2022 Overview and Relocating to Barcelona

Hi Everyone! I would like to recap the year 2022 and create a record to the history of my life. From 2023, I will be living in Barcelona, Spain and I think this is one of the biggest moves in my life. Thank you for reading and your interest. 🙂

The year 2022, in terms of my professional life, have been one of the least productive and challenging year to me. In the year 2022, I have encountered many unexpected situations and I needed to pick a decision that effects rest of my life. My plans are changed many times and finally ended up in a very different way than I originally intended.

I got my bachelor’s degree and started working in the software development industry back in 2021. I loved my job and gained valuable experience about my field and improved my skills. However, I always wanted to get a master’s degree after my bachelor’s degree. Therefore, I always planned to apply for a master’s degree in Europe. I heard about the University of Padua from my colleague and wanted to be a master’s degree student in Italy.

In the beginning of the 2022, I applied to University of Padua and two other universities in Hungary. In February, I changed my job and started working in Getir. I wanted to work in Getir because it is one of the biggest tech startups in Europe and based in my home country. I thought that I can build a successful career path at Getir. I intended to work in Getir at least several years in the first place.

While I was working in Getir, I have been rejected from the universities that I applied in Hungary. However, I have been admitted to the University of Padua. Which was the one I wanted most. The more exciting part was my best friend was also accepted to the same program. We always dreamed to be in the same university but this dream never came true. We had one more chance for the redemption of our dreams. Me and my best friend are both working remotely and planned to rent an apartment in Padua and continue working from Italy. Then the longest bureaucratic marathon had begun. We renewed our passports, collected documents for the scholarship and visa in almost whole year.

In the beginning of the summer, I opened an Amazon jobs account and applied for a few positions. About a month later, I received an email that contains an invitation to an interview from Amazon. I accepted the invitation and attended to the interview. Fortunately, I’ve been accepted to the further steps in the interviewing process. I prepared for the further interviews. Finally, after a set of interviews, I received an offer by the end of August. However, the position was located in Barcelona and I need to be relocated for this position. I always wanted to experience working in a FAANG company and accepted the offer.

I was planning to move to Italy for my master’s degree. However, I needed to move to Spain for my new job. I decided to continue my master’s degree education while I am in Spain. Attendance was not mandatory for my classes and I could went to Italy for only entering the exams. I decided to work and study simultaneously. However, It doubled my bureaucratic responsibilities.

In September, me and my friend were finally ready for applying Italian Visa. It was mandatory to complete enrollment to the university in-person. We booked an appointment and prepared our documents. Unfortunately, we had some problems with our documents on visa appointment. They requested many different kind of documents that we don’t have. We were collecting these documents and spent some time.

Meanwhile, I was also attending the meetings for my relocation to Spain. Managing relocation procedures for both Spain and Italy was very complex and difficult at that time. I was barely meeting the visa criteria of Italy and in the end, I give up my master’s degree plans. I decided to postpone my academic goals for a few years. I focused on my relocation to the Spain.

I received my visa in December. I spent some special time with my loved ones. Finally, I got on the plane on the 28th of December. I was in the Barcelona on the 28th of December. I started to the new year in Barcelona. All the efforts I made were finally over. Now I need to settle in my new city and country. May be 2023 will be all about getting used to a different life, or may be ended up in an unexpected place.