Pupin Campus

Founder Pupin Campus

Deutsche Telekom

Business Development Manager at Strategy & Transformation Deutsche Telekom Geschäftskunden

Sales Engagement Manager at Telekom Global Business

T-Systems International GmbH

Sales Engagement Manager

Data Scientist

IT-Projektmanager

IT Business Consultant

Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn

Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter

In my entire life, I was focused on being the best in what I do. Then, in 2011, I got my first job. 

Nobody cared about my performance. 
No praise, no promotion – nothing.

That made me think. Business mechanics is different. Is it a rigged game?

I realized everybody follows some unspoken job rules, but I don’t know them. 
Nobody explained, taught, or showed me.
It's not taught in school or university.

Since then, I have analyzed the game “business world” and systemized it. 

📌 What I Share:
✅ Tactical strategies for meetings, leadership, and visibility.
✅ How to navigate office politics without playing dirty.
✅ AI-powered career prompts to communicate with authority.
✅ Unspoken job rules that actually determine promotions.

🔹 Why? Because you deserve to win the job game - on your terms. 
My Mission is to be the mentor I never had. 

👀 Want weekly job-winning tactics?
➡️ Follow me for daily career insights & workplace strategies.
➡️ Subscribe to my Newsletter to receive the Saturday Career Playbook tactics:
https://www.pupin-campus.com/subscribe/

I help mid-career professionals gain clarity, confidence, and promotions by mastering unspoken job rules.

Turn your ambition into career growth.

Know the rules, play the game.

The biggest career killer: Self-Rejection.

How do you grow when you're your biggest hater?

Be your biggest fan!
Because people love confidence.

My manager once told me: 
"Great slides. The Messages, Layout, and Design - great work."

"I know," I replied. 
He smiled.

"Look, it results from studying storytelling, typography, and design. I followed simple rules. And yes, I don't have a problem with self-confidence :)."

He smiled even more. 
He knew he could rely on me.

So being confident about yourself is OK.

Your work.
Your results.
Your learnings.
Your experiences.

Do good things and share them with confidence.

Don't be shy - it's not bragging. 

People like confidence because it shows strengths. 
They want to follow strong people.

𝗥𝘂𝗹𝗲: 
𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗯𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀.

——
Want to Stand Out in the Job Game?
Follow for more Dr. Branislav Poletanović

Dr. Branislav Poletanović

Sharing battle-tested workplace tactics for your career growth | Unspoken Job Rules Explainer | Keynote- Speaker | Founder of Pupin Campus

Smart, talented, or hard-working people get stuck in a career not because they lack skills. 

Because they don't believe in themselves.

A former student of mine received his Master this week. He made it parallel to his full-time job.

So far, so good. But 10 years back, he was taking private classes to be able to finish school. 

He was a problematic pupil, making problems, doubting himself, and his future was on the razor's edge.

But then a teacher saw his potential. He is intelligent, but he lacks support. She believed in him. 

She said the magic words: "𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘥𝘰 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦. 𝘐 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶." 

His eyes wide open, it clicked. 

He learned hard, finished high school, got hired in a world top 10 company, worked for top managers, went abroad, and has a career.

His life changed overnight because he started believing in himself.

Believing in oneself comes before confidence. 
Confidence is the 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘵 of belief in action.

It always follows the same cycle:

Who do you want to be → Build a Habit to reach this → Repeat and reinforce → Share belief with others.

Do you want the full breakdown of the tactics?

My last newsletter explains it. Link in the comments.

𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲?

𝗥𝘂𝗹𝗲:
𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳.

——
Turn your ambition into career growth
Follow for more Dr. Branislav Poletanović

Did you know there is no training to become a candidate for leadership?

Let that sink in.

When I started my corporate life, there were these performance reviews.

You sit there with your manager, and you fill out a form with your performance. Along the way, you get feedback.

The feedback is about how you can improve your performance.

The bottom line is: Everything done is to increase your value for the company.

Managers keep the business running.

They don't grow you.

I didn't learn 
• How to make a career,
• How to grow personally,
• How to get a better position.

You are left alone.

There is no training to make you a candidate for the next level.

The funny thing is: 
Once you are nominated for a position, a lot of training exists. 

There are trainings for leadership, project managers, executives, etc. 

But before this, nothing.

Keep in mind:
𝘈 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵.

Here are six tips on how to become nominated:
• Don’t Wait for HR or Your Manager
• Feed the Identity You Want to Grow Into
• Observe the Difference Between You & the Next Level
• Spend Time with People at the Next Level
• Find a Mentor Who Is Where You Want to Be
• Invest in a Coach If You’re Serious

In my recent newsletter, I explain the details. 
Link in the comments.

Are you waiting to be nominated?

——
Turn your ambition into career growth
Follow for more Dr. Branislav Poletanović

Hard work is appreciated, but not rewarded.

Companies want you to work hard because we deliver more.

But what is in for you?

