Hi, nice to see you here …
Awesome, that you are visiting me here. Here you will learn a lot about me. Where I come from, how I got onto the path that lead me here, what my believes and values are, and where I might be moving towards to in the future.
From Eastern Germany around the world
This is my story: I am an immigrant. Born in Eastern Germany in the 1970s, raised in Hungary, I now live in Austria. In a tiny apartment in Vienna and a summer house at the feet of the Alps. With my husband, daughter and son.
Yes, I am a mother, one of the many roles I have. My proudest role. It all started as a freaked red head with four siblings. I went to a Catholic Boarding School in Vienna, and with 19 I stumbled, though not planned, into the job of a flight-attendant for Lauda-Air, the Airline of the world famous Formula 1 world champion Niki Lauda.
I loved our uniform: jeans, the dotted blouse and a baseball hat. The jet setting, the drinks in bars in the most popular places around the world. Until Lauda-Air was swallowed by its big rival Austrian Airlines. The airline, where you had to wear red stockings.
This seemed to be the perfect time to persue my secret dream of becoming a pilot. My next role. The pilot training I completed in about 17 months, gained over 200 hours. I arrived back in Austria knowing that it will be hard, due to the difficult pilot market after 9/11, but believed it would work anyway somehow. After a hard assessment, I landed a job at Air Berlin, and gained an A320 rating. Unfortunately, I only had 4 months with them, before having to reorient myself again. I had now to survive on part-time jobs, living from hand to mouth, an own home seemed light years away. Along with me my dazzling bright little daughter, age of 6.
Not wanting to give up flying I fought hard to get back into the sattle. I got a job as a flight instructor and a first-officer position on a private jet. After gaining more experience I was hired full time at Austria's biggest Flight Academy, then at Oxford Flight Academy, and at Emirates Flight Training. Then, finally at Diamond Aircraft Industries. Here I did internal test flights, demo flights and single pilot ferry flights around the whole world. The first female aviator of this kind in Austria.
I almost forgot: I met my husband and we had a beautiful baby boy. He reminds me every day, what really matters in life: to be true to myself and believe in my self.
I understand my story is special. But it also shows what is possible, as a women in a male dominated field, as a working single mom. If I may wish for something for the future, it would be more empathy at the workplace and for leaders to recognize your talents and support them, to let you “take-off”.