"I'm too old for Berlin"
Olli has recently moved to Leipzig. After living in Jena, he was ready for a bigger city. Faced with the choice to go west, back to his hometown Köln, or to go east, he decided to try something new and came to Leipzig, because Berlin is too big and he too old (his words).
He decided to move into a Coworking Space because he likes to have people around and he needs it noisy. Also, he didn't want to sit at home in his sweat pants all day. Olli's ideal work place is cosy. lively and full of food. When asked why he chose Basislager, he told us that he values having an open culture and a community where people don't just work together but also take the time to get to know each other - things he found with us.
Vagabond Life
Olli had a pretty unusual childhood. His mother came from the Philippines to Germany on a guest worker visa, so Olli was born in Germany. However, his dad was still on the Philippines and the rest of his family was in Canada. Olli's parents wanted him to spend time with the both of them and they wanted him to get accustomed to the Canadian culture because the ultimate goal for the family was to live there together - so Olli spent the first 10 years of his life travelling back and forth between Germany, Canada and the Philippines. He has no idea how his parents managed to organise this with school and everything but he remembers finding it really cool and enjoying the time in each country, even if it was sometimes hard to say goodbye. Because they didn't get a visum for Canada, Olli and his parents ultimately settled in Germany.
"It's hard to find a solution that helps everyone"
Right now, Olli works at Conventus Congressmanagement, a firm that organises national and international congresses and events with a focus on the medicinal sector. His responsibility used to lie with planning and managing these congresses. But now he works on unitising the work processes at Conventus. Right now the respective teams all have their own way of managing their work processes without a standard project management system and it is Olli's responsibility to find a suitable solution. The goal is that no information is lost, work processes are structured and resources distributed reasonably.
Optimizing work processes is usually a thankless task since people usually don't appreciate being told how to do their work by someone else. Olli told us that finding a solution that truly helps everyone is the most difficult part for him. It does, however, help that he isn't some outsider swooping in, but someone who knows the company intimately, so people are usually open to his ideas.
"I want to keep growing"
After finishing his degree, Olli wanted to organise events connected to sports or music - areas he also has a personal interest in. But after a job offer was revoked, a friend brought him to Conventus. And although he likes his work, Olli feels that he has reached his horizon within this company. After 10 years at Conventus, he knows he is ready for a new challenge, an opportunity to progress. It's not clear where his journey will take him yet - maybe he'll go into the industry, maybe he'll combine his passion for sports with his work. Anyway, he'll heep his eyes peeled for new opportunities.
