Friday, March 23, 2012

Bad times to have LinkedIn profile (Part 3)

In the previous post we saw that LinkedIn (and other similar social networks) could become zombies of your time and personal space, unless you dedicate time & efforts to select and configure the available options according to your preferences.

Let me first state that I like professional social networks like LinkedIn. I am now 33 and I do not really remember if I have ever applied for a job off-line. Many times, the initial contact for a successful job application or freelancer contract was through my LinkedIn or Monster profiles. I remember when I joined LinkedIn for first time they had to add my country of origin, Bulgaria, to their country list.

Having said that, there were some really bad times when I wished my Internet footprint was smaller.

3. Destructive information


Let's face it, it is very easy to put destructive information on your profile. I am not talking about silly blunders like selecting a 'I could drink 2 Liters rakia' picture for your profile. These are clear and can be easily avoided (although I must say I had such a picture live for a while before noticing :)).

Here is an example for a hard-to-notice destructive information from personal experience.

Recently I took a long vacation from my regular job. I wanted to work on some personal projects. My start-up, universalowner.com, was one of these projects. In order to promote the project, I put a new job line 'Founder of universalowner.com' on my profile. I did not notice that by doing so I have automatically moved my regular employer to the 'past jobs' section.

This had some undesirable consequences. Clients of my regular employer immediately spotted that. They questioned the financial and organizational integrity of my employer. The management hat to explain if why and how they are loosing a key employee.  

Before changing my LinkedIn profile, my colleagues contacted me from time to time for some urgent questions and support requests. This was actually quite desirable, as I had arranged for a way to get compensated for the extraordinary support during my vacation. This activity ceased shortly after the change of my profile.

Here is my summary for the series 'Bad times to have LinkedIn profile'.
1. If you are trying to go into a new professional area, LinkedIn makes the issue of the cat chasing its tail even worse
2. In order to save your personal time and space from web zombies, you need to dedicate time & effort to configure your social network profiles and LinkedIn options.
3. A simple change of the information on your profile could trigger destructive consequences, including damaging the reputation of your employer and reducing your opportunities to advance in your career or earn extra money.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Bad times to have LinkedIn profile (part 2)

In the previous post we saw that LinkedIn makes the problem of the cat chasing its tail even worse. As a remedy I suggested to use as actively as possible the social networking capabilities which LinkedIn and similar sites bring. However, there is an issue here as well.

Let me first state that I like professional social networks like LinkedIn. I am now 33 and I do not really remember if I have ever applied for a job off-line. Many times, the initial contact for a successful job application or freelancer contract was through my LinkedIn or Monster profiles. I remember when I joined LinkedIn for first time they had to add my country of origin, Bulgaria, to their country list.

Having said that, there were some really bad times when I wished my Internet footprint was smaller.

2. Zombie profiles, contacts and groups


When you create a professional profile somewhere, you do it because you want this profile to be seen by relevant people, like recruiters, headhunters, potential allies, partners or clients. The list of relevant people typically does not include the mother of the founder of the 'disruptively different' new social network which has somehow managed to grab your attention. Nowadays, quite a lot of people try to launch something in the area, lured by the success of social networks like LinkedIn. Multiple web-sites offering professional networking around a specific group like university alumni, risk managers,  readers of a specific journal and so on pop up like mushrooms after rain. Any interaction you have with these sites creates zombie profiles of you.

To check that my claim is true, simply go to one of the many web-site featuring start-up co-founder match-making. There create a profile stating that you have all the great hype tech skills and that you are looking for an idea to start a business. Within days you will be flooded by mails and messages from 'business guys', mostly MBAs, many having 'disruptive idea in the social networking space' desperately looking for technical co-founder. About 10-15% of these will be about a LinkedIn cat-copies in some specialized space. About 100% will never get any traction.

Within LinkedIn itself, there are numerous groups on any possible topic you can think of (if you discover a new topic you can create a group about it :)). Many of these are not too much different from the silly start-ups above. The only difference is that they use an already established platform to launch. Finally, many of the people with 500+ connections are again roughly in the same category.

Any interaction you have with such a web site, group or person creates a zombie profile of you in the web. Zombies can go out of control. I have already lost an e-mail account to zombies. 7-8 years ago, I was very careless about the zombie topic. I used to add information for my professional achievements whenever I found  free space. Within 1 year, my e-mail account was flooded and within 2 years it became unusable. There was just too much pouring every day into it. A small part of that was useful. Another big part was just some irritating newsletters. Another part was pure rubbish, most likely resulting from my e-mail address being disclosed to spammers. It was not possible to filter anymore, so I decided to radically change my e-mail account. Informing all useful connections about my new e-mail address was a huge task, though. I bet I have lost somebody in the process.

