In the army
My, it is hot these days in Holland…the temperature is above 30 degrees. Even now, when the night is falling, it is still hot…Allthough it is not easy, I do like it. Live is far more relaxed than ussual in our country, which is always so much determined by strict planning and tight schedules…often leaving little time for the unexpected, spontanuous personal contacts. Than, there is a good reason for that: in the ussual, colder weather, noone ones to be outside longer than strictly needed, so good planning is required!I realised this during my time in Estonia, where the weather is far colder…and the planning even stricter!
Listening to an Indian CD now, fitting very well with the current weather and giving me back nice memories of my time there. Truly, it would be a dream to go back there one day, maybe to live there forever…Than, I also would like to see new countries, like Indonesia, Phillipines and Japan, and of course missing Malaysia a lot too. Well, let’s see what comes on my road…so far,that attitude has brought me only good things :-).
The last week, things went quite fast in terms of my job: my first assigment has started! I will work for four months for the Ministery of Defence, where I will work on a department which develops all kind of communication systems for the Dutch army. Examples of the projects are communication tools between certain departments, and certain individual packages making it possible for individual soldiers to get up to date data and communicate new data to central computers. It seems that the Dutch army is very far advanced in this; at my work they told me only the US army has more advanced systems, and many NATO-countries come to learn more about our projects.
The environment is interesting enough. Allthough the Ministries of the Netherlands are settled in The Hague, I work in Ede, where the communication unit of the Dutch army is settled. It is quite interesting to work in such a militair setting; there is a very specific culture, and during lunch break I will have lunch in a canteen full with soldiers in their green uniforms. Even certain of my collegues in the building wear them, and I already got an email with all the rangs I should learn according to my boss!!
In spite of such a setting, I hope the work will be interesting. I am assisting someones whose task is to monitor the budgets of the many projects which are running, and to allocate funds. So far it seems that the work is embedded in a complicated set of processes, making it very specific. Than, it is an interesting experience as well, because this might be typical for governmental organisations with their typical sets of protocols and bureaucracy. So far it seems that political games are more important here than in the company I worked too, so I could learn from that too I guess….
Overall, I am very happy with this experience. It just is the thing for me I guess…to enter a new environment, adjust to the culture as fast as possible and learn a lot because of this new environment…I believe it happens because a new environment gives a lot of energy and makes it difficult to hide…You HAVE to show yourself. Of course, professionally-wise it will look good on my resumé too to have worked for the Ministry of Defence…But I must be careful that I also will develop my ‘ hardskills’ -specific knowledge-, instead of only my ‘ softkills’ -interpersonal skills, being effective in different settings-. Well let’s see….At least it gives a really good feeling finally to be back to work again!
