Third Week at Tweek
It’s been almost three weeks since I ended my holiday for a month. If you followed the last posts here on this unfortunately scarcely fed…
It’s been almost three weeks since I ended my holiday for a month. If you followed the last posts here on this unfortunately scarcely fed blog I moved to Berlin in the beginning of this year to be closer to my girlfriend and seek new challenges and adventures in some new kind of work.
Well it have been busy times until now. Because I didn’t want to spend a whole month shivering and whining about the fact that January in Berlin isn’t necessarily the best time to get to know this metropolis with all it’s facets. I was told it would be really cold and freezing but that mixture of snow, ice, rain and darkness had its toll regarding my mood and the urge (or ánimo as the Spanish call it more vividly) to leave the house. Or not.
What activity can guide you through your break which isn’t somehow work-related? is what I thought to myself. Because I just happily left work in December. I’m also far from being a jock of any kind much less do I enjoy sports when there’s not only your inner couch potato but also the worst kind of weather fighting against you. So I had the choice of continuing my so far underwhelming rockstar career, grab the ol’ trusty acoustic guitar from its dusty grave in the corner and continue to suck at it or actually learn some skill or craft which people can actually benefit from at the end.
So I learned to cook.
I can highly recommend this obvious little app, it helped me a lot. Really. From the seamlessly working option to automatically transfer the needed ingredients to your groceries list to the step by step cooking guide accompanied by stunningly beautiful pictures. Go get it if you strive to be the next Ferran Adrià. Right after me, of course.
So that’s what I accomplished in January. On February, 1 I finally started to work again. In an environment I wasn’t accustomed to before. Being known as the poster child of contemporary Berlin naturally a startup caught my eye. For three weeks now I’ve been working as the lead designer in a small team at Tweek. If you want to call it work because it honestly doesn’t feel like this.
For the first time in recent months I feel like I can actually contribute to the success of a product again. In its core and not at the surface, packaging or cosmetics around it. After three weeks probably not immediately but in the long run. I feel responsibility, a need for exactly my experience and skills and that’s an awesome feeling I forgot to know. I’m pretty thankful for that. I know it’s a little early to speak in such high praise and maybe too quick but if it continues being that challenging but rewarding at the same time in just the following weeks that alone was worth every risk I felt making the switch from a big player agency to a small power house with fewer but people closer to each other.
I’m happy while doing what most people define as work and that’s all I can ask for.
P.S. Remember my sports aversion? I went climbing for the first time two days ago. And I can’t wait to go again.
Originally published at werkshow.squarespace.com on February 22, 2013.