Anna’s Blog

A woman at the Decathlon approached me and asked if I had a bank card for payment, she’d give me 330 euros cash back. She had no card, she said. Sunday, Berlin Main Train Station.Usually I’d always say no, sounds sketchy, right? What would I do with 330 euros cash, anyway?But I ended up paying […]

They are based on Erin Meyer’s “The Culture Map.” Soft skills are crucial for career advancement and many immigrants pass on real opportunities because they don’t read the cultural code right – or act on it in time. To understand what I actually mean when I say “helping immigrants navigate soft skills in the West” […]

As a Russian who moved to Berlin and spent the last six years working in tech, I’ve been watching which cultural archetypes get considered “leadership material” – who gets promoted and who gets benched, independently of hard skills. And the archetype to be considered the “perfect” founder and a perfect leader is… calibrated for Silicon […]

I remember when Russia invaded Ukraine – I couldn’t sleep, I didn’t know what to do, but life was moving on. I was changing jobs (super stressful), work was moving on, I’d been used as a news source (“You are Russian, what the hell are you doing?!”) and a make-a-wish genie (“You are Russian, can […]

Let’s take YouTube videos as an example. The human in the video is real. The voice is not cloned. The recording is all human. The idea came from a human. The script was based on their thoughts, but written by a LLM. Does that count as “human made”? Where would you draw the line – […]

I went to another AI video generator tool presentation in Berlin. Left with mixed feelings, as expected. The baseline was: “90% of people just consume. We empower them to create now by prompting our tool and creating high-quality content.” Wut? You are not creating when you do that. And remember I said I want a […]

We don’t quite talk about how layoffs work from the inside. So I’ve created a Layoff in Germany 🇩🇪 survival guide & calculator. This is the de facto must-read for anyone about to get laid off or in the process of negotiating terms with their soon-to-be-former employer.It is based on my extensive research, conversations with […]

After ding some strategy work, publishing on LinkedIn and seeing some of the followers go, again, I found myself in the moment of clarity. I help immigrants and expats transform their careers when they move to Western countries. It is broad enough for me to figure this out further, but narrow enough for me to […]

Transition from employee to founder is surprisingly not about the tech, incorporation, how to find the right partners or revenue streams. (Not that I’ve solved them yet lol)  I would say that having complicated conversations with people who want to build with you is the hardest challenge where I see myself grow. Another one, talking […]

Since I began my “free flight”, I’ve been very transparent here. My follower list is growing, I’m getting better at writing and understanding publishing and creating. Networking is insane. Starting off like crazy with a startup to pull the brakes on it when things started going out of hand and against my own values and […]