Joining “IBM Corporate Service Corps” in Recife Brazil
My name is David Boaz, I live in Israel, I’m married and I have three sons. I’m an engineer at IBM research, and… I will go for one month for an assignment in Brazil!
In this blog I will share my feelings and thoughts. In particular, I want to make a diary that will help me in the future to remember how I felt.
So, what is IBM CSC? IBM sends every year about 500 employees to countries all around the globe with a mission to help solving a problem the local community has. This is called “Corporate Service Corps” or CSC. It is one month mission that includes about 15 employees, like myself, from all departments, roles and locations of IBM. Our team will collaborate with a local non-governmental organisation to try to come up with a solution for the problem. We will continue to receive salary from IBM, so it’s not pure volunteering. IBM chooses to sponsor our volunteering efforts. Surely, it must cost a lot… For me personally, this assignment is a fantastic opportunity to break the routine, to have an adventure, to make new friends, to experience a new culture, to develop my skills. All that, giving value to a local community. So, it’s a perfect win-win situation, who’d refuse an opportunity like this?
So, a year and a half ago, I filled the CSC application form. My kids are big now (8, 12, and 15 years). I think that my absence from home for one month should not be a big deal. I asked my wife Ronit, what she thinks about this mission? I explained that the chances to be accepted are low (1/5), and even if I am accepted, it will happen in the far future. She agreed —”thanks Ronit”. I filled the forms and mostly forgot about this issue.
About a year later, I got an email announcing that I was accepted. Good news. But when? Where? There was no information.
I felt a bit anxious: What if the assignment will occur during our summer vacation that we already booked?
Then what about my destination? I was really hoping to visit Africa again. I always wanted to see Morocco. Or maybe it will be Japan?
What kind of problem will we have to tackle? I hope it will be related to the environment.
I hope that we will be able to make a real impact. Not just to write a report that maybe will be applied. I hope that we will be able to give new ideas. But, are we so smart? How much impact can we do in a month?
Finally, I got a letter that I was accepted to a team going to Recife Brazil from October 12 (my birthday!) to November 10, 2018.
The timing is OK. But Brazil!? I did not expect that. I have already visited Brazil (the Pantanal, see image below). I don’t know to explain why, but, in the beginning, I was disappointed. Then, in a second though I reconciled — Brazil will be great: Beautiful beaches, happy atmosphere, the language is not difficult, good food and music… And, location is not all-important factor. Also important is who will be my team mates. What will be our assignment? Which local organisation we are going to work with and other factors that I don’t think about yet…
Then, we entered into a preparation period. In this period, we have to do many procedural tasks, and to get to know each other. We have weekly video calls. There I met the team - 14 people overall. In addition, we have mentors (CSC veterans) and local representatives that will help with the local relationships. The team comes from 13 different countries. Philippines, South Africa, Europe and North America. I’m the only one from Israel. The team members come from different departments and have different roles in IBM. I knew of course that IBM is big — 400,000 employees. But now, I feel how wast and truly global IBM is. It opened my eyes to see outside from my local environment.
Our team of 14 will break into a few sub-teams. Each will focus on a different problem with a particular local organisation. We’ve got homeworks. In the first task, we had to write our CV (professional), a cover-letter (professional and personal) and a profile-card (personal). These will be used to best match you to a sub-team. Writing the CV was easy. The cover letter and the profile-card were harder. First time in my life that I have to think and describe my personality. What interests me? What are my characteristics? What am I good at? and bad? The most difficult question was to write a curious (special/ funny) fact about myself. I could not find one. Am I so boring? A typical husband with kids that work in high-tech, commute to work, and watches TV??? I asked Ronit: “What funny fact can I tell about my self?” — “That you don’t hear without your glasses”. OK— that’s a good one…
I also started to learn Portuguese. I found an online course (Babel) and took 2 beginners courses. Portuguese seems very similar to Spanish. So, currently it is easy. I try to invest about 3 hours a week learning it. I hope this investment will payoff.
That is the current status. Still, there are many open questions…
What will be the exact assignment?
How will we be partitioned to sub-teams?
Will we have free time?
How will it be to be away from the family for a month?
How will Ronit manage?
Maybe I will fall in love with a Brazilian woman?
Maybe Ronit will get used to live without me?
Will see… I will continue to update as I have news…
Till the next time, bye.
David