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Resume

Welcome to ThePlaz.com

the site for all things Michael Plasmeier (ThePlaz)

This site is a wiki. That means that anybody (including YOU) can edit and change the information found here. (Editing help)

My site contains mostly my homework and projects as well as various stuff from my life. (Site Mission Statement)

Leave Plaz a (public) message File icon.gif or send me a (private) e-mail. Mail icon.gif

8/25/2013 Yahoo APM!

Yahoo APM

Me with Marissa Mayer
The 2013 Yahoo APMs

I am about 1 month into my new job at Yahoo as an Associate Product Manager or APM. After I finished classes at MIT, but before I was set to start at Oracle, Yahoo offered me to join Marissa Mayer's new APM program at Yahoo. Marissa started the program back when she had just joined Google - as a way to find and develop new Product Managers out of school, which she thought would be faster than hiring experienced PMs from the industry. This article describes the role http://www.wired.com/business/2012/07/marissas-secret-weapon-for-recruiting-new-yahoo-talent/ though that article overblows things slightly.

I’m super happy where I am at. This is the type of job I was aiming for throughout MIT; I think I was well-prepared by MIT; and I think .Yahoo is also in a very interesting state at the moment. They are rapidly redoing everything. This makes new grads are handed large chunks of the product to manage, because they are so understaffed for what the need is. In addition, they are in the midst of a huge culture change. They are replacing their cube farms with open desks. They are rebuilding teams, which were previously laid off. It’s very interesting to work with people on either side of the culture change and to experience the before-and-after at the same time.

I’m in charge of designing the platform Yahoo uses to know where you are, and I help designing the membership, accounts, and security features of Yahoo. The work is very similar to what I did at MIT – brainstorming solutions, designing schemes, working with other stakeholders to refine plans and achieve consensus.

As an APM, I’m part of Yahoo’s inner circle – giving it the feel of a small company. My experience working with administrators at MIT prepared me very well for working with the executives at Yahoo. It's probably the best business/leadership/PM experience possible in the world for someone just out of school. I think it's rivals management consulting in terms of business experience - since you're directly responsible for something, but still involved at a high level. I think one learns by doing and by being exposed to stuff. The greater scope and responsibility one has, the more one learns, I believe.

Mountain View

Mountain View Home
Chevy Volt

I'm settled into my new place in Mountain View. Photos I'm sharing a house with 2 other guys, who were friends of friends. I've purchased a Chevy Volt. Photos It goes 40 miles in a charge, but after that it can use gas. In almost 2 months, I haven't gone to the gas station once!

I'm meeting a lot of new people here. Everyone seems to be a friend of a friend at least, and about 20-30% have heard of me before! That's kinda scarey!

Leaving MIT

I had my best semester ever, my last semester at MIT. I had 5 As and one B-. I was literally 10 points away from a 5.0!

Pens
Paper

This semester I used 32 inches of paper, as well as 31 pens. Here is a chart of usage over time:

Pens and Paper Usage.png

I wrote up two white papers on MIT Policy. A Framework for Community Engagement is a refinement of the community engagement process which administrators currently follow. Problem Solving Teams proposes having students work as "management consultants" on the Institute’s biggest problems. This joins Unrelenting Advocacy, about how stundets should act like lobbyists and consultants. This rounds up my [MIT Policy White Papers] series.

MIT Graduation

Graduation was a super rainy affair - it was pretty miserable. Photos However, I'm happy to say that I've now graduated. It was sad to leave all of the stuff I really liked about MIT behind.

I used the time I was off (3 weeks at MIT, 3 weeks at home, and 3 weeks in CA) to get organized and clean up my stuff. I emptied some boxes I hadn’t touched in years. I scanned more paper. However, I have still not managed to post my MIT stuff or more from the archives.

Personal Style

I also spent some time to reflect on my Personal Style. I spent several months iterating on this - and it ended up being quite lengthy! I wanted to record this, because I know with will update over time, and I wanted to make a record of it. I think it's also helpful for people to know how I approach problem solving. --ThePlaz (talk) 02:55, 25 August 2013 (EDT) Leave Plaz a (public) message File icon.gif or send me a (private) e-mail. Mail icon.gif , Subscribe via RSS feed, Subscribe via email , Detailed feed , See past updates

Recent Activity from around the Web

MIT Senior edit

Fall
  • Schedule
  • 7.012 Intro to Biology
  • 6.046 Advanced Algorithms
  • 6.858 Computer and Network Security
  • 14.72 Capitalism and its Critics
  • STS.085 Ethics and the Law on the Electronic Frontier
  • 2.009 Product Design Process (Listener)
  • 15.062 Data Mining (Listener)
Spring

MIT Junior edit

Fall
  • 6.004 Computation Structures
  • 6.005 Elements of Software Construction
  • 6.034 Artificial Intelligence
  • STS.011 Ethics and Politics in Science and Technology
  • 15.387 Technology Sales and Sales Management
  • 15.665 Power and Negotiation
  • 18.03 Differential Equations
  • Working out a System - How I take 7 classes at MIT and thrive
Spring
  • Spring Schedule
  • 6.033 Computer System Engineering
  • 6.813 User Interface Design and Implementation
  • 6.006 Introduction to Algorithms
  • 15.571 Business Strategy and the Role of IT
  • 15.565 Digital Evolution: Managing Web 3.0
  • 15.301 Managerial Psychology Laboratory
  • 18.06 Linear Algebra

MIT Sophomore edit

Fall
  • 6.01 Intro to EECS (Potpourri Introduction)
  • 6.041 Probabilistic Systems Analysis
  • 14.01 Principles of Microeconomics
  • 15.501 Corporate Financial Accounting
  • 15.567 Econ of Information
  • 16.71 Airline Industry
Spring
  • 4.211 The Present and Future City
  • 6.02 Intro to EECS 2 (Communications)