Working ‘onsite’ of your overseas client is a great opportunity to explore new technologies, people, places and ways of working. With CMS I had this opportunity on 3 occasions within 2 years. I enjoyed my onsite time working with my European colleagues as it exposed me to a new way of looking at professional issues, sharing thoughts, accepting others’ thinking, how to react on crucial failover and last but not least, how to manage one’s health & personal life.

I am collaborating with a company who provides global document management solutions. This was a very new domain to me. So on the first visit, I was welcomed at the Airport by my client and dropped off at the apartment I would stay in. Fortunately for me, one of my senior colleagues’ was already in Belgium. And although he was at the tail end of his visit and getting ready to return home, he took me around, and helped my get acquainted with the surroundings and the city of Brussels . It was very helpful as I was staying 3 months on my own.

On my first day in the Belgium office, my client took me on a print shop visit and introduced their staff, explaining the politics and culture of the company. And thereafter I was really comfortable interacting with my European colleagues and highly motivated too!

Now when we think of Europe, we also think of the 4 seasons – spring, summer, autumn and winter. I was lucky enough to experience all 4 seasons through my multiple visits. Another great advantage is border control-less travel between the Schengen countries. The economical domestic travel allowed me to travel to neighbouring countries in my free time. I was privileged to visit France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and Norway.

Further in my free time, I joined the locals to do some jogging during the lunch break. I also enjoyed getting lost in the city without a clue, and to find my way home.

I enjoyed working with my Belgian professional colleagues and had enough of fun too! I work on the migration of the IT infrastructure of their business, taking part in streamlining the application to support the upcoming state-of- the-art and cutting edge technologies. The project is quite interesting and challenging!