I was just telling how did it go for me from just before going on Erasmus to the summer after that experience, when I had the opportunity to finish my degree in London. Let’s find out what happened next.

Thanks to some friends I made the previous months, I managed to do an Inception-like Erasmus within an Erasmus: I went to London Metropolitan University as a student from Italy in order to write and submit the thesis that would finish my double degree. Sadly enough, the scolarship from the Italian government for those four months was larger then the ones from Spanish & Catalan governments for all the year I spent in Turin.

Anyway, four months of peacefully getting everything done came, including finishing a couple of courses from my home university remotely. I also had to go back to Turin to defense my thesis, and then back home for my final examen there. But I finished my degree! The downside: my blog was not active at all.

Shortly after that, I began looking for a job, but I didn’t have any idea on what I wanted to do exactly. I did some interviews, was offered a couple of positions, but then a golden oportunity came. Thanks to a friend, one of the founders of itnig (just four people at that moment) invited me to talk over and asked me to be the second developer there. Somehow hesitant at first, I accepted.

I like to think of that moment as a golden strike that allowed me to grow professionaly, in a way I truly could not have imagined. I learned a new programming language for me (Ruby) as fast as I could, and I gave everything to make things happen (funnily, our motto back then).

Eight months after that, a turning point came. itnig was to set to take Camaloon to the next level and make it grow faster, so two of the founders left to lead the joint venture. At the same time, I was appointed CTO at itnig, and also invited as a partner of the company, as well of the administration board.

It was a fun phase, and I did learn even more. Not only at a technical level, at which I was increasingly getting better and more experienced, but also in a more business-like level. Some people say startup years are like dog years, one year in a startup being seven years in normal life, and I can swear that in my case it’s totally true.

At itnig, we slowly evolved from long-term-focused consultancy to being partners in new startups while we helped them grow with our knowledge and expertise. I had to balance several projects at once, meet the requirements that were set, hire, manage and teach people, and also craft MVPs for promising startups that were like our babies. I realized that I loved (but really, LOVED) working on that, but somehow an idea cross my mind: an idea telling me that something was missing.

Next episode, here (you can check the previous one too).