Blog It Forward – Laure Cetin

Three people blogged it forward to me:

xMoshe Naveh (Old Acct) in his blog

Rachna Lal in her blog

Heike van Geel in her blog

It’s a bit embarrassing that it took me so long to write my BIF blog…

Who is Laure?

My name is pronounced [lor] and not Laurie, Laura, Laureh, etc. And no, please don’t call me “Cetin”. Don’t worry if you ever did, I won’t hold a grudge 😉

I am French, my parents didn’t really think about how my name would be pronounced abroad. But that’s OK it could have been worse. Right?

I work in the SAP Community Network Team and am responsible for the SCN Reputation Program. You can blame all the issues with points on me, I’m used to it 😉 Follow me if you want to be kept informed of what I’m doing in my daily activities.

Fun fact:

I love skiing but I also monoski.

Wondering what a monoski is?

This one is mine. It’s a statement in itself.

Pretty cool, isn’t it? I know it is a bit kitschy but there’s a story behind it and I love it.

I live in Palo Alto, the heart of the Silicon Valley, with my husband and our beautiful 16-month old son Antoine. The Bay Area is a fast-pace and mutlicultural environment, I love living here. I’ve lived abroad for over 7 years now and I don’t think I’ll go back to France any time soon! Maybe to retire 😉

Lille, France, is where I was born:

Mulhouse, France, is where I grew up:

Dublin, Ireland, is where I studied as an exchange student for one year:

Heidelberg, Germany, is where I lived three years and started working for SAP:

Palo Alto, California, is where I have been living since 2008:

Below I will respond to the questions asked by Moshe, Rachna and Heike. Heike was kind enough to let me pick any question from Moshe’s list. Easy!

What was your dream job as a kid?

I had several dreams, but mostly I wanted to become either a ballet dancer, a surgeon or a photo-reporter. Today I still like photography and sometimes I think about where I would be in my life  had I become a photo-reporter… I’m also interested in learning about medical discoveries, and I do go to ballet. But growing up I became more realistic about achieving childhood dreams 😉

What is your favorite place in the world?

I love traveling and I love nature, so I have many favorite places:

Point Reyes, California:

Parc National des Ecrins, France:

Brittany, France:

And any lively city in the world with interesting architecture, a night life and culture.

What was the most fun project you ever participated in and why?

I am currently working on a gamification project for SCN and I love this project. It has a lot of potential:

– Adding more fun and missions for SCN members

– Encouraging the right behaviors in the community and discouraging cheating in a proactive way

– Learning a lot about game mechanics

– Thinking about all the powerful tools I could use one day to analyze member behaviors and design a robust reputation program.

In my previous life, before SAP, I worked for a laminate flooring company in France and I helped select new designs. It was nice, I got to learn about wood patterns, met with suppliers, and even posed for the new brochure! Laminate flooring is not hardwood flooring, but it’s pretty amazing how industry innovations have helped make the design as realistic as possible.

What is a topic you feel strongly about and would like to address here?

Oh, the list would be long… I’m a passionate person and there are a lot of topics I feel strongly about:

1/ Women’s condition around the world. It is not good and it is not getting better. I feel blessed to be in a part of the world where my basic rights are respected, even if during these US elections I hear a lot of crazy stuff that I think are unbelievable for a democratic country. Even if I wish there were more equal opportunities for women at work, I am happy to be where I am.

2/ I also feel strongly about education. Knowledge is power in many ways:

– Knowledge means success for an SAP consultant

– Knowledge (with support and hard work, I guess) can get you out of poverty

– Knowledge  makes you aware of your rights, and better able to drive your own destiny

– Knowledge brings new light into each one of your experiences in life

etc.

Benjamin Franklin said that “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest”.

What do you enjoy most in your work and why?

The people in the community. I love the social aspect of SCN, the personal connection and all the things I learn from talented professionals in the community. I enjoy talking to them and learning their story, I love it when they tell me that they like my program and the work I do for the community, it motivates me to keep going. It is sometimes hard for me when they ask me for  things that I cannot give right away, but it makes me even more eager to get things done for them.

What are your favorite social media channels? Or if you don’t use social media, why?

I like twitter because it’s a very good source of information.

I like the concept of Instagram but I don’t think it was worth $1 billion!

Any site that provides tools for social interaction is good to me. It keeps the conversation going around the content.

Which 5 things do you absolutely want to achieve in life?

In no particular order:

Watch my kid(s) grow and learn from him (them)

Have my own business

Hike down the Grand Canyon and back up

Go volunteer in a part of the world that really needs it (location TBD)

Go to Kyoto during cherry blossom season

If you were given by your work a full day every week to do whatever you feel like, what would it be?

I don’t know where to start 😉

I would have a long breakfast and read, take a walk, do some volunteering, play the piano, and spend some time with my son before dinner (needless to say, he would be at day care/school that day LOL). And each week I would try and do something I didn’t do the previous week.

Blogging It Forward

I would like to blog it forward to:

Fareez Ahamed because he seems like a nice guy, with interesting content

Harish Krishnan because he has requested someone to blog it forward to him

R. Moonen because he has requested someone to blog it forward to him

Samuli Kaski because, well, he should try blogging some time! 😉

Nicolas Busson because he wants an invitation 😉

and Sean Yang and Sofie Graham because they need to start blogging!

And here are my questions to them:

   

· Name the person who affected you most in your career/ way of thinking and why?

· If you were not in your current position, what/where would you be and why?

· If you were given by your work a full day every week to do whatever you feel like, what would it be?

Remember the rules of the game:

– Follow the Blog It Forward Chain in order to be updated when the people you blog it forward to post the links to their “Blog It Forward” blogs.

– Read Moshe’s blog again to make sure you follow the rules in your own blog:

• Provide an introduction to yourself
• Provide a fun fact about your country or yourself
• Add a cool picture of yourself or your homeland/town
• Answer specific questions that were “Blog It Forward” to you
• Answer 3-4 optional questions from the bank of questions provided below. Or choose to answer questions you make-up on your own.
• Create 1-2 personalized  questions you would like to blog forward
• List at least 2  people who you are blogging it forward to. Share why you choose them. Link to their SCN profile by typing @  and then their name (e.g @HisName).Be sure to get their approval and verify that they haven’t joined BIF yet.
• Ask the community to follow the Blog It Forward Chain in order to be updated when the people you “Blog It Forward” to post the links to their “Blog It Forward” blogs.

If you want to blog it forward but haven’t been “invited” yet, request to join the table.

This is a great initiative and I’m happy to see  a lot of people  participate. There are many Blog It Forward blogs on SCN and I have a lot of work catching up with them, hopefully I’ll get to read all of them soon! Many thanks to Moshe for the brilliant idea, thank you Rachna and Heike for blogging it forward to me. Thank you all for participating, this is great community spirit.