Beyond Borders: BHFF Fellow Senior Scholars Adna Čičko, Hana Helać and Alumnus Faris Omerbašić Explore Career Opportunities During a Week in Vienna
A week in Vienna gave BHFF Senior Fellow Scholars Adna Čičko and Hana Helać and Alumnus Faris Omerbašić far more than a change of scenery. Through the BHFF Mobility Program, they visited companies, research institutions, universities, and professional organizations, met people from different industries, and gained a closer look at what it means to study, work, innovate, and build a career in another European environment.
From artificial intelligence and startups to industrial careers, academic research, technology, and entrepreneurship, each visit offered a different perspective. Together, they created an experience that challenged assumptions, expanded professional networks, and encouraged the participants to think more broadly about their own futures.
Starting with AI and Innovation
The Mobility experience began at AI Factory Austria AI:AT and Blockstruct GmbH, where Srđan Kuprešanin and his team welcomed the group and immediately established the tone for the days ahead.
Rather than a formal introduction followed by a one-way presentation, the visit developed into an open conversation. The participants had the opportunity to ask questions, exchange experiences, and hear practical advice from people working in the technology sector.
For Adna, the openness of this first visit was particularly memorable. She had expected a more formal professional setting, but instead found genuine interest in the young participants, their plans, and their questions.
That experience became a recurring theme throughout the week: behind every company, institution, or professional title were people willing to share their experiences and help the next generation understand the paths that brought them there.
Discovering Vienna’s Startup Ecosystem
At Vienna Business Agency, Nela Šljivljak introduced the participants to Vienna's startup ecosystem and offered an opportunity to compare it with the entrepreneurial environment they know from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The conversation had a particularly strong impact on Adna, who had previously viewed startups as something relatively distant and difficult to pursue. Hearing practical perspectives about opportunities in Vienna made the idea feel much more concrete.
The discussion also encouraged her to think differently about creating opportunities rather than simply waiting for them.
For the participants, the comparison between Sarajevo and Vienna was not necessarily about deciding that one environment was better than the other. Instead, it was about understanding what different ecosystems offer, what challenges young people face, and what possibilities become visible when they step outside their familiar environment.
Learning from Industry at PALFINGER
The visit to PALFINGER provided another perspective on professional development and career paths.
Jasmin Mešanović, Muhamed Smajević, Ibrahim Filandra, and Veliša Milosavljević shared their experiences and offered an honest look at working in an international industrial environment. Importantly, the conversation did not focus only on success. The participants also heard about challenges, difficult decisions, and the less straightforward parts of building a career.
For Faris, understanding how Austrian companies approach international talent was an important part of the Mobility experience. One of his goals was to learn more about the opportunities available to people from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the obstacles they can encounter when pursuing careers abroad.
The visit helped turn those questions into more concrete conversations about professional development and working internationally.
A Different Academic Perspective at TU Wien
The Mobility Program also took the participants into the academic world.
At Technische Universität Wien (TU Wien), Tanja Sović introduced them to the realities of studying and conducting research at the university. The visit offered a perspective that went beyond simply learning about available programs—it showed what academic and research life can actually look like in another country.
For several participants, the experience prompted serious reflection about their own plans.
Questions that may previously have seemed hypothetical—studying abroad, pursuing research internationally, or building a career outside Bosnia and Herzegovina—became more tangible after seeing the environment firsthand.
From Microsoft to the Future of Work
At Microsoft, the group explored another side of the changing professional landscape, focusing on innovation, artificial intelligence, and the transformation of work.
Zana Pekmez, PhD, Adnan Jusić, and Ina Dedukić, together with the wider Microsoft team, shared their perspectives and answered the participants' questions.
The visit was particularly valuable because it connected broad discussions about AI with the realities of how a large international company approaches innovation and changing ways of working.
For the participants, it was another reminder that technological change is not simply about new tools. It is also changing the skills, roles, and ways of thinking expected from professionals.
Connecting People, Knowledge, and Opportunities
The visit to WeAreDevelopers brought the conversation back to the importance of people and professional networks in the technology ecosystem.
Through conversations with Admir and Vanja Ahmetović, the participants gained insight into how organizations connect people, knowledge, and opportunities on an international scale.
Vanja also shared practical advice about hiring talent from the Western Balkans, emphasizing that people from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the wider region are not less capable. Often, the challenge is access to the right opportunities.
