Clouds and Palms: Kadi’s Adventures Here and There

Kadi began her user support internship at Primend in early February 2019. “My job interview wasn’t formal at all; in fact, we just chatted with Rene and Svea while sitting on the windowsill,” she says, thinking back on that time. On 1 May that same year, Kadi officially became a Primend employee and has been working for the company ever since. Who is Kadi, what are her dreams and what makes her always opt for plan B?

A gap year in Ireland, followed by marketing studies 

Kadi was raised in one of the most beautiful towns on Estonia’s western coast – Haapsalu. After graduating from the local high school, she decided to move to Ireland, as part of an au pair programme. The next four months passed with her taking care of children. After her exhilarating life in Ireland, Kadi returned to Estonia and enrolled in Tallinn School of Economics to study marketing, successfully graduating some years later. 

Two years full of adventure 

After her time in Ireland and now as a fresh marketing graduate, Kadi and her partner were aching for new adventures, so just a week after her graduation they embarked on a new journey - Australia. The next two years were spent living and working there. These years were marked by a somewhat slower pace of life, as they learned to refine the art of being present in the moment. 

What next? 

“After completing my marketing studies, I worked in the field as a Project Manager for two years. I felt there was this urge in me to learn something new right away but in a completely different field,” Kadi says. She explains how in her family she had always acted as a sort of IT specialist. “IT had always been my plan B and graphic design my plan C; so, I thought why not study that?” With that, she enrolled in Haapsalu Vocational Education and Training Centre to become a IT systems junior specialist. Later, while searching for an internship position, she stumbled upon Primend – quite accidentally. “One of Primend’s user support staff members happened to be Jass, who had graduated from the same school as me; so, I sent him my internship application. And I was accepted! Only later did I learn that Jass had simply forwarded my way-too-formal application, with a note: “Here’s another one!”,” she laughs. Once Kadi joined Primend, she also worked on some internal marketing for the company, part-time, for the first few months. Her duty was to organise events. “I actually enjoy organising events. Of my friends, I am always the one who organises and plans all sorts of things.” Her initial weekly schedule at Primend required her to work in user support for the first 4 days, with Fridays reserved for marketing. But as IT appealed to her much more back then, she decided to stick to this career path. Her current position at Primend is Cloud Service Administrator.

Truth about Tenerife 

“I’ve been a planner my whole life. Again, Tenerife had been my plan B while Australia was always my plan A.” In 2020, she and her partner started exploring the possibilities of returning to Australia. However, with the COVID pandemic throwing their plans into flux, they had to resort to plan B, which meant Tenerife. Kadi had already spent a family holiday there and instantly knew she wanted to return. The decision was made rather quickly, before she was even able to coordinate the move with Primend. “When I told Ken about this idea, he was all about: “Sure, just go!”. I felt ecstatic!” And that was it. On 17 April 2021, Kadi and her family moved to Tenerife. The plan was to stay for a year but a year turned into two and then some more… 
I asked Kadi if her near future is more Tenerife or Estonia, to which she replied that she hasn’t decided yet. “You really can’t plan five years ahead. We are where it feels right and good to be. To me, settling somewhere is not as important as feeling good about the place that I’m in right now. I don’t know how long our Tenerife phase will last and whether we will stay here for good or not. Hopefully, we will still return to Estonia at some point.”  

The joys of working from Tenerife… 

“Tenerife is a fantastic mix of great weather and family-oriented culture. People here are warm and friendly, which creates a sense of home. All of these factors combined played an important part in our decision to move here. Also, the time difference with Estonia is only two hours, which makes working from here really easy. Usually, I wake at 6 in the morning and finish my work by 3 in the afternoon. After work and at weekends it feels like an everlasting holiday. I just grab a thing or two and head to the beach or pool. Since rainy days are very rare, I can make plans well in advance.”  

3 places that you would like to visit in the next 6 months? 

“Cueva del Viento, which is an underground cave system formed by lava in the northern part of Tenerife. Then, Tenerife marathon and Camino de Candelaria – a hike spanning 22 km through forests and mountains.”

How do you charge your batteries? 

“When you go on holiday, you naturally want to spend all your days at the beach because you’ve paid for your trip and accommodation, and the sun is there for free. However, having lived in a warm climate, I approach things differently. I prefer to keep it simple, and during my free time, I actually enjoy hiking.” 

Idyllic life in Spain – a truth or a myth? 

A life in Tenerife sounds really sweet – we have no doubts about that. “During our time here, we have visited the other Canary Islands as well – El Hierro, La Gomera and La Palma and have also been to mainland Spain twice – to Barcelona and Malaga. As local residents we can get plane tickets at a real bargain price. For instance, a trip from Tenerife to Malaga costs only 12 euros,” says Kadi enthusiastically, but then adds that dealing with paperwork in Spain can be a real nightmare. You can truly say that bureaucracy in Tenerife is like something out of the Stone Age. Wherever you go, it requires an advance booking. There are also signs everywhere indicating that those who don’t speak Spanish should seek the aid of an interpreter. And while environmental issues seem to be a big topic in Europe, Spain’s “green policies” are still in their early stages. For instance, bio-waste is not sorted, and bottles are collected and recycled together with other plastic waste. Kadi recalls just one innovative store that actually collects used bottles – but even their machine only accepts bottles bought from that exact store. An interesting approach indeed.  

And the next destination will be…?  

“Japan. For some reason, I’ve always wanted to go there. Japan sounds like a place where you could easily spend more than just two weeks. Despite having no cultural connections, I just have a fascination with Japan. And then there’s Singapore. After Australia, we spent two months backpacking in Asia and we really liked Singapore. The United States also sounds cool – the only downside being the significant time difference with Estonia.” Which of these is plan A, B or C, only time will tell. But judging by her past experience, Kadi always tends to go for plan B anyway, so we’ll keep you posted! 

Finally, why Primend? 

“Primend is the coolest company I have ever worked for. In addition to salary, there is so much added value here which is a great motivator. I have been able to grow so much and I don’t see it ending any time soon. Not to mention the people and the overall attitude... “