In 08/1999, on the occasion of my documentary research activities, which I was carrying out from home, where I had set up my « second office », I came across a job offer for a « Localization Project Manager » position to be filled in Los Angeles, as I was browsing through job descriptions as part of the benchmarking phase of my audit. The offer was posted on the website of Bowne Global Solutions, a subsidiary of the Bowne & Co. company, headquartered in New York.

Since I was curious about the perception of my own profile in this area, I decided to email an application, to which the recruiting agent answered that the position had just been filled, but that my resume would be kept for other such opportunities. Indeed, I was contacted in 09/1999 by the offices of Los Angeles, Paris and Munich for a similar position in Munich, with a possible future relocation to the United States. From « let's see what happens », I quickly migrated over to « why not? ».

The recruitment process by videoconference was finalized in 12/1999, with a new job initially supposed to start in 02/2000, postponed to 04/2000.