GeekMBA360: Career Advice From The Trenches

An General, Interview by Liz

The recession is weighing heavily on everyone’s mind these days. A lot of people are lost and do not know what to do in the face of such crisis, but it’s a good thing that people with blogs such as GeekMBA360 are willing to give a helping hand. GeekMBA360 is all about dishing out career and occasional financial advice to those who might need them. It focuses on career issues and how technology can help solve them from the layman’s point of view – something everyone can relate to.

Read on to find out more about the blog and the secretive person behind it!

How was GeekMBA360 born?

It was a confluence of several factors. Since my college days, people liked to talk to me about career issues. I functioned like an “informal career counselor” which made me realize that people are hungry for down-to-earth, honest, and realistic career advice.

I witnessed several layoffs over the years so I feel strongly that there is no loyalty in corporate America. Hard working employees need to have the resources and support to help themselves to navigate job market and make career decisions and I feel that my blog can be that resource. Hence, the financial crisis gave me a sense of urgency to start the blog. I feel that a lot of folks were ill prepared for such a  major financial crisis. I’d like to help.

Last but not least, I love writing. I read a lot of blogs too which made me feel compelled to join the rank of bloggers.

I love the GeekMBA360 branding – “Career advice at the intersection of business and technology”. How did it come to you? How did you develop and maintain it?

I know that my niche is at the intersection of business and technology. I have a technical background, but I’m also very interested in business side of things and got an MBA a few years ago. So, I want a name that  reflects both tech and biz side of me. That’s how I came up with the name GeekMBA. However, the domain name “geekmba” was taken. I had to add something to it. One day I was watching the CNN news program “Andersen Copper 360″. I thought 360 is an easy-to-remember number to add to “GeekMBA”.

I’m glad that you like this brand. I was actually a little bit concerned about it! I was worried that having the name “MBA” in it might limit the readership — I want a blog that is helpful to professionals, not limited to business school graduates. Also, I know some people don’t like MBAs — they appear to be arrogant, overly analytical, and clubless at times. I was afraid that my brand might have negative connotation to some folks, but it all seems to work out so far.

You seem to be very careful about privacy, with no name or picture of you on your site. This is a rare thing in the blogging world, since it thrives on being “personal” and “easy to relate”. Why remain anonymous? How does this affect your blog? Does it affect your blog?

Great question! I’m actually a very open person, a straight shooter in real life. Sometimes it kills me remain anonymous in my blog because I love to connect with people.

I am very careful about privacy largely because of two reasons:

1) I have a full-time job, and blogging is a only a side personal project. Given the subject matter of my blog, I really want to avoid any mix of my day job and my blog. All of the examples I use in my blog were from my previous jobs, not my current job. I want to avoid a situation where co-workers read my blog and think that I’m referring to something at work. So, for now, I’m writing anonymously to prevent any unnecessary speculation/guessing.

2) I want my blog to have a brand that is separated from me, the person. This is not easy to to do since blogging is authentic, personal, and social by nature. But, my entrepreneur philosophy is to build a profitable venture with a system and a brand, so that the start-up venture will have a life on its own without being associated to me. We’ll see if I can succeed in doing this.

How do you monetize your blog? Have your methods been profitable? What is your advice to bloggers who want to earn money from blogging?

This blog is profitable. The monetization methods include ad networks for display ads, affiliate (e.g. Amazon) and premium reports (I currently have 3 premium reports on sales.)

In term of making money from blogging, my advice is to have your own product for sales since it is better than affiliate commission. On the other hand, affiliate commission is better than ad networks.

Favorite topics to rave about? Rant about?

I like to rave about individuals who have the courage to pursue their own path, and find happiness along the way. I also provide honest and balanced perspective on MBA education as well as practical, from-the-trenches career advice on job search, start-ups, and so on.

I rant about work place politics and frustration and the daily challenges to balance professional and personal demands.

What’s your favorite advice to those who have been severely affected by the recession?

The Chinese phrase for “crisis” consists of two characters: danger and opportunity. If you lost your job or lost a lot of money in the stock market due to the recession, it’s a personal and/or professional crisis on the surface. But think hard and think creatively about the hidden opportunities – you will definitely find them.

This General, Interview was published on August 10, 2011 at 10:32 pm • Did you like it? Subscribe!
Submit to Reddit or StumbleUpon or Digg • Del.icio.us