Building a resilient career within M&E

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MARIA POKROVSKAYA: So hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining our session. We are happy to have you all here. So as we begin, the chat is already available. So please introduce your region and industry. Something like California, architecture, and higher education, just for example. Thanks. So we will wait just maybe for one more minute. And we want to get to know you better. And we will start.

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So thank you so much again for joining our session. Let's get started. Today, Tolgay and I will try to cover key topics for creative professionals at any stage. Whether you are switching fields, starting something new, or in transition, we're here to help. Feel free to engage. We're excited to connect with you today. So if we talk about our agenda, we'll begin with a quick intro, then dive into the key skills needed today across creative industries.

Next, we will cover networking. Often, the painful part, but I've got a ready-to-use template for you. We'll wrap up with 10 to 20 minutes max for Q&A. So if we start with career journey. I want to start with a phrase that deeply influenced me and changed my career path when I was 21.

Since then, I focused on creating opportunities for talent and investing in human creative potential. And here is a snapshot of my journey. I spent eight years earning my masters in architectural design, then shifted to multimedia art to address the problem of lack of equality. From there, I moved into higher education to drive change from within.

So I became a professor of architecture in Europe. I worked in Spain, I worked in England, and just got a really diverse experience in my academic background, academic experience. So later, I became an edtech founder, moved to the United States on an EB-1 global talent visa, and entering the world of startups and venture capital through top accelerators.

Now, I live in Portland area. I lead my company and a nonprofit helping first gen immigrants in the United States and Canada build their careers. I also teach part-time, mentor, and I'm building an accelerator for creative tech startups. As I said, I connect talent with opportunities. So pass to Tolgay.

TOLGAY HICKIRAN: Hello, guys. So my name is Tolgay. I'm an industrial engineer. And I did a double major back in the days, also for business administration. And after my graduate studies, I decided to go to London and do a master's degree there, which is my latest higher education, which was, I think, 13 years ago. So I'm a bit old in that sense. Maybe I'll one day start going to do my PhD, but who knows. Not at the moment, though.

So generally speaking, I am very related with Autodesk. I became an expert elite in 2018, I still am. I came to a couple of AUs in the US. We did also a couple of AUs in Istanbul as well, mainly focused on Fusion and Autodesk Vault, also back end of Inventor. But then I'm also a certified instructor for Autodesk. And I am also a certified instructor for Unity, which is quite an interesting couple. And today, we want to share with you how we transitioned, of course, from totally different perspectives into M&E.

So what I want to talk about first is, generally speaking, the design skills of cross-professional skill set, because what people like us generally have is that our background is completely different than M&E. Maria is an architect, I'm an engineer, and for example, I'm generally working on most of our clients with gaming.

I teach tools in gaming like Unity or I teach some Maya in a little sense. But generally speaking, we work with a lot of game companies. And we also do our own projects. In this sense, I want to show you guys what we generally do in the design world. So here, you are going to see, which I'm going to present to you guys, a couple of configurators that us in our team create for our manufacturing customers, because we generally cross industry with M&E and D&M.

So whether you're in oil and gas, doesn't matter, whether you're in manufacturing, you're going to eventually need to do some work about visualization, for example, because you want to sell your product. So in this example, you're going to see that we've used 3D Studio Max with Unity to create an interactive experience, taking models from SolidWorks, retopologizing them, and gamifying the experience in Unity, and then publishing this into a web browser.

Basically, the cross-pro skill set in this sense is going to be ERP systems, process workflows, and sales. And then the end result is interactive configurator on the customer's website. Let me share my screen, and then you'll see much better of what I am talking about. This customer of ours is located in the UK, and they manufacture roulette tables.

I basically found them on the forums, which was very funny story. But here we have a model that has four quadrillion permutations. Meaning, you can practically create any roulette model that they can manufacture, beginning from, for example, the numbers. You can come down here and just change the numbers. Everything is in real time.

