Basics
Let’s start with the simple straight facts. My name is Katrin. I was born in April 1982 in Leipzig, Germany and been living there every since. I am obviously not made to travel the world or even Germany, but managed to move 4 times within a radius of 2km within 10 years.
I consider myself very shy, not too bright and don’t have the best opinion of myself. However the people who know me may tell you a completely different story.
Below the Updates Section you find kind of a CV :)
Here is a gallery of pictures of myself.
Updates
Fall 2011: Finnish and Hungarian Language Courses started again
October 2011: I started my thesis for the Management Course, titled: “Improvement of Customer Satisfaction by increasing the amount of first call resolutions and better ticket handling through knowledge transfer, employee motivation and communication”
Early Years, School and Studies
Like basically every typical child being raised in East Germany I went to the kindergarden and carved out there being the first taken there and last taken home again. I was incredibly happy (*sarcasmsign*) and spent the time watching my brother when he joined the kindergarden two years after I did. He is my only sibling, being 2 years younger than me. When shown pictures people can hardly believe that he is younger than me, because he looks about 5 years older than I am.
In 1988 I was allowed to attend classes at school. Live didn’t get better, but I was good.
In 1989 we were granted a larger flat where we moved in in 1990 – how happy we were that the wall came down. For me it meant a new school. Still I was probably not the happiest girl on the block. One good thing was I joined a sports club and did cross country skiing. Up until today I love snow and winter and cross country skiing (even if you consider it boring, I consider it awesome). I am also a huge fan of Biathlon.
1992 I entered high school, had some good years and a lot of downhill periods resulting in taking grade 11 twice. Despite several doubts of certain teachers, in 2001 I left school with grade 1,7 (B+) – being best in maths :D My advanced courses were German and English, though. (probably the most boring combination you can take).
I had no clue what to do with my life, where I wanted to go or who I wanted to be. Career consultant asked me what I like and I said I LOVE theatre (back then I really did, been in theatre at least once a week often more, even worked as a cashier to pay the tickets) and computers. Consultant said I could study theatre research and computer science at the same time. Back then not thinking much I enrolled myself at the university in Leipzig for theatre research and computer science. I was not happy.If I had been clever I would have stopped after the first semester, but I punished myself through it until the March of 2007 graduating with 2,6 (B-), having no clue what to do next, so since being in a very unstable and unhealthy state doctors decided I should undergo psychotherapy in a part time clinic for 3 months – again (first time was in 2005).
Work
I left hospital in July 2007 being in a quite stable and good shape – for the time being. I applied for jobs, was turned down and managed to get a position at IBM CSS as a Service Desk Agent under the worst environment possible for me – therapists were going nuts. Open plan office, lots and lots of people, telephones ringing, doing work I am too good for. Luckily my English knowledge qualified me for a position in a team for a US customer that needed Level 2 and 3 support, so no incoming end user calls and higher skill set needed.
Surprising everyone, including me, I got along very well. I had to reduce my working hours to 35, though, because I was running into psychological problems again. It was also arranged that I am not working on weekends to get my rest. My team was awesome and agreed to it as well as the managers.
Soon enough I got horribly bored and felt incredibly stupid with what I am doing and considered myself not worth anything better. I was lucky and due to changes, I got the Deputy Team Lead position which gave me at least a few more options and tasks fulfilling my organisational and management skills. It didn’t take long and I realised that this is something I want to do – in a larger scale. THe idea of going into management was born. I started a distance learning course and finished it with a degree as Management Assistant. (also now in 2011 I am still taking a course in Management Basics). However soon enough I was bored and announced I need to look for another job. My manager offered me to work with him on several projects to get to know management (and having a person doing parts of his jobs with no additional payment – I didn’t mind, I wanted to learn).
Also due some trouble in the team I decided to take a job offer from Amazon and work in Seller Support – starting in September 2010. BIG MISTAKE. I was about to die and throw myself into the packing machines. Whatever they promised in the job interview was not possible anymore and to make it short. January 1st, 2011 I was back in my old team at IBM CSS and so far I am really able to value what I have there. I am Deputy Team Lead again, became a Level3 agent and due to being incredibly stable for already a year with no major fall backs except for the Amazon time, I work 40 hours again and do weekends. I am also back in assisting my manager with his projects.
Borderline
From what I have written so far you may have guessed I have a *tiny* mental problem. I was suffering from depression and axiety basically all my life and 2007 they diagnosed Borderline Personality Disorder. Yeah me. Also to make this short (if you need more info, Wikipedia is your friend, the German and English texts pretty much say everything you need to know about it and if you don’t have it you will not be able to relate anyway ;) ): everything involving feelings and emotions especially in social relationships kill me – I just don’t know how to handle them normally. I know only good or bad, not both together. I get bored very easily, I cannot really state who I am, what my identity is and what I want to do. Therapy and being constantly on my happy pills make me survive my daily life – I am also out of observation due to suicidal behaviour. I also learned a lot and know how to handle things better especially regarding work and valueing myself.
However don’t get me anywhere near to love…
Friends
Also due my Borderline problem I only have a few friends and only 2 people I would say I am close to. But I also don’t want too many friends. It would drive me crazy. I get a long with people, though and nowadays I also like to hang around with people or go on parties. But letting someone really close is almost a no-go because I cannot really trust, especially I have real trouble trusting that people are really interested in my person and won’t just use me for their own benefit (in which way ever). Also I am always scared that people I let close to me will leave at some point.
Interests
I am interested in several things and can get easily excited, but hardly manage to keep things up for long which annoys me a lot to be honest, but I get bored so easily and want something else and new. However several things I keep up with and that
is annoying internet users with my websites, reading books like crazy (and talk real books here, no e-reader, I want REAL books) and languages, even though I have real trouble learning them. The only foreign language I am fluent in, is English.
At school I went through French and hated it straight from the beginning. I took courses in Finnish and Russian because I wanted to. Since April 2011 I also take courses to learn Hungarian.
Contact me
There are several ways to contact me. By email or also on twitter. However I am a Facebook Junkie. So the easiest way to stay or get in contact with me is by sending me a message via Facebook and/or add me as a friend:
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