In July 2015, I packed my bags and left Istanbul for a new chapter in Wrocław, Poland, to join Credit Suisse. It was a hot summer. I couldn’t afford a direct flight, so I flew to Berlin and took a bus to Wrocław. I was excited-and nervous. It was my first time living outside of Turkiye, and I was about to work for a bank I had never heard of before.

I had spent over a decade in Istanbul-from university days in 1996 to working in tech roles from 2004 to 2015. So many memories, so many projects, and so much learning.

👋 First Day Jitters

Starting a new job at 35 in a new country wasn’t easy. My manager, Xenon, had arranged for Jerzy to meet me at reception. I still remember that first call on internal Skype-Xenon told me I’d be working with Tarik and Frank in Zurich. Tarik was my team lead, and I could ask him anything.

A couple of months later, Tarik left for military service, and I found myself handling Java and WebLogic issues solo in JAP. These weren’t your average bugs-these were the “creme de la creme” of problems. If no one else could solve it, it landed on our desk.

We’d often build reproducers-small Java projects to replicate the issue-and open SRs with Oracle. It was challenging, but incredibly rewarding.

🏙️ Life in Poland

After 1.5 years in Wrocław, I moved to Warsaw for a permanent position. From 2017 to 2020, I lived just a short walk from the office. I continued solving deep Java issues until I discovered something new: CI/CD.

🚀 Enter Odyssey

In 2019, I joined the Odyssey team-a CI/CD platform with over 7 Spring Boot applications (a surprise after years of WebLogic!). Everything ran on Linux, backed by PostgreSQL. Our main app was a project management tool that integrated with Active Directory, Jira, Bitbucket, Confluence, and JFrog Artifactory.

When a project manager added a user, the system had to:

  • Query AD for user info
  • Add the user to the project
  • Sync with all backend systems

It was REST-heavy, but not overly complex. We also handled support, and our documentation was so detailed that today, it could probably power an LLM.

🧭 Becoming the SME

After 6–8 months, I became the Subject Matter Expert for Atlas, a tool for managing non-code projects using Jira and Confluence. I worked there until April 2020, implementing features and managing releases.

💬 Looking Back

Working at Credit Suisse in Poland was a great experience. I met brilliant people, tackled tough problems, and grew both personally and professionally. Now that CS has been acquired by UBS and closed in many locations, I look back with gratitude.

To anyone starting a new chapter-especially in a new country-know that the journey might be tough, but it’s worth it. 🌟

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