Letter To My Latest Team

I wish everyone could work with such an amazing team as I had during my last contract

All names has been change to protect the privacy of people involved, and the name of the organization has been removed

Hi All,

I’ve had a wonderful time at this organization, but all great things come to an end, and so the day has come for me to say… see ya later! (I never say goodbye; that’s a story in itself).

What made this organization the best experience for me and the best place I have ever worked with (and it’s not just a saying; I really mean it) are the people. You all make the place so special. People say that as a contractor, I’ll be used to changing jobs, and it is not a big deal for me. And it is true, I’m used to it. But for the first time, I’m really sad to be leaving…

When I started my journey here, I felt like I was thrown into deep water. This part is pretty normal for me (I always had to fight to survive); however, what I didn’t know was that this time, I’ll have safety boat(s) by my side, making sure that I don’t drown.

For those of you who don’t know me well, yes, I was a Solution Architect before, but I was a technical solution architect on a Platform facing external clients (think a platform like Amazon — this would be easy-peasy for me). I didn’t know much about corporate architecture. (Said this, I had plenty of experience in the development of software for trading, and that’s how I got here).

This is the point where I would like to give a special thank you to a couple of individuals who enormously helped me on my journey.

Anne — for believing in me more than I believed in myself and giving me this great opportunity. Anne could see my strengths, skills and abilities better than I could see them. And she helped me find out more about my own strengths and abilities, build my confidence and clarify my future career goals. When Anne once said, “Let’s assume you would like to be an Enterprise Architect”, I interrupted her and said, “Let’s make it clear; I will never want to be an Enterprise Architect. I’m technical”. Anne smiled and replied, “That’s okay; it’s only an example,” and continued her thought. Well, after all these months, I realized that… it’s what I want to do in the future — I want to be an Enterprise Architect. I still need to learn a lot to get there, but I know where I’m going, and she led me to this realization.

I also want to thank Josh for supporting me from my first day here. I remember how, on my first day, Josh explained to me the organization’s structure (who is who in the zoo). Though I didn’t even understand why I needed to know it, I was positively surprised that someone took care of me from my first day. And as I didn’t understand why I needed to know the organization’s structure then, now I know how important this information is, and in my next job as an architect, it will be the first thing I will want to know.

In the beginning, Josh’s and my journey was very rough. We were from such different backgrounds — Josh had a couple of decades of experience as an Enterprise Architect, and I had a very technical background. Nonetheless, Anne told me, “You two will work very well together”. And so we went on the (sometimes very frustrating) journey. I’m so grateful to Josh for his understanding, patience and all the support he gave me. I couldn’t wish for a better mentor and leader in the architecture space. Josh always had my back, and he always supported me. He might not have the best-polished people skills, but he truly cares about people and his team. He is a great person who always tries to support others, and we can rely on him. I’m very grateful I was part of his team and had him as a leader and mentor. And I hope to work with him again one day (if he can still put up with me and my frustrations ; ).

And I want to thank Carl for putting up with my super chaotic architecture and supporting me in getting it right. Because I lacked the confidence, I tried to align my architecture with what Josh had already done. The problem was that the project itself was constantly changing, leading to a very chaotic (and long) piece of reading material. Carl, Josh and Anne were telling me, “Do it your way; it will be fine”, but I didn’t trust myself until it finally clicked in my brain, and my way of thinking changed from primarily technical to more corporate (and it is also thanks to Josh and introducing LeanIX).

I remember when Carl read my architecture and said, “It is so difficult to read”, and I thought he meant my English was so poor that he couldn’t understand what I meant with my sea of words. I have to laugh at this now because what he actually meant was that I had the information spread all over the pages, jumping from one topic to another, making it impossible for someone else to understand or even follow my thought process (or the lack of it).

Lesson learned from this — simply be you, be yourself and believe in yourself. You will do a much better job if you do it your way than when you try to mimic someone/something you don’t even understand yourself — lol.

I could list here many, many people who supported me on my journey at that organization — all the BAs I worked with, the tech people, other architects, the project managers, and many more — I can’t list you all here, but please know that I’m very grateful for having the opportunity to work with you all and being part of the wider team. You made my time at this organization the best time and the best experience in my entire career (and I went through a few jobs/countries ; ) )

You all are awesome, and I would love to keep in touch.

This was all about my work here, but for those who would like to know a bit more about me as a person and what I do outside of work and life on the farm, then… My goal is to give people hope and inspire them to follow their dreams.

When I was in high school, I was told I would never achieve anything in life because I was too stupid. I would never speak foreign languages (I’m fluent in three) or know math because 2 + 2 was too difficult for me (I have master’s degrees in business mathematics from one of the best technical universities in Europe, recognised worldwide). I was told the best I could do was to kill myself because I was just a waste of space.

Yet, I managed to turn my impossible childhood dream into my reality. And therefore, I want to inspire others to believe in themselves. And sometimes, I am the one who believes in others and helps them, just because life is easier if we have someone who believes in us, as I had my grandpa when I was little or Anne here.

If it isn’t positive, then… It doesn’t matter what others think of us; they can’t influence our lives without us giving them permission to do so. We are the only person in control of our lives because our lives don’t depend on what happens to us but how we react to whatever happens to us.

You can check my stories on Medium, and if you like them and you are on Medium, then please follow me there. Here are a couple of examples:

Life of a hopeless (yet successful) dreamer — About Me:

The Diverce Faces of Freedom:

My wish for you for 2024 (and beyond : )

If you are not Medium member, you can contact me, and I will happily send you a friend-link, or you can follow me in X (former Twitter), where I’m going to start sharing my stories again through friends-link.

I wish you all, all the very best! And I look forward to seeing you again, one day : )

Be you! Be yourself! Believe in yourself! And trust Micky Mouse, who said, “If you can dream it, you can do it!” (I even got the frustrating logical architecture for the project approved! Anything is possible ; )

Cheers,

Jan