My career advice: if you want to benefit from professional social networks, that's fine. However, you need to invest enough time to select the relevant web sites, groups and contacts for you. This is especially true for LinkedIn where you really need to think how to configure all the different options around your profile, groups and connections.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Bad times to have LinkedIn profile....

...or any other professional social network profile.

To start with, I like professional social networks like LinkedIn. I am now 33 and I do not really remember if I have ever applied for a job off-line. Many times, the initial contact for a successful job application or freelancer contract was through my LinkedIn or Monster profiles. I remember when I joined LinkedIn for first time they had to add my country of origin, Bulgaria, to their country list.

Having said that, there were some really bad times when I wished my Internet footprint was smaller.

1. The cat chases its tail? Not so easy to overcome as it used to be. Or?

Let us face it: everybody has experienced 'the cat chases its tail' phenomenon when applying for jobs. It is when you come upon a position which seems like an excellent fit for your ambitions. You say to yourself this is exactly where you want to go. The problem is, the potential employer requires that you already have several years of relevant experience to get the position. In fact, all potential employers offering something in the area have this same requirement. So, in order to get experience, you need experience. The cat chases its tail.

A good old-fashioned method to overcome this obstacle was CV boosting. You just need to take your real experience and rephrase it to make it sound relevant for the specific position you are applying.  Remember, the first scan of your CV will be done by somebody form HR who does not really have an idea about what the job is. So, the purpose of your CV is to pass this scanning.

For example, years ago I wanted to apply for a position in the area of financial risk management software implementation at an insurance company. My work experience was however at implementing accounting and inventory management software for small-size, mostly consumer goods trade companies. I have worked however occasionally for a client that was an insurance company; they were managing their office supplies with our software. So I wrote something like

Company ABC: software provider (3 years)
-- implemented the software solution of ABC, focusing in particular on the financial and data management modules
-- trained the employees at one of the top-4 insurance companies in my country to use efficiently the solution
-- minimized project risk by applying......


There was no lying, but strictly speaking what I wrote could be easily misinterpreted. Normally a well-boosted CV is enough to pass the basic screening of a busy HR person. Unluckily, directly after the basic screening they will google your name and check your LinkedIn profile. Hopefully you have updated the profile there to reflect your goals. If not then your CV-boosting was unnecessary waste of time, and the cat can keep on chasing its tail.

Here are some solutions:

A: Limit your on-line profile to a few key facts. Advantage: it will not show an obvious problem by comparison with the boosted version of your CV. Disadvantage: you reduce the chances to appear in search and to get found by a headhunter. Your profile contains little valuable information and therefore you cannot promote it through your blog or other social networking tools.

B: Focus your on-line profile to the position you want to get to. Advantage: it will fit your boosted CV. You increase your chances to be found by a relevant headhunter. Disadvantage: most of the time people are not really sure where they want to go. Among several options, how to choose the one towards which I should boost my profile? Finally, focusing your profile on a new direction could actually harm your career chances, especially if the focus you have chosen turns out to be wrong.

C: Be strictly true and compensate by networking. While LinkedIn and other social networks limit your chances to go ahead by simple CV-boosting, they give you also invaluable opportunities to network and connect. Most people appreciate when somebody asks them for a personal career advice. Participating in groups and discussions increases both your knowledge on a specific area of interest and opens up new possibilities to connect. The list goes on; and the net effect of networking is significantly higher than the effect of passing a first scan towards a dream job with a boosted CV. 

Next time, we will look at the zombie profile problem.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Scientist and entrepreneur

The video below nicely summarizes the career advantages and disadvantages of the job as an entrepreneur. 

The speaker is David Friedberg. David has studied Astrophysics at the University of California at Berkeley. He is a very talented mathematician, but the work as a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory did not turn out to be emotionally satisfying for him. Actually this is a very common case in my experience; talented science-oriented people who tend to be more creative often suffer from a strong desire to have impact on the real world.

A natural first stop for skilled scientists who want to have a real impact on the world is the banking and finance industry. David has served a few years in private equity and investment banking, mainly advising technology companies. Obviously his creativity quickly out-grew the capabilities of this industry.

After that, David has worked as a senior product manager and founding member of the corporate development team at google. Software product management is another classical place for skilled scientists who want to have a real impact on the world, and for sure google is an absolutely exiting place to work at. Still the internal push of creativity was too strong!         

David has founded The Climate Corporation (formerly WeatherBill). The climate corporation is implementing an absolutely revolutionary, disruptive idea. Roughly speaking they are in the area of weather insurance; and currently mainly oriented towards farming clients. But the DNA behind is much more powerful, see here. Just a few years ago, the company's product was essentially a bunch of statistical programs written by David in R. Still they have been able to scale up amazingly quickly.

The full video can be seen here. Below is the excerpt which I personally find relevant to the topic of this blog: career advising.


