockholm and California and I also visited Hungary and the Czechian-republik where they had customers.
Working was sometimes when driving around like a sightseeing tour exploring the country-side, and still getting paid! |
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Trip to Innsbruck with a working-collegue (1996). |
One of the customers that I visited was Casino Austria. I made a tour seeing all their Casino's and installed routers. Under this trip I got to see the inside world behind the curtains of these Casino's, truly memorable. One funny memory was that one morning as I arrived at one Casino I noticed that the jackpot on the slot-machines wasn't 35 million Shillings anymore, but it was only like 15 000 Shilling.
After asking around a bit I found out that the day before someone had just happened to win it. The big thing was that he gave away all those money that evening on that Casino, most money one waitress recieved that served him dinner. Apperantly he was quite rich allready so he didn't need it, just one week before that he had bought his daughter a Rolls Royce car.
To top this story, the casino in which it happened was the same one I had visited the evening before, where I've been in the computer-room just behind the 'action'... just meters away from someone giving away 35 millions to anyone passing by...
As I look back now on the time at Open Systems it feels almost like I only worked there for a week, time really went fast there and there was seldom a minute of peace, from that I believe I learned how to handle stress, and it has made me a calmer person in tight situations. I also believe that I learned from the other employees at Open Systems to not take things so serious, and to live for the day instead (Carpe Diem).
Two years later I quitted my jobs in Vienna and moved back home to Lund after seeing that it's not quite so easy to have a private life and a stressfull career at the same time.
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