I started my blog to practice my English and to share my knowledge and thoughts with others. I only expected my posts to be seen by a few people, but they have been seen by more than I anticipated. I'm extremely grateful and proud of myself. Thank you, Dev.to community!
My Dream
Hi, everyone, my name is Seongkuk and I have been working as a frontend engineer mainly with React for two years in South Korea.
About seven years ago, I saw a video on Youtube. In the video, An English man spoke Korean and knew about Korea really well. It was a shocking moment to me. Before seeing this video, I had no knowledge about other cultures. I wasn't interested in at all, I didn't know anything about them, I hadn't even tried to know that. I had no friends who lived in other countries, It felt like I was just living in a Korea well. I expected that I will spend my whole life in only Korea. Visiting Japan for a few days is just that I could imagine for going abroad. Since then, living and working in other countries became my dream. I wanted to experience diverse cultures and immerse myself into another world to break down my prejudices.
Many things have happened in the past. I'm still in Korea. My dream have kept becoming unrealistic. The fact that I have a high school diploma from GED and a degree from The Korean Academic Credit Bank System(H-) which may not be recognized in other countries makes it harder. That I get more experience in my job and try to study languages when I have some time seems the only way that I can do for my dream.
In January, I turned 30 (this is as a Korean age, I'm currently 28), and All of a sudden, I had a question.
"Am I able to achieve my dream along this way?"
Nowadays, Unexpected events keep happening all around the world, which makes me unsure if I can achieve my dream in the future. Can I even be sure that I will be in the future?
There were also other things I went through these days that may have affected my emotions.
I quit my job and decided to move abroad
I finally made a decision which is moving abroad. Some people around me have expressed their concerns about this plan, as I don't currently have the language skills required to work abroad
They have suggested that I gain more experience and study languages here before making the move.
What they told me may have sounded "realistic", but it no longer seems that way to me. I told my boss to quit my job. (Thanks for my coworkers, they said that they will support me and I'm definitely able to going to make my goal.) I borrowed some money and started to prepare documents for a working holiday visa which allows me to stay there legally for one year in Germany.
I traveled to Germany twice last year, somehow, I got to love the country,(I got many questions that why I chose Germany and not English countries, actually, there are some more reasons but I can't share them online, sorry.) although learning two languages at the same time would be really hard, I think it would be great for me in the future, also, I thought it could be a great opportunity that makes me able to work with developers from several countries.
So, I have decided to move to Frankfurt. Since I'm planning to move there without enough language skills, it will be undoubtedly going to be a big challenge for me, but on the other hand, I think it will be a good opportunity for me. I will have to keep pushing myself hard to survive there. As I think, this will help me a lot to achieve my dream faster.
My Goals
My current goals, in order priorities, are as follows:
- Settle in Frankfurt and obtain a work visa. (After starting to work, I need to switch from the working holiday visa to a work visa)
- Learn English and German languages.
- Work as a software engineer.
I will focus on learning languages for about half an year(This period is the maximum that I can afford on my budget) and prepare interview questions, and then I will start applying for Frontend engineer positions. If it seems that I'm unable to work as a developer at that moment, I will look for any jobs that allows me to obtain a work visa in Germany. After getting used to the languages, I will try again. At least, in the meantime, I can enjoy coding my own until I get the opportunity, right?
If the visa process goes well, I will arrive in Frankfurt on March 17th. I have been looking for friends who live there and want to exchange languages, and I met some online, I will study languages with them. Unfortunately, taking a language course is not feasible on my budget.
I know that it may sound unrealistic, but I'm determined to do my best, I don't have a plan to go back here, my plan is that I'm going to make it or I'm going to die. As a warm-up, I'm in a challenge that living without my own house until I leave, it's going to be about three weeks. a few friends let me stay at their house on some days tho, it's kind of exhausting. However, I know that living in Germany will be a way harder.
Thanks for reading my long story.
I actually have one question I would like to ask
"Can I obtain a work visa while working remotely for a German company?"
If it's possible, it would be easier to find a developer position.
Additionally, I would like to hear your opinions and some advice.
Top comments (2)
I will think your dreams are realistic and you can achieve them :)
I don‘t know about the working visa situation though.
The stronger your coding skills are, the easier it should be finding a job.
I wish you all the best on your journey, stay strong!
Yes, you're right. I'll keep trying to improve my skills.
Thank you for all what you said. Have a great day :)