Almost all Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are not rock stars, according to David. He offers metrics comparing the possible rewards and chances for success between working for an existing company and starting your own venture. He also explains the advantages and caveats of trying to make impact from inside larger organizations.

Last year, when I considered starting my own venture, universalowner.com, I did a similar research (I am Europe-based). A start-up in Europe has similar chances to fail and much lower chances to scale up compared to the Silicon Valley start-up. On top of that, having an unsuccessful previous start-up experience limits one's chances to go back to a regular position. Finally, I am based in Luxembourg. Compared to other cities in Europe, Luxembourg suffers from high living costs and a fractioned society. These could quickly deplete one's savings and limit one's possibility to find business partners and first clients.

On the flip side, social security in Europe and in particular in Luxembourg is broadly based and is very well organized. This removes a big part of the stress in particular for people like me who have families. Also, Luxembourg is a small place but a relatively big financial center. This makes it a natural breeding space for companies like universalowner.com (risk management software-as-a-service for financial institutions).  

 So, to put it short -- my career advice is: if you are interested in money, forget about Entrepreneurship and go find a job. Statistically speaking, a talented scientists or engineer who tries a start-up in Europe gets on the average less than 3.000EUR / month. Most universities and research centers will offer more for less time -- and it is not comparable with private company or the public administration.

Monday, March 12, 2012

The art of changing: career advice: My start-up

The art of changing: career advice: My start-up: My Start-up: universalowner.com I have recently started working on the project universalowner.com . universalowner.com helps financial ...

Career advice: Mathematics, Informatics or Finance?

The art of changing: career advice: Mathematics, Informatics or Finance?: I was asked by a friend to share my opinion on the question: 'which one of the following studies: mathematics, informatics or finance, i...

Mathematics, Informatics or Finance?

I was asked by a friend to share my opinion on the question: 'which one of the following studies: mathematics, informatics or finance, is the best choice when it comes to the career?


There are no clear rules when it comes to picking up the 'best' subject to study. Your choice should be made based on:
  1. Your personal skills and incentives
  2. The country you are living in;
  3. and the country you would like to make a career in.
Let us start with some pros and contra-s:
  • Mathematics: Disadvantages:
  1. It is a very tough subject; you will need to strain your brain much more then if you go for finance or informatics.
  2. You need to study long years before you get the necessary qualification and start working and getting really good money. With a B.Sc. degree in informatics, you can quickly get a relatively good job. With mathematics, you either have to re-skill yourself (e.g. get a training in software development), or study until a Ph.D. degree, or even both.
  3. You need very good teachers / lecturers. One can learn Java from a book + a bit of practical experience. One cannot do this with e.g. statistics.
  • Mathematics: Advantages
  1. If you are inclined to it, mathematics is the most interesting subject you can study.
  2. Today, there are many good software developers and finance people, but only few good mathematicians.
  3. With a degree in mathematics, you have a proven record of excellent analytical skills and ability to handle complex problems. Most employers value these general skills more then the specific knowledge in e.g. finance or business administration.
  • Informatics: Disadvantages
  1. You have only two choices: you study some stupid theory; or you study some technologies and tools which are going to be obsolete when you graduate.
  2. Even excellent programming skills are not sufficient to get you a good job. Today, most companies require more: better analytical skills, knowledge in finance or business administration processes, creativity etc.
  3. Most employers require practical experience in addition to a degree. That is why it is very hard to get the first job.
  • Informatics: Advantages:
  1. What else may a computer freak study?
  2. The IT and software market is actually quite stable. In times of economic downturns, banks will fire out first the finance people working in front- or back-office, and only then will consider the IT people.
  3. With a bit of a luck, you can get a good job quickly and in any part of the world, including the poorer countries in Africa, Asia, or South America. Finance people need strong businesses around.
  • Finance: Disadvantages
  1. Almost no chance of decent jobs in a poorer country. Finance people are the first to be hit by a financial crisis also in the highly developed countries (a financial crisis happens every 6 to 10 years).
  2. A degree in finance in itself means almost nothing; you need contacts and long years of experience.
  3. Most of the jobs in finance are anything else but creative; actually you may get bored to death.
  • Finance: Advantages
  1. Finance is relatively easier to study; clever guys & girls get their degree quickly and without efforts, and then jump straight into their career
  2. The software development can be relatively easily outsourced to another country (e.g. can go from USA to India). Most of the jobs in finance cannot.
  3. During your study, you will learn things which you will actually apply in the real job (unlike with mathematics).
Summary: Carefully consider the advantages and the disadvantages. Try to broaden your skills and contacts. If you do mathematics or finance, learn at least one programming language. If you do mathematics or informatics, try to get some courses in finance. Do not avoid the hard mathematical courses (they are excellent for your analytical skills). In any case be open and try to get contacts: this will help you with the first job.