After a tough apprenticeship in post-communist Poland I came to Sofia in early 1997 while Stefan Sofianski was interim prime minister. The domestic crisis then was far worse for Bulgaria than the present global one.  I’ve tried to leave or retire several times, but thanks to the magnetism of Bulgaria and its people, as well as the professional challenges here, I am still gainfully employed in Sofia 12 years later. My heart is here but I keep a pied-a-terre in Scotland. 

Today’s shopping malls, supermarkets, restaurants and motor cars give no hint of the austere environment of 1997. There was no sign then of the massive new building developments that dominate Sofia’s skyline today. To find a house to rent in the scarce sellers’ market you had to scour the potholed back-roads of Boyana, Dragalevtsi and Simeonovo and pay many months’ rent in advance to secure a deal. Nowadays, there is abundant accommodation on offer but the roads are just as bad.

The first people I met made a lasting impression. The resourceful young agent from Philip Bay’s Continental Properties who found me a house, the enthusiastic professionals at KMPG who had already more work than they could handle, my office manager and driver who knew every legal (and questionable) route round the stifling bureaucracy, the dear ladies who helped at home with cleaning, ironing and making banichki, the landlord whose wife was a superb cook and whose hospitality was legendary.

I still mourn the closure of the Radio City New York Club with its great gallery of caricatures. I learnt to anticipate birthdays and name days (so much easier these days with Facebook), to always give flowers in odd numbers, to hold your thumbs and not cross your fingers, and not to even bother asking for a non-smoking table. I discovered that cash was king even when buying a car which I did often in establishing my fleet of old-timers.

I found out why turnout at elections is so low: yes it’s nice to have democracy again, but when many of the candidates for office are corrupt, the typical Bulgarian protest is to shrug your shoulders and not vote. Alternatively, to choose the glamour option who is seen as honourable – like Simeon or Boyko – but who are sometimes wrong-footed by the realities of politics.

The key for me was to invest in young people. They are the future of the new Bulgaria. I worked a lot with the universities, with AIESEC, with the business clubs and with Junior Achievement, and recruited many outstanding future professionals. Some are still here and rapidly advancing in successful careers.

I took several exceptional students as interns in my office, learning as much from them as they did from me. I held trainings for undergraduates in writing CVs, conducting effective interviews and generally facing the jobs market. Some still ask me for reference letters. It was all this that drew me to my late-career move in 2006 into the HR consultancy business with AIMS Human Capital.