Many people were privy to my complaints about feeling overworked at home, and therefore encouraged me to take this opportunity to be unemployed. Unfortunately, I am too much of a busy body to live in that fantasy world, and therefore from day one I have been going out and trying to integrate myself into the community. For me, that means having a place to go to every day where I can provide value while having a network to interact with. Also, the main thing I would want to do with my abundance of free time would be to travel and explore, but I would feel so guilty going out and having fun without Cameron, especially since it is his work that would be funding my escapades.
As mentioned in my previous post, I already met with a few individuals from the local auditing firm PRO Audit. Through their connections, I have already emailed my resume to a director at PWC, which would be my preferred Big 4 company (mainly because they are the closest to my house...but don't tell them that), and have been asked to apply!
I also have a search running on LinkedIn for anything that mentions the words "audit," "auditor," "accountant," or "accounting" in the Krakow and Crakow areas (I don't yet know why the city has multiple spellings. From what I can tell they can be used interchangeable). A few things have come up, but most have requirements for more experience than what I can currently provide.
The Krakow Expats Facebook group has been another great tool. It seems to be primarily used for selling furniture and starting sports groups but there are various English-speaking events posted there, too. That's how I found OpenCoffeeKRK. I got a little lost but was able to ask a student "Please, do you speak English?" and she was able to point me to the right direction. Without knowing too much what to expect, I showed up at today's 8am meeting, was given a name tag, and helped myself to a cup of coffee. Although the room was cramped (and apparently houses a bar in the evenings), the hosts assured us that this was not the usual meeting space.
Although the Meetup post emphasized that the meeting started at 8am sharp, people continued to trickle in for an additional half hour or so. There were enough chairs for about 25 people, but there were at least another five cramped near the door. Essentially, people stood up to introduce themselves, what they do, what they were hoping to get out of Open Coffee, and how they could benefit others. The group is largely targeted at startups and entrepreneurs to share their projects, but I felt very welcome as a newcomer to the group sharing my skillset and desire to find a job and community.
After an hour of two-minute introductions (which still was not enough time for everyone to stand up given the size of the group) people were free to mingle and network until 10:00. I talked to a number of very encouraging people and have a handful of English-speaking events that I would like to attend. Based on her presentation, I was already interested in registering for OMGKRK's Innovative Krakow Forum, but then talking to Kriti I agreed to come by the OMGKRK office to meet the team and do some pre-even volunteer work tomorrow. Mom has always said I can't say no to anything, but I especially feel I can be a "yes-man" since I have no other obligations to uphold–it's very thrilling!
It's all very exciting and encouraging, and I feel a lot more positivity and optimism compared to when I first moved to Seattle after college and typed "how do adults make friends" into Google. Thank you, Krakow, for the wonderful first introductions, and I am looking forward to getting to know you even more!
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