A salary? Sure. 
But you are changing time for money.

It
• doesn't give you visibility
• doesn't give you a promotion
• doesn't give you a higher salary.

This frustrated me earlier. I moved on.
There is a mindset beyond. 

I share tactics on how to overcome this fairy tale of hard work.

Do you know how to escape the "My Work speaks for itself"?

Let me know in the comments.

——
Turn your ambition into career growth
Follow for more Dr. Branislav Poletanović

Career Hack: Copying people's moves won't help your career.

Well, let's compare:

Elon Musk is a physicist - So am I.
Jeff Bezos quit physics - I'm smarter than him.
Sam Altman is doing AI - I was a Data Scientist.

Do similarities make us successful?

Bad news: No, they don't.

It's not about copying other people.

It's not about learning how people achieved success.

It's about learning what keeps you stuck:
• 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗲𝘁: From Victim to Owner
• 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴: Own and tell your Story
• 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Master Communication.
• 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴: Be Known for One Thing
• 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴: Zoom Out to See the Game
• 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴: Create relationships with key players

Create a new version of yourself.
Turn your ambition into career growth.

Let others inspire you. But don't copy paths.

Build your path. 

What keeps you stuck?

𝗥𝘂𝗹𝗲: 
𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗿𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.

PS: The biggest secret hack: They all have a coach.

——
Turn your ambition into career growth
Follow for more Dr. Branislav Poletanović

Being stuck in your career is good. 

Yes, I have been there, too.

3 years of dreams, hopes, and expectations. All gone.

All these tips:

• Talk to your manager
• Address your ambition
• Go the extra mile (marathon)
• Be active and take ownership

100% done. 0% progress.

Then I saw it: I knew all excuses, all projects, and all people. 

I had outgrown. What a relief.

There were no alternatives left—time to move on.

I got a new job and told myself: Don't repeat the mistakes.

𝗕𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲.

I wrote a newsletter about evolving from "troublemaker" to everybody's darling.

This got me several dream jobs in high-performing teams.

Don't miss the tactics no one teaches you.

Have you felt stuck and helpless to escape?

𝗥𝘂𝗹𝗲:
𝗡𝗼𝗯𝗼𝗱𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂.

——
Turn your ambition into career growth
Follow for more Dr. Branislav Poletanović

In my entire life, I was focused on being the best in what I do. Then, in 2011, I got my first job. 

Nobody cared about my performance. 
No praise, no promotion – nothing.

That let me think. Business mechanics is different. Is it a rigged game?

I realized everybody follows some unwritten rules, but I don’t know them. Nobody explained, taught, or showed me. It is nothing you can learn at school or university.

Mihailo Pupin was a shepherd in Serbia and became a physics Professor at Columbia University. 

How did he manage this? 

In his book “From Immigrant to Inventor” he explained this by understanding the rules of the game called "Life in the US." I like his view. Everything is a game and we need to “Know the rules, play the game.”

Since then, I have analyzed the game “business world” and systemized it. 

My Mission is to be the mentor I never had for career starters. I help you to start the game with an advantage. Be ahead of others.

Are you stuck in your career? Write me a DM.

Follow for more.

Know the rules, play the game.

Hiring managers are risk minimizers.

Hiring costs money and time.
Onboarding costs money and time.
Getting bad results costs money and time.

Each hiring can be fatal. 

They try to minimize risks.

That's why people love to hire from their network.

• You know what to expect.
• You know how the person works.
• You know you share the same values.
• You know that you can trust the person.

People reached out to me, offering me a job.
Or I reached out to them to suggest somebody.

That was the first time I understood what people mean by:

Your network is your net worth.

Such a network provides real value.

How to build such a network?

➠ Build genuine relationships.
➠ Take responsibility and reach out first.
➠ Reach out to people when you don't need anything.
➠ Share some results, current projects, and successes.
➠ Send handwritten Christmas cards.
➠ Congratulate them on their birthday.

Yes, it means work. But it's worth it.
You invest in your future.

Have you ever been recommended or asked to take a job?

𝗥𝘂𝗹𝗲: 
𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗶𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵.

——
Turn your ambition into career growth
Follow for more Dr. Branislav Poletanović

People get career visibility wrong. It is not about being more visible.

In 1962, John F. Kennedy visited NASA. During his tour, he asked a janitor what he was doing.

The janitor replied: "𝘐’𝘮 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘶𝘵 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯."

Over 50 years later, this story is told. A janitor putting a man to the moon.

Visibility is about having a 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝘁𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂‘𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺.

Are you answering emails, ticking checkboxes, finishing work packages, or having plenty of calls?

That's not a story. 
That's not visibility.

That's been overlooked.

Craft your story:

Ask yourself:
1. How do I want to be seen?
2. What challenge have I solved?
3. What impact did I create like nobody else?
   
What is the most challenging part of crafting your story?

Let me know in the comments.

——
Turn your ambition into career growth
Follow for more Dr. Branislav Poletanović

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