I’ve had quite a few different jobs.. well, about five… But that’s quite a lot for your typical Belgian (we fear change!). This resulted in a range of long car commutes, short bicycle commutes, extreme long train commutes… You’d think I’d learn and go for shorter with every job change, but alas… I didn’t.

My latest commute is even the longest yet. But working at Augment, Erik Duval’s and now Katrien Verbert’s research group at KU Leuven, has been worth it. And it probably is the most fun/satisfying/creative/soul shattering/depressing (yes) job I’ve had. Good times!

Anyway, it got me thinking that I should try to visualise the differences between my commutes. No rocket science, but I thought it would be fun to walk you through them.

First, a quick explanation. The colors are explained in the image above, the thickness of a line indicates the difficulty of that part of the trip (traffic jams for car, waiting for connections in case of the train, and cycling just requires effort,.. always). The partial donuts indicate ring roads and how much distance is spent on them. All of these are very rough estimates, enough to tell my story. The bar on the right indicates the best possible time (green) to the worst possible time (red). These are based on what Google Maps estimates during morning rush hours (again, no exact science here). Okay? Let’s go.

Job #1: Northgate Arinso

Ah, Brussels and its traffic jams. Our country is small, but our traffic jams are amongst world’s biggest. And we chose to live north of Brussels, which meant I’d have to head through the longest and busiest part of the Brussels Ring. I was young and stupid,  and spent 4.5 years in horrible traffic jams. Seriously hated it in the end. But it did give me a lot of time to think. Think about what my next job should be! (staring at the trunk of the car in front of you is quite.. zen and inspiring?)
That thick part at the start of the trip? Two lanes merging onto one on a bridge. Could add an hour to your route if you didn’t know the shortcuts. Horrible! (they widened the bridge AFTER I moved job/house of course)

Job #2: Monumental Games

I managed to land a job in the games industry, a dream of mine since I was a kid. Added bonus: I went from 2-3 hours a day wasted in the car to my shortest commute ever. Was even short enough  to have lunch at home with Elke! I had to buy a bicycle (I was a.. car person, but on a puny game developer salary.. no dice), but in the end the overtime was worse than my previous commute time. So.. I left!

Job #3: iChoosr

There were many reasons why I left the game industry (there are things I miss: many of my colleagues, making games, and a bit of Nottingham. And things I don’t miss: rain), but it was time to move on, and we arrived back in Belgium: Antwerp. Being even closer to work, getting the bicycle out of the basement was sometimes just not worth the time. Elke’s work was right next to ours, so we could meet up for lunch every day. Second best lunches ever!

We ended up buying a house, away from the city. So the commute got longer. Still, two bicycle rides and a trip on the train weren’t too bad… But the time it takes for the short distance was quite ridiculous (welcome to Belgium).

Job #4: Northgate Arinso

Leaving iChoosr was a bit weird (I was the first at the company to ever leave..), but I thought, hey, commutes, I can handle those! I’ve done horrible commutes for almost five years! .. But I did seem to forget we relocated: we moved to the north of Antwerp, which added another ring road to my trip… It took me 3 months to realise what I did. It took me another year to find an exit.

Job #5: KU Leuven

Okay, it’s even further away. But I get to do research! Be creative! Get a PhD in the end (hopefully). Two ring roads again, but this time, the Brussels part is quite short.

Universities do not give you cars, but they do give you train subscriptions! So, thanks to the amazing services of the NMBS (Belgian railways), with its weekly/daily delays and cancelled trains, it can take up to three hours to get to work (or you just can’t get anywhere,.. it happens more often than you think). This can get quite frustrating, but the train has become my second office. Not a complete waste of time..

 

Now, if I had more time, it would be great to visualise my love for each job/company/colleagues, and weigh it against salary, commute distance etc. But hey, I don’t want to burn any bridges. And even so, every job I’ve had was amazing in its own way. I made great friends, learned things! Not regretting any of it..

I will end with this: the actual locations of the companies. And here, I’ve improved. I present to you, from left to right: Northgate Arinso, Monumentel Games, iChoosr, Northgate Arinso again,.. and KU Leuven.

Yep. We’ve gone greener. However, the access to good lunch places is equally bad on both the university campus and the industrial area in which Northgate Arinso was located. The prettiest building I’ve worked in (on the outside anyway) deserves some attention as well: “The Prudential Building” in Nottingham.

Hope you enjoyed the trip (pun intended, of course). If you like this type of visualisation, I’d love to see it applied to your own commutes. Or anything trip related really. Do leave comments!

Oh, and lessons learned? Err… Balance is everything! But home working is the best?!