For the participants, this reinforced one of the central lessons of the entire Mobility experience: talent needs opportunities, but opportunities are often created through people who are willing to connect, recommend, support, and open doors for others.
Special thanks also went to Naida Vikalo for helping prepare the visit.
Standing Beside a Research Reactor
One of the most unusual experiences of the week took place at TU Wien's Atominstitut.
Standing beside the research reactor was, for Adna, one of the most surreal moments of the entire trip. Nedim Sahović guided the participants through the institute and gave them an opportunity to see a research environment that many students would normally encounter only through lectures, photographs, or academic literature.
The visit added another dimension to the Mobility experience: sometimes, changing perspective simply means physically entering places where research and innovation are happening.
Meeting the People Behind a Company at ambicon
At ambicon, Suad Ferhatbegović, Edin Đulić, and Belma Mustafić welcomed the participants in an exceptionally warm and informal atmosphere.
The visit stood out because the participants learned not only about the company's work, but also about the people behind it.
That human element appeared repeatedly throughout the week. Whether they were speaking with researchers, entrepreneurs, engineers, executives, or technology professionals, the participants found that successful people were often approachable and willing to share their experiences.
For Hana, this became an important personal lesson: professional development is not only about finding opportunities. It is also about becoming confident enough to approach them.
Exploring Complexity Through Interdisciplinary Research
At the Complexity Science Hub, Elma Hot Dervić introduced the participants to another way of approaching difficult problems through interdisciplinary research.
The visit expanded the range of perspectives encountered during the week, showing how complex challenges can require ideas and methods from multiple fields rather than a single discipline.
For students still shaping their professional identities, experiences like this can be particularly valuable because they demonstrate that careers do not always have to follow one predetermined path.
Connecting Futures Meetup: Bringing the Week Together
The Connecting Futures Meetup became a natural culmination of the Mobility experience.
After several days of visiting organizations and institutions, learning from professionals, and building individual connections, the meetup created a broader space for members of the Bosnian and Herzegovinian community in Vienna to meet and exchange experiences.
Adela Mehić-Džanić (IoT), MBA, Dr. Amra Ibrić, Lejla Tinjić Zaimović, Emir Hadžiefendić, and Edhem (Eddie) Čustović, Ph.D. helped create an environment where people from different professional and academic backgrounds could finally connect in person.
For Adna and Hana, the meetup also brought a meaningful full-circle moment.
Earlier in the week, Srđan Kuprešanin had made a strong impression during their first visit to AI Factory. When they later approached him at the meetup and told him that they had mentioned him almost every day since meeting him, his reaction became one of Adna's favorite memories from the entire trip.
It was a small moment, but it captured something much larger about the week: professional experiences are ultimately shaped by human connections.
Leaving Vienna With a Wider Horizon
The most important outcome of the Mobility Program was not a single company visit or one piece of advice. It was the shift in perspective that emerged from experiencing so many different environments within one week.
For Hana, the experience brought greater confidence and courage to think about who she wants to become, while becoming less constrained by assumptions shaped by her surroundings.
For Adna, the impact was even more difficult to separate from her long-term plans. Studying abroad, working internationally, research, and entrepreneurship had previously existed somewhere between possibility and uncertainty. After Vienna, they felt considerably more real.
She also came away with a stronger belief that young people should not underestimate themselves or wait until they feel completely ready. Sometimes the first step is simply being willing to ask a question, start a conversation, try an idea, or explore a possibility.
For Faris, the experience reinforced the importance of travel, continuous learning, and stepping outside the comfort zone. Many of the people they met had themselves moved between countries, industries, and professional environments in search of growth.
Their stories showed that progress rarely comes from staying in one place indefinitely.
More Than a Week Abroad
The Vienna Mobility experience demonstrated what can happen when young people are given the opportunity to enter new professional environments, meet people they would not normally encounter, and ask questions without knowing exactly where those conversations might lead.
Across AI, startups, industry, academia, research, technology, and professional networking, Adna, Hana, and Faris encountered different versions of what a career can look like.
And perhaps most importantly, they returned with something that cannot be gained from a presentation alone: a wider sense of what is possible.
For BHFF, mobility is not simply about sending young people somewhere new. It is about creating opportunities for them to see further, connect more boldly, and imagine futures that may have previously felt out of reach.