Category: Uncategorized

Turns out, being laid off has started to feel like another Tuesday for many people. So weird and sad that it has gotten so normalised in Europe and this does not sit well with me. Why? What happens in layoffs stays behind closed doors. In Germany, we don’t know how companies communicate and execute layoffs…

So you know how you sometimes start doing something on the side because you have things to say and experiences to share? Like a blog or something? This is how my baby Pollo Digital started at the beginning of the year. I shared about layoffs in Germany and how asymmetry in knowledge puts immigrants at…

Having built my own business for almost a year now, I am really starting to understand where my weaknesses were as an employee.It is hard to teach someone strategic thinking, patience and effective communication when the employee’s mindset is limited to “my role.” I thank every manager who helped me develop in that sense.But no…

They don’t. They do – if you are a product. But as a human being, you are fluid and flawed. So I have a dilemma – I want to help people show up authentically on LinkedIn and reach whatever it is they want to reach. Mostly: land a job or build a better presence as…

Hear me out:  In employment, you can hold one of two positions. → Proactive – choosing roles you enjoy and that serve your career, leaving when a job stops serving you. → Passive – staying because you’re scared you won’t find anything else. Or other reasons. But the bottom line is fear. You’re scared to…

Because it is built on US cultural assumptions – low-context self-expression, individual visibility as virtue, speaking to strangers as normal. For someone wired for high-context communication, collective loyalty, and earned visibility – it doesn’t just feel uncomfortable, it feels wrong at a value level. I’m a russian socialised founder living in Berlin – and I…

A friend who has been running a business for many years said: stop applying for things. Either you’re building or you’re not. I applied for an accelerator recently. And a grant. And I thought about how strange it is that we hand other people authority over our lives and then act surprised when they use…

I’m catching up with regular business today after disconnecting from work and LinkedIn for 1.5 weeks. I did my monthly task – checked my LinkedIn stats (impressions, saves, followers…) for March. I did well for myself. Except – it felt so off. It did not feel good to analyse the data, at all.  On top…

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”…