Dear Friends,
Who has any sort experience on this? What advice can you give?

Am a GC with a consulting company for almost three years now. I’ve worked for two projects so far. The former was quite short lived and the current is long lasting. My have an indefinite contract and I thing, I have job security for atleast 2 or more years. Security for 2 years is important because after that I will have the opportunity to apply for a NE.

My current work was challenging at the beginning coz I had to learn how things are done in the project. This took me some time about 6-9 months. Reason being that my colleagues could not let me learn as fast as possible coz I don’t think I was received with open arms. However, thanks God I got through that.
Now work is routine to me, not challenging at all. When I see my German colleagues who have done the same work for more that 8 years I wonder where they get the morale to do that. I have come to discover that am not adding any knowledge to myself and I wonder whether am not wasting my time now. I normally finish my tasks with ease and find myself with almost nothing developmental to do. I tried doing some self study, while at work but when my colleagues found out what I was doing, it was terrible.I saw the rage in them. They even informed the Project Manager who later tried to spy on me. I talked to my immediate boss about changing projects, he promised to find something else for me but, has not found any. He keeps telling me that my current project offers job security. I appreciate this but working in the same project is slowly but surely hitting hard on my patience nerves.

What can I do? I would appreciate any advice.

Quite Simple, You can look for another job!!

Dear Indian
Thank you for your quick responce! I dont think looking for another job is quite simple in regard to the current Job Market here. More so, you are aware of the hurdles we face as GCs to secure the necessary Work and Residencece Permit in case of a Job change.
I would therefore not rate your advice a simple solution.
If there is anyone who has gone through my situation pls, share your experience with me.

Thanx in advance!!

List out what you *really* want to do, tell your boss that that is what you want to do and ask him to get that on board, if he can't give you that, well, find yourself a job where you can do what you *really* want to do.
People who followed my GC life on T7 know that I've been jobless for 4 months last year and that I found after that a job in Köln where I was working for one of the (most) hated company in Germany, but my work was also boring, and when I say boring, it was hell of boring, if you can find more boring then it's dead (is dead really boring, that's a question...) so what I did was to find myself another job where I could do what I wanted to do (I must underline that I told my Project Manager at that time that that was not what I wanted to do and even if I could do the job, it wasn't my speciality, maybe that's why it was that boring), I found one, took a ill-leave for a day, made the interview, got the job, and resigned as soon as I had the contract and I'm working there right now and I do what I like, and the challenge is there, that's good, ain't it?
Do the same, or you will end up mentally dead. What doesn't progress can only regress and if you are still on the same place, it's a regression, as all the world is moving on.

D.

Hi myname, hi *,

I want to take the opportunity to recommend our new database again.

http://www.trust7.com/en/community

Here you can register and fill in your professional data (just copy and paste your CV) and trust7 will help you to find a better job!

Because this is a new service, we will need some time and many more registered experts, before we start our first campaign to German companies. Please tell all your friends about our community. The more registered experts we have, the better are the chances for every single applicant, because we can get more attention by the employers.

Your data will be protected and only approved firms can use the search function. Even then, they will never see your personal data, but they will get a chance to send you a contact form and it is up to you, if you answer them or not.

So it will be no problem, if you get an offer from your own employer ;-)

Go ahead and take some time to register, you have nothing to loose, but much to win!

Viele Grüße
Detlef

Hi Nobody,
Thanks for sharing your experience.This is really motivating. I think I will have to evaluate my position and consider your move. However, before I do this, I would like to hear from other members about their view.

Dear Detlef,
Good idea!I appreciate all that you're doing!!

Hi myname(I mean urname :-) )

Just to relief the boring situation.

Yes, you are right about the job situation. But, be sure, as advised by Nobody, to first find an alternative.

For this, you dont have to leave your current job.

And, if you are successful in finding new employer, you can then compare, where your priority lies:

- Security of 2 years with current job, but with "boring environment".

