Meet the Writer: Mikhail Kirilin Did 12 Hours of Research for His Latest Piece

So let’s start! Tell us a bit about yourself. For example, name, profession, and personal interests.

My name is Mikhail Kirilin, and for the past 7 years, I've been involved in PR, editorial, and communications in one way or another. I am from Barnaul, Russia. Now I live in Cyprus, Limassol. Previously, I worked as head of PR at MuseScore, and now I work with one of the largest fintech companies. I am into indie games, write some electronic music at my leisure, and listen to jazz-influenced hip-hop.

Interesting! What was your latest Hackernoon Top story about?

I've been studying hedge funds and their inner workings. Twelve hours of research resulted in a piece that mentions various revelations by employees and fund managers from public sources.

Do you usually write on similar topics? If not, what do you usually write about?

I write quite rarely because my main activity is related to editorial work. More often than not, I edit other people's texts and do all the related work with a team of 24 authors. Topics of interest to me: social engineering, various aspects of the fintech software market, product thinking, and PR.

Great! What is your usual writing routine like (if you have one?)

Like any project, you must first decompose the objectives, do the research, set goals. More often than not, good material is obtained when either personal or research experience is accumulated to the extent from which a conclusion can be drawn.

The writing process itself is unremarkable. A day, even without copywriting, I write about 28,000 characters - asynchronous communication, correspondence, work with documents.

Being a writer in tech can be a challenge. It’s not often our main role, but an addition to another one. What is the biggest challenge you have when it comes to writing?

Working in the fintech industry was a big challenge for me as a humanitarian. I barely got a C in algebra at school.

Therefore, the task is both complicated and simplified at once: until I understand the topic of the material thoroughly, the text will not work. Any obscure product that requires a lot of hours of research is a challenge. But any challenge brings results and some new knowledge.

What is the next thing you hope to achieve in your career?

I'm not planning any career goals. In PR there are enough tactical and strategic goals, one of them I can name - to raise brand awareness of the product. Of course, there are KPIs and all the necessary tools to work with the data.

There are more down-to-earth but ambitious goals. These are to achieve the publications in the industry's tier 1 media. If you look at the big goals, I see the prospect of creating my own PR agency.

Wow, that’s admirable. Now, something more casual: What is your guilty pleasure of choice?

I like to spend a few days stuck in video games. Lately, I've been really into Frostpunk & Horizon: Zero Dawn.

Do you have a non-tech-related hobby? If yes, what is it?

I read science fiction. I don't have much free time, so hobbies are usually substituted for some household chores.

What can the Hacker Noon community expect to read from you next?

I might write something about data-driven PR. There will also be new stories about fintech, hedge funds, and data science.

Thanks for taking time to join our “Meet the writer” series. It was a pleasure. Do you have any closing words?

Huge greetings to our Barnaul Digital Community!