Yesterday I went to a work networking thing for women in IT. Since my company was hosting it, I had to be social and mingle and I was talking to random people.

I talked to one particular woman for a long time because we had a lot in common. I noticed that she looked Turkish or perhaps Greek, and had an accent which I assumed was Turkish. However she said she was Russian from St Petersburg! I would never have guessed..

Her Swedish was very good and she was a manager in IT, like myself. Like me, she did not have an IT degree and started her career from scratch in a foreign country. I had the advantage that I already knew the language though, whereas she didn't.

I found her story quite inspirational on an individual level.

However I learned that she really didn't like Russia. Despite the fact that St Petersburg is a one hour flight away, she had not been back go Russia for ten years!!!
She said that the political situation was so bad that she was scared to go there.... which really surprised me. I did not thought this would be something that regular people would worry about while on a short visit... All this was a bit peculiar. According to this woman, work is really tough in Russia: hard to get a job and bosses are dictatorial and unfair.

I'm going to connect with her on LinkedIn though, and stay in touch that way.

People who know me on the forum (and don't hate me after fights in the political forum....) If you want to connect on LinkedIn, drop me a PM!
I have finally got around to updating my account although I am still boycotting Facebook.