- New job within your interest, but with "firing" risk within probation period(because, you may still find the same colleagues, which you have to face).

I believe your decision should also include your level of "Deutsch Sprach". Because, the current market situation is not so good and one dont find another job easily without good Communication skills.(My personal experience). It varies if your Skill set(schwer punkte) is different and you are willing to accept a lower pay to attract the employer to get relief from current situation.

Yes, Detlef has been helpful to GCs and I really thought in last days to request him for starting such a service. Because, this would really help GCs to find new jobs.

If we are granted NE, should we name as NE???

bis GC :-)

Just to add to what A.T. said, you *first* need to find another position before resigning to the current one, if you decide to resign.
The market is, IMHO, stuttering, but is getting a little better, as I said to a GC friend, I still receive weekly either per mail or phone calls, proposals for jobs around Germany, which means that positions are still available. But to get them, you need to take care of your communication skills as they are very important (I know someone who has been rejected by a company just for the lack of German, even if the skills were ok) and you really has to focus on your main skills to get a new job.
But also you have to care about this job security you need to get a NE later on, as Probezeit is always the more difficult and the more stressful time in a company, as you can be kicked without notice, with a 2 weeks notice, and so on.
Take care and be carefull.

D.

Hello myname,

I think you are in interesting situation. Boredom is not your problem, what is the gaurantee that you will not get bored in the new job too.

Infact I am also in the same situation.

If your project manager is really spying on you then he would have definetly read your post.( now he may try to influence your decision through me so dont believe me.)

Since i too had the same situation I was thinking about this problem from long long time, and came to the same conclusions as nobody or some other friends.

but I also got some out of the box thinking.

1) Stop focussing on career.

2) Have a girl friend(if you are not married) so that you will never think about what you do,but you will be
only thinking of how to finish ur job and go home.

3) one more intersting solution is always think your job is interesting.

I have recently developed a expert system to solve my problem.

do you know what the hell of solution it gave me?

It simply says that I get bored because I am too intelligent for the job so i get bored easily.
It advised me to reduce my intelligence level so that
I always learn things new and never get bored.

I know this is not the thing you are expecting from me

why dont you call me and lets have a chat with me.

becareful i may be ur boss too.
have a nice time.

Hi Guys,

its really nice to talk about situations like mine and am grateful for yor postings. For those of you who hinted on communication skills, I would say that am Fluent in German, I speak good spanish too. I dont think I would face a problem of not finding a Job because of German.
The driving factor here is "Job security". I will secretly try Applying somewhere else and analyse what would happen when am successful in landing a new job.

For the-nomad, well, you have some theoretical if not psycological solutions. I wonder if they may offer practical results.

hello myname,

Yes your observation is true, none of my ideas offer any practicable solution. I too came to the same conclusion to apply secretly and see what happens.
I just gave you ideas which came to me when i was thinking about the same problem you had, buts it is your decision to follow or not.


you see trust7 is a melting pot of cultures. Every one has different views of the same problem.
but it is for you to select the best solution.
I think some how u got hurt. I apologise if i hurt you.

have a nice time.

PS: Now I see the need to have a intercultural conflict resolutor.

hi there,

I see your problem a common problem today in IT sector. It happened to me also and my advice would be to keep your boring job intact until you get your permanent residence. I don't like the idea of jumping into bandwagon(new job) immediately because this will hurt you more and you are in a great risk to hold the job. so until you get that "BIG THING NE" I recommend you to stick with the same job and get a PC at home and do all that you want to do and if possible create an open source project or create a computer game or better would be prepare for IT certification. So the basic idea is to keep yourself afresh of the skill set, which could be delivered on-demand so that once you secure the right to live in this country you will be able to push yourself forward to find a better position and atlast get fascinated.

cheers!
babloo

Dear the_nomad,

am not at all hurt by your comments. The purpose of this forum is to share information, opinions experiences etc...

At this point, I have got a no. of suggestions from you guys, through which I will forge a way forward.

Vielen Dank!