I head off to London

Last year, when I was in London, I already knew that it was not going to be the last time, and indeed, I was not mistaken. Today, I have handed in my resignation and I have given up my current job, where I will be bound until the end of this month. My flight to the United Kingdom, the next stage of my life, will take off on the 9th of January.

This idea was going around in my head from a long time. And the question was: why not? Why not work in another country, run away from the daily monotony, learn from other cultures, break the political correctness and in short, squeeze the life.

Here in Spain we have a big problem and its name is PSOE (political party). Whenever they have governed, they have finished messing up the country, and nowadays, in contradistinction to 1996 (the previous time that they ruined us), we do not dispose of the European cohesion funds and the crown jewels (the most important public companies) to be sold, in order to be able to get ahead. I could write another book about the misdeeds of these political figures...

Spain has to face up to a hard situation throughout next years, and this is other of the reasons because I think that now is a good moment to go abroad. Unlike fifteen years ago, The Bank of Spain cannot devalue the currency at present and we will have to resort to other financial instruments so as to get over this critical condition, such as reducing salaries, increasing taxes, improving the productivity, optimizing public resources, etc., and in this way, to be more competitive and efficient.

Regarding the IT world, I have always said that Spain is not a good place for engineers, due to this is a country of services. We do not have IT industry and in the most of the cases, you can only aspire to cover the needs or requirements of a client. And why do I say client and not company? Because over time, the business model has totally changed and at the present time, it is no longer possible (or at least very complicated) to belong to a final company.

Between the client and you, there will always be an intermediate company that we call "cárnica" or "charcutera" (butcher shop in English). Thereby, in general, this intermediary takes care of obtaining a final client for you, offering you like a bit of meat, and paying your salary. Practically without lifting a finger and taking advantage of your work, it will grab a part of the money that you make every month.

What happens with this system? You will never be or feel part of a company; today you can be working in a certain place and tomorrow, in another one, and on top of all that, there is no way to develop a career inside an enterprise.

I recently read the article titled "Las ilusiones perdidas" (the lost illusions in English), which reflects perfectly the situation of thousand of Spanish who have had to leave our country because of multiple reasons, but mainly due to a lack of future. This is a great issue, because during the next years, we are going to lose the best generation of young people better prepared in history. This paradox is also known as brain drain.

As I mentioned before, my case is totally different. I am not in need to look for a job far away from home; I have a permanent job here and I have dropped it off voluntarily. Furthermore, I am aware of that I might have switched to another work at any moment. Simply, I am just in the mood for taking this step.

I am a person who likes to work out everything in detail, and in this manner, I have mapped out a complete roadmap for my first weeks in London. I have to read up some points before ending up my plan, but mostly, I am going to boost my English at the beginning, by enrolling in some language school, at least during the first three months. I know that I have a good English level, but I also realize that it is turned into lower-intermediate when you arrive there.

After that initial period of time, I will search for a job. I consider that it is better to build the house starting with the floor rather than the roof. For that reason and as I pointed out before, first of all I will be enhancing my English and in turn, I will have free time to get used to those new lands, aside from to accomplish other typical tasks such as opening a bank account, getting the NIN (National Insurance Number) and a GP (General Practitioner), registering at the embassy and so on.

Perhaps, this is the most important decision that I have had to take on throughout my life, and I hope not to slip up. I am aware of that it will not be straightforward, but at any rate, I am really looking forward to it!