Moving on: Interview with Thomas Hauser, Departing Senior IT Officer at the JVI

Thomas Hauser has been with the JVI for eight years. On the occasion of his departure, he spoke with JVI Newsletter staff about his experience here.

Thomas, you have been part of the IT team at the JVI for almost eight years. Can you give us an overview of your role and key activities during this period?

During my almost eight years at the JVI, my role covered a broad range of IT responsibilities. I was involved in maintaining and developing our server and network infrastructure, virtualization environment, Windows systems, databases, security, and various internal applications and services.

A particularly interesting part of the job was that it was never limited to just one area of IT. I was able to work on everything from day-to-day technical support and troubleshooting to larger infrastructure projects, system migrations, automation, software development, and improvements to our IT environment. Over the years, technology changed considerably, so there was always something new to learn and implement.

How would you describe your experience working at the JVI?

It has been a very positive and valuable experience. 

What I particularly appreciated was the international environment and the opportunity to work with colleagues and participants from many different countries and backgrounds. The relatively small size of the JVI also means that you get to know people personally and can see very directly how your work contributes to the organization.

I am leaving with a great deal of experience, many good memories, and above all an appreciation for the people I had the opportunity to work with.

What was the most memorable part during this period? Any anecdote you would like to share?

For me, the most memorable part of my time at the JVI was not one particular project or event, but rather the people and the feeling of gradually becoming part of the JVI family. Over the years, colleagues became friends. That is something I value enormously.

There were also many special moments: supporting high-level events and meeting some truly interesting people, but equally the much simpler things—conversations over coffee, shared lunches, and the good times together in the JVI garden. Those are probably the moments you don't think much about while they are happening, but remember afterwards.

What are your plans after the JVI?

I will be moving into a new role as an IT Coordinator/Senior Engineer, working with modern infrastructure technologies while also taking on more responsibility for coordination, projects and cross-team collaboration. I am looking forward to broadening my experience and seeing where this next chapter takes me.

Rilind Kabashi, Senior Economist, Joint Vienna Institute