Fortune cookies ain't life-changing? Then read this true story.

Some things are too good to be true. Some things are signs. Some are probably both.

I had found this message in a fortune cookie somewhen in 2010 and it happened exactly at that time where I already had felt the deep urge to look around for a new job. I remember that I said something to myself like "Okay, then, why not? I have nothing to lose".

Looking around for a new job, well I guess the reasons are always the same. In my case I was looking for a much more challenging job, a job with a versatile perspective, with more responsibilty, more money of course. With colleagues who would be apt as congenial participants, not as subliminal jealous, bad mouthing opponents... friction generates heat, and I need a certain working temperature to perform on a high level. To perform on a high level, a certain environment is as necessary as people on different hierarchical levels who are able to understand that success does not come naturally, but is the result of good concepts, hard work, a certain ambiance, also luck. Plus - drum roll - who are able to realize that focussing solely upon economics is an one-way-road that leads to arbitrariness, and if you want to be distinguished from your "competitors" (stupid wording, to call a spade a spade, they are much more rivals than competitors), the opposite of being distinguished would be the result by budgeting the whole business into oblivion.

Talking about looking for a new job, well, I began to do so. I looked around, browsed the appointments section of several newspapers, also the online job market. I built my online presences on different channels. As a strongly connected guy I sounded my network out on opportunities and hey!, as a matter of fact I had several opportunities by the end of 2010 and early 2011. But after weighing the pros and cons, I had come to the conclusion that all of them would surely have brought me out of the frying pan into the fire. The education sector, especially its private occurence, can be a jungle sometimes ah-huh-huh-huh. 

Then, by the end of last Summer, I jumped at the chance which was the result of an accidental call. A real fluke, somehow. Step by step, the shape of things to come became first concrete, then so solid that I finally resigned from my job on November 29th. I resigned from my job after nine years, and gave a goodbye-party for all of my colleagues and pupils. What a bummer that such gatherings mostly happen when something ends... I guess it says much about the culture.

Finally I have started my new job as head of the educational center at the University Medical Center of Mainz on March 1st. And what should I say? It is just great! The whole ambiance is so different from my last job. It's like the University Medical Center is a place of outstanding opportunities in the spirit of progress and diversity. And it's the beginning of a great adventure. And it is a challenge as well. I am totally excited and also eager to learn so that I quickly grow into this new position.

Bye-bye Trier, I wish my yet untraced successor to have the right touch to continue the business I have started. It's not my business any longer, which is also something important I had to realize, which I did the moment I had signed my letter of dismissal.

And a warm welcome to Mainz. Oh, and never underestimate the impact of fortune cookies...