Generally speaking, what we have today's world, let's say you go to Amazon right. And you want to buy a pair of shoes, but you generally are going to see pictures there. So with configurators, you don't really need pictures anymore because you have an interactive experience. You can change the rims, you can change the ball tracks, you can change the middle points, you can add stuff in. Everything in real time.

By the way, these links are going to be shared with you, so you guys can also check them out. Very, very cool experiences that we do coming from a manufacturing perspective into real time 3D. So this is the most important part, because what we generally need in this new age, let's say, people that has the experience with manufacturing, but then also understand real time 3D, this is like a very, very top skill to have nowadays. So this is one of the configurators. I'll come back to the original presentation now.

And I think I need help to get back. Yes. OK. So another basic one is going to be a watch configurator. Again, we have used 3D Studio Max with Unity here with the help of the manufacturer again. And then mechanical models from Inventor. This time totally different program. Similar, of course, CAD models. Again, retopology needed, gamifying is needed. You need to understand the ERP system and sales perspective as well.

So what we are doing here is to talk with the sales people, talk with the manufacturing personnel, talk with the actual design engineer, grab all the data, put it into an interactive experience so it becomes an M&E Product in the end. And end users can use them. Again, you can test these guys with the links that are provided to you. And I'll be now sending over to Maria.

MARIA POKROVSKAYA: So let me slow down on this section a little. Leadership. It's not for everybody. Most of us are introverted creators who just want everybody to leave us alone and just let us to focus on our work. I get it. But when we talk about career development, especially aiming for executive positions, we need to-- like everybody say, we need to show both hard and soft skills to prove we can lead others and ourselves.

After interviewing hundreds of candidates, here is my takeaway on what stands out. If you want to succeed in the fast-growing cross-industry creative economy, you need to-- you need to combine hard and soft skills to build strong. Confidence is the key. It's built from competence and your communication.

So your hard skills build confidence. If you have competence in your industry, you're qualified enough. And it's enough to be confident. So the simple message is here. I want you to remember that confidence finally boosts your soft skills. And so it builds on your hard skills. Your competence.

And your confidence boosts your confidence. And your confidence boosts your soft skills. And it leads to your ability to lead. And actually, it's very natural because others just want to follow the person who is competent, confident, and collaborative. So I just want to leave here with this. And Tolgay, it's over to you.

TOLGAY HICKIRAN: So this might be very familiar for the people that does gaming like me. I'll give you a brief background. So back in the days when I just arrived at the university, one of my friends at my class suggested that we should play World of Warcraft. This was 2005, by the way.

And I had no idea about the MMORPG genre. We were playing, of course, some games like Blizzard games, but haven't played with any MMORPG. I was like, OK. This game is really, really hard. What am I going to do? I'll just stop playing until I think I was a sophomore or junior-- I think I was a junior, sorry. I became really addicted to the game. And I'm like, OK. I'll learn this thing, and I'll play like top hours.

And imagine this. I'm also doing double major with business administration. I think I had like 40 hours of classes a week, which is a full-time job in the university. And I was also doing-- I was really playing this game, like, I don't know, 6 hours, 7 hours a day. So my life was like, school, go back, play, et cetera.

But when I finished university, I said to myself, OK. I have done enough work in my bachelor's degree. I've done two degrees instead of one in four years. I've done almost perfect GPA. So I'm like, OK. I'll just do whatever I want for a year. So generally, when I see Americans, they do gap year. I said to myself, OK. I'll do the gap year, but I'll just stay at home, play the game.

Of course, my family was not really enthusiastic about this, and they were threatening me, so to speak, to cut off the internet. So imagine this. You're a university grad, and your parents are like, you need to get a job or you need to do the masters, et cetera. Anyway. So I started playing really, really heavily 16 hours a day or something.

But that year, that gap year, I was basically leading a guild with 35 men, international guild. And then we had most of the people from Scotland, Nordic countries, and Turkey. So we had the international guild experience. Most of them from Europe, everyone speaks English, we do daily dungeons, quests, raids, et cetera. Everything.

So in those days, I have learned what I couldn't learn maybe in 20 years, because those days, it taught me how to lead an actual process because you have 35 people to juggle with and then you have to pick 25 people every raid. I was also raid leading. I had to speak a lot. I had to also play the game, which is like juggling a lot of stuff in the same place.

So this 25-man real-time raid leading taught me a lot about speaking, dispute resolution. It's crazy what's things can get in those hours because you're tired, you start shouting at each other over TeamSpeak, Ventrilo, Discord, whatever you're using. We didn't have Zoom back then.

So those days taught me a lot about leadership. And then this is completely coming from an M&E point of view. I'm an industrial engineer at heart, but because I was playing a lot of games, I started learning about leadership. Top-down management also is another part that I learned in a guild, because there's a guild leader, maybe some officers in the guild, there's some members, there's maybe newcomers.

So it's basically like a functional firm. You have a leader, CEO, you have a couple of C levels, you have a couple of managers, and then you have your normal employees, and then you have your interns, let's say. Practically, the same thing that we are doing. So World of Warcraft, I must say, has changed my life forever, because once I did that gap year, I then went to King's College London, and then most of the people we were reading with, they were in Scotland.

I visited them twice in Edinburgh, which is something that you don't get as an experience. So leadership-wise, M&E taught me, which is like-- again, by heart, I'm a manufacturer. I'm an engineer. But M&E taught me a lot. So my career transition is not randomly happening, of course. Because of my soft skills, it is happening.

And then a little bit about my family background, I can give you. My mother is retired from a company called British Motor Company. She's a mechanical engineer. 20 years in the R&D. And then my father had a company that was 68 years old last year. We closed it down. It was our family company. And they were doing heavy machinery.

So I have this background of manufacturing, like buses, small parts for cars, et cetera, and now I'm doing completely different things thanks to, again, my gaming background. So now, I'll give back the floor to Maria.

MARIA POKROVSKAYA: Thanks, Tolgay. It just was super interesting. So let's stay here for a second. So following what you said, Tolgay actually, let's say you, like I mean, we, creative professionals, we gained all the hard skills needed. So let's dive a little bit deeper into that confidence, communication, and leadership topic.

So networking is a key. I agree with that 100%. So every car year starts with education and growth through networking. So find your people and engage. You already have the tools. Your portfolio, probably I hope your presentation or social media accounts. Step out of your comfort zone and connect with those who need to know you. Clients, partners, or investors, or maybe some sponsors, et cetera.

Our capacity is limited. So pick the platform that works for you best. I agree with Tolgay. LinkedIn is essential, especially in North America. So pick the platform which works for you best and invest your best in this platform. To stand out, share your work process and tell stories through your content. Because we all are, I believe, content creators. And we have lots of which we just live on backstage.

But that what I believe is interesting because usually when I review portfolios, it's like, actually daily basis. I see everyone wants to show the results. And the best results they have. But sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not. That's OK. It's just the process. And when it's not good, I have nothing to know more about you. I have nothing more that can help me to understand you. That help you to prove that you're the right candidate or you're really strong professional.

So please, show more the process, the way you think, the way you develop your idea, the way you work on your product or content or result in a team or alone, doesn't matter. But show the process that I can understand the way you think. And actually, you have the skills to show your unique style and make an impact on your industry.

So actually, I believe today it's really-- so it's no need to tell you that today is really important to have some publicity, some social presentation. So again, circle back to that platform idea. Choose the right platform which works for you. It's not about where your colleagues are. It's about where those people who should recognize you, where they are. Choose it and go there. Don't be afraid. You have skills, you have confidence, you have leadership.

And by the end of this, I just want you to have a simple and ready-to-use template for cold intros. It's actually what I gained from one of the world's top startup Accelerator 500 Global. And I have a lot of tools and templates. But this one is really, I believe, the strongest one, because when someone randomly asking you, hi, what do you do? The first reaction is like, wait. I do so much. I do so many in my life. I just can't explain it in one short sentence.

And just what should I start with? What should I bring on top? How to wrap all your career in one sentence. It's actually a hard task. And I want to ask you to try it right now. So you're supposed to have it in your chat. So please, just take a look, think about it, and we have some time till the end of our session.

And please, just try to introduce you right today during this session. And maybe we will give you some feedback, if you want to. And it might look easy, simple. But this one liner pitch, which-- really common in Silicon Valley, by the way as well, it's perfect for highlighting your career.

And this problem solving is a tricky part because you can say I'm a 3D animator. What problem do I solve? Do I really solve any problem? You do. So you just have to name it. You just have to recognize it. What actually do you solve within the company or with just your art or your content?

I solve the problem of lack of chances for talent in the world. It's like in general. And I solve it through or with-- and this is the excellent part at the end of the sentence. To call your superpower, to call what stands you out of others, amazing professionals, because you compete on the hot market.

And the hot market of multidisciplinary, cross-industry really strong professionals. So what stands you out? So here's the tricky part as well. There is maybe-- actually for me, it took a few years for me to understand what is my secret sauce. What is my superpower. What stands me out actually.

And I just want to give you an example how I answering, how I can fill up this form. This is just one of my one liners. I have different for different contexts, because when you meet someone at the conference, you're in the one context. When you meet someone just in elevator, when you're just going to walk with your pet, your dog, cetera, or when you just reach out to some important person for you via email or cold message on LinkedIn.

It's the different context as well. So this form is useful for any context, but you have to structure it different. To highlight maybe different parts of your personality and career. So here is my example. And also just to give you a hint, here is an example of just a random Sam, which is a multimedia artist. So I'll leave you with this for a minute. And I really want you to leave from today's session with this ready-to-use tool in your tool set. Thank you. So just Tolgay, please.

TOLGAY HICKIRAN: All right. So I would like to talk a little bit more about the events, which, I think, everyone should attend. If you're especially in M&E, of course, coming from any industry, it doesn't matter where you're coming from. So of course, probably you know a couple of these. But first off, you have to come to Autodesk University, guys.

This is me at New Orleans, 2022 with Olcay from Autodesk, which is our community manager, and Gokhan from Arkance systems. And he's working for an Autodesk reseller. And we are both-- me and Gokhan both expert elites. And you're seeing us in front of the expert elite lounge.

You might be wondering, what is an expert elite? We are in a program where generally speaking, we are accepted as somehow above from the mean users from the world who shares their experience with others on, for example, community forums or on LinkedIn, on social media, Twitter, YouTube, et cetera. You might find some people like us sharing their experiences like these basically.

So expert elite, you can ask them any Autodesk product, and they might know some, they definitely some, but they probably wouldn't every single one of them. For example today, if you have watched the keynote, they were talking about something called Wonder Studios, I think. Wonder Dynamics? Wonder Dynamics, sorry, which I haven't heard of before.

And it's very exciting to see these buyouts from Autodesk because it seems like they're going to have a huge skill set, sorry, tool set that we can use under Autodesk, which is growing every other year, by the way. So yeah. AU is a very good investment for the future, like, 100%

The next event that I can tell you is, of course, global-- global, no, Game Developer Conference, which is done in San Francisco, generally speaking in March. You have to of course, also attend. These events are not that, let's say, cheap. Generally, these events are high value events, so the ticket prices might be high.

But for example for game developer conference, you can be a volunteer and work there, which gives you access for most of the stuff. And also, you can watch all the sessions that are done in GDC afterwards in what it's called a GDC Vault. I actually met Jennifer at GDC this year. So you can also meet Autodesk employees at these events, as well as people from Niantic, Square Enix, Ubisoft, Unity, Unreal. Like, any person comes to GDC.

You can try out the games, give feedback to people, and then network. Of course, networking is the main idea. Make sure that you're very prepared before going back-- before going to an event like this, because AU and GDC are very big events. Like, you have to walk maybe 20,000 steps every day inside the event hall. The event halls are huge, guys. If you haven't been, just make sure that you have some water with you, for example.

Another event that I want to share is, Unite, which is Unity's own event every year, generally is done. This year was in Barcelona. And this is a picture from Barcelona, me working there as a Unity certified instructor, a Unity expert. On my right hand side there's Juan, one of the top instructors. Powell is on the other side, and Gracelyn from Unity, which is helping us organize the event itself.

And generally speaking, we will probably do it again next year. I don't know where, but for the last years, it was in Europe. Maybe it can come to US. It sometimes goes to Korea, Japan, who knows what's going to happen next year. But when you have the correct people on your social accounts, you can definitely know everything from the beginning. Like, someone is going to help you on your network.

I grow my LinkedIn account for the past three years, and I'll show you that slide now, which shows what's important about networking also. You go to these events, but you have to have some type of KPI for yourself. What are you going to do there? Are you going to meet with people? Are you going to play a game? Are you going to, I don't know, show your portfolio to someone? Like, be prepared.

And then this is basically my past year impressions on LinkedIn. So I got 11-- almost 11,000 followers now connections, let's say. But the amount of people I'm reaching through LinkedIn is six times more, as you can see. So what this means is that I have more room to grow in my network, and it becomes exponentially higher as you go places, as you meet with people, as you connect, as you share your experience with others, and then it becomes bigger and bigger over time.

And what I suspect for this past year is that videos are very important over social media sites, whether it's Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, Twitter, X, in LinkedIn as well. And there's a new video tab now on LinkedIn, which I just started using. Generally speaking, the videos are performing much better than just posting stuff.

Because what you shouldn't go and do is that you shouldn't go and do ChatGPT stuff on LinkedIn, for example. You shouldn't create small posts from an AI perspective. They're not going to run well. Like, people will definitely understand if you are genuinely posting something or not, and then this might make or break your network.

So be natural, but mindful. So, like, go with your gut. But then you don't have to be like, OK, this is who I am. Everyone has to accept me as is. Not really. Like, do dressed to impress type of thing. It doesn't need to be dressing up. It could be anything from your perspective, talk, and then your own behavior with other people of course. So this is basically what I wanted to tell you. And I think we are open for questions.

MARIA POKROVSKAYA: Yeah, we're lucky to finish our prepared part really early, so we have lots of time for the rest. For your questions, or actually even to read some of your introductions. Thank you so much for sharing that in the chat. It's just amazing. Just going through real quick. It's really impressive. I totally agree with actually the last Tolgay's points about how to work on the conferences.

And if I can, I would like to add shortly that it's really good to have some spreadsheet to put your contacts you found relevant for you and to evaluate some dynamic and activities on what happens with these contacts. Probably all do this, and it's the boring part of networking. But if to not do it, you can lose lots of really good contacts and opportunities.

It worked so many times in my life because you meet so many people. You're impressed. You don't remember their names. We don't have lots of business cards at this time. We just maybe can exchange with LinkedIn QR codes. And I become to be this boring person who, back in home, just opened this spreadsheet to put all the names I remember or I believe I remember, and to leave my notes on that.

This person is from that industry. He shared that. This person is from that accelerator. This person is from that company. He's interested in that. And so on and so on and so on. So you got what I wanted to say, but just-- it's a game changer. It's really a game changer. And especially when you follow your outreach, when you I don't know if you interact with people on LinkedIn or via email.

And you can see your dynamic. You can change the way you talk to people. You can improve the way you communicate. You can improve everything. You can leave stuff, which just wasting your time, et cetera. It's really helpful. So I'm done here. I'm sorry. Happy to answer your questions, guys. Thank you so much for listening to us.

TOLGAY HICKIRAN: Let's go over a couple of people. I think we have a very good mix, by the way, Maria. We have manufacturing, construction, renewable energy, A&E designer, 3D freelancers, pumps and valves. We have hard manufacturers as well as game developers. Amazing. Should we start answering some questions?

MARIA POKROVSKAYA: Yeah, I'd love to.

TOLGAY HICKIRAN: So--

MARIA POKROVSKAYA: In my Q&A, I--

TOLGAY HICKIRAN: Oh, we have a Q&A. Of course, yeah. You can start from there. Definitely.

MARIA POKROVSKAYA: Currently in my Q&A, I see only one question, which is about, what are hard skills versus soft skills? And I believe I covered these questions-- this question. If not, hard skills is just exactly skills related to your profession. So like software, graphics [INAUDIBLE] programs, et cetera. If you have the ability actually to do what your job position requires.

And soft skills is about communication, emotional intelligence, empathy, the ability to collaborate, the ability to lead, again, the ability to present, to pitch, and to do a great networking. So soft skills, it's like, you can't touch it. You can't measure it exactly. It's something more about your personality as a human.

And actually, as you l know, I believe, those candidates who chosen to be hard, usually it's not because of they're most skilled or best educated from others. It's just because it's nice person to have in a team. Of course, he is-- he has all these mark checks-- check marks on his CV and portfolio. But also, he's a nice person to have in the team. So it's about soft skills.

TOLGAY HICKIRAN: All right. So I think we had a couple of questions when we were doing the presentations. Let me check. OK. SO we have-- Michael asks SolidWorks and Autodesk. So this is because probably I was explaining how we got the models from SolidWorks. Of course, when you're thinking about creating a configurator, guys, you don't necessarily limit yourself with only Autodesk products. And this is how the world is now working.

You have to be very flexible with your stack, because you are not going to very much control your own customer because your customer might be using a tool that maybe you're not familiar with, but you have to be understanding that this is going to be the case. Any manufacturer in the world is maybe going to use some different software.

And then what we have powerful about the Autodesk zone environment is that Autodesk has the ability to open any CAD format in the world in their own software, which is a crazy good competitive advantage. We just use that competitive advantage, I can tell you that. So that this is why SolidWorks-- it's not about us. It's about the customer, basically.

MARIA POKROVSKAYA: Well, I'm going through our chat. And just, like, whoa, we have Norway, we have Calgary, Ohio, London, Estonia, Los Angeles, Germany. That's just amazing, guys. So happy to have you here, and just following your answers on your introduction in the form of a one liner pitch. I mentioned some common an interesting thing. I just want to comment it.

Some of you and this intro with some ask, you immediately share, like, I'm looking for, for example, remote job, or I'm open to something like this. This is great. I believe it's good. But you can stop the conversation on that, because the other person can feel like, I need to answer this need. I have to answer this need or this question, but I can't or I don't want. So I have to stop this conversation and leave this conversation.

So before you ask or propose or sell something, maybe sell your sell, sell your service, sell your-- yeah, anything. Before you ask, just listen more and give more. And then when you listen-- like, 80% listen, 20% speaking right, you will understand, is it relevant person to give this proposal or question or ask or not? If you don't have this opportunity to listen, you just have this 30 second conversation, just say, I'd love to talk to you later. Let's connect on LinkedIn or give me your email. I'll send you an amazing idea I got from meeting you, after meeting you. Something catching to continue this conversation. But not do-- please don't do this ask immediately. It's a little bit pushy on my perspective, as-- I don't know, Tolgay, if you agree.

TOLGAY HICKIRAN: You're completely right. But what we-- like, I'm also an instructor, so I generally teach my students. I tell them, you have to offer something first. And then do not wait anything to be returning from the person. Basically, maybe they don't have the time to answer you. They don't have an interest. Maybe they're interested in you, but again, they don't have the time. So you have to be mindful about these things.

And networking starts really, really slowly also. So it's not like, OK, you can magically gain a lot of friends in an instant. That doesn't really happen. So be very patient and then mindful about these things because no one is going to do something like, OK, I have a personal grudge on you, and I'm not going to answer to you or something. That's not really happening in real life. People has limited time, so any person's time is very valuable. So keep this in mind. Every minute is very valuable for the person that you are going to talk with. Also, your time is also very valuable.

MARIA POKROVSKAYA: And sometimes the great result is when you just have the great referral or recommendation from this person. This person can be not interested in some collaboration with you, but he can be that person who will introduce you to another person, which is the best match for you. So most of the time, this is the best result of networking. So it's surfing and relationship building.

Especially in North America, as I'm an immigrant, so I came from another culture. And what I found out in North America, like, in business field and business communities, people need to much better before to jump in some business collaboration with you, which is OK. So let them the space. Let them that room and opportunity to get to you better.

And the question in Q&A is about exactly about that. And so I would like to add, if you are outreaching and use LinkedIn as your instrument for networking, please let others to get to know you through this platform. So share anything you feel comfortable about. Share your works. Share your stories again. I was on that conference, and I met that. And I had these takeaways.

There is my-- there are my insights from that meeting, et cetera. Show some process as we talk about portfolio, et cetera. Tell some stories, and show your best content which can introduce you in the best way. Because when someone reaches out to me on LinkedIn and it's like 50 or 100 messages daily, really, most of them are scam, but some of them are real people.

And of course, I'm going to their LinkedIn page just to understand, do I know this person or do we have something in common? And if it's empty, I have nothing to understand about this person. So at least provide the link on your portfolio or something which can help me to get to you if I want. But mostly, when people see your empty page, it's a red flag. So I believe they will not answer.

And just a short comment about the really good answer, really good intro one liner from Tamara in chat. Tamara said, I specialize in humor, music, and bringing people together through storytelling. This is really strong. This is really great. Very short, very crisp. I understand the industry, the professional level, and the superpower, storytelling. If storytelling is your superpower, so just use it at the end. We always remember the last few words.

And actually, I wanted to add, don't forget that you have about six or seven seconds of attention on what you are talking about. When you introduce yourself, people will swipe you after six or seven seconds, just naturally. It's just how we think today. It's just very fast. So you have to say the most important really quick. Not so long as I am speaking right now. Yeah. Thanks.

TOLGAY HICKIRAN: OK. We have a couple of questions in the QA, again. So of course, as Maria was mentioning, is it important to have a good presence on LinkedIn? It depends on the person, and it depends on what you want to do. So I was a natural on LinkedIn, but I, for example, suck at Twitter, or I suck at Facebook. I cannot use TikTok. But people do their own thing.

So if you can naturally find something that you're very comfortable with, just go with that social media. You don't have to OK, I'm going to grind LinkedIn now or I'm going to grind, I don't know, Twitter now. You don't have to. Just go with your gut and then find something that is easier for you, and then just stick with that. And then you can be better on many different platforms. You don't have to overdo anything, I think. Yeah. And then we have two more questions. I think you can go on, Maria.

MARIA POKROVSKAYA: Tolgay, maybe do you have some tips on how to keep your mental health after so many job rejections? Because I always was a startup or I never worked in some big corporation, so I never went through many job interview myself. So--

TOLGAY HICKIRAN: OK. Yeah, I'll do a couple of feedback on this. And this is actually what happened to me back in 2013. So when I came back from England after done my master's degree, I was very confident that I would probably really start up really fast in any company that I want, but that was not the case. It's never the case, almost never the case, let's say.

Maybe you're in like top 1% or 1%. Yes, you're very lucky or you're very hardworking, but that's generally not the case. So it was a letdown. I'm like, OK, I have to start somewhere. So I started a place that I was selling materials to manufacturers, but I hated the job. For the two months that I worked there, I'm like, this is not for me.

So I applied, probably most people know here, to a company called Riot Games. They were just getting bigger in Turkey. League of Legends was localizing, and then I was a game fan. So I'm like, OK, maybe I should apply to this company. So I went there back and forth, three times. I basically met half the company, but then I got rejected.

And I was super pissed because we had really good meetings with them, and the reason that I got rejected was very funny. They told me I was overqualified. And I'm like, OK, but I wanted to work here. Who cares? But they didn't want to work-- they didn't want me to work there.

So sometimes you're even going to be rejected-- maybe you're a fit, but they're going to be like, you're a fit, but we don't want you here because you're probably going to maybe run away because you're overqualified. The way that I acted later is that I went back to my roots. I'm like, OK, I'll do just industrial engineering. And then I met my co-founder on the fourth job that I had, which we met in 2015.

We started doing a couple of projects together, and then again, I wasn't very happy about working in manufacturing, but it was my bread and butter anyway. The first Autodesk project that we've done with Kivanc-- his name is Kivanc, my co-owner, was a national success. So Autodesk did a success story for us in 2017. That was my first Autodesk University speech, by the way.

And then we decided to open our own company. So the rejections you get, you have to be very mindful about the rejection. And then this is the thing. Back in the days, the book Paulo Coelho wrote-- I think it was Alchemist. Alchemy is a very important thing. When life gives you lemons, you have to make lemonade. When you get rejected, you have to find some way to change that energy into gold. That's what you should learn, somehow.

Maybe you won't like it. Maybe sometimes you're going to get really angry. But in the end, this is an energy that you can use. Anger is an energy that you can use. So once you learn that you can change that energy into something positive for yourself, it doesn't have to be positive for everyone, but for yourself first, then you'll be very good about your mental health.

MARIA POKROVSKAYA: I add quickly on that. So just, I want you to support you all. We all are good enough. This understanding makes life much easier. I'm good enough. Maybe I just have to improve this, this, this. But I'm good enough in general. That's OK. If you have competence for this position, you will find the right team. You will find the right company. It just sometimes takes much time than we want. That's it. I agree with Tolgay. Thanks for sharing your amazing journey. Really just incredible.

And here's a Q&A. Also mark asked how introverted people be leaders? How can they be leaders? And often a job interview, the louder, funnier person gets the job. That's true, most times. And there's a good answer, good reply from Lucas. That find out what kind of leader you are is very important. I agree, totally agree with this answer. Thanks, Lucas.

But also I'd like to add, if you're an introvert, it doesn't mean you are weak or not nice person. It doesn't mean nothing, but just your way of living in this Society. That's it. You can be nice. You can be a really fun person. You can be interesting. You can be whatever. And actually, probably you can be a really strong person. Introvert is just your way to live in this society and feel good.

So when we're on interview, it's not the typical situation in our life. It's very stressful and very short actually time of your life. So just put the best your energy, your effort in this time-- tiny time period. Just put your best as an Olympic gamer. Just imagine, like, this is your time. This is your minute.

When I'm pitching my startup on the stage in New York in front of the bench of World top investors, I have three minutes. English is my second language. I'm a small, tiny girl on the stage in New York at Google office. I'm really stressful. But I know this three minutes is for me to show my best. So I just want to encourage you about this interview process. Just put your best effort. Show your best, only in this minute.

Then people will get to you. They will see if you're a good fit for this job. And when you will join the team, they will accept if you are a deep introvert. That doesn't matter later. If they will know you in this minute, it will be enough for them to make a decision. I hope I could support you. So really inspiring introductions in the chat.

TOLGAY HICKIRAN: Yeah.

MARIA POKROVSKAYA: You're doing a great job. And actually, feel free to share later after this time in our LinkedIns, right?

TOLGAY HICKIRAN: Yeah.

MARIA POKROVSKAYA: [INAUDIBLE]

TOLGAY HICKIRAN: Of course, I already shared the links, guys. Add us. This is your chance. We have good following, Maria and I, both of us. You can also come join, because we are sharing very interesting things also. Probably, you guys are also sharing very interesting things, so we want to check what you're doing also. There is another question, I think.

MARIA POKROVSKAYA: Yeah. I'm sorry. I just wanted to say, this session is a great networking opportunity, so use it. We're in the right place, and we're open for your interest in our LinkedIn. And I'm happy-- I'll be happy to give you some feedback if needed. Yeah. Just feel free. I'll share my LinkedIn as well if Autodesk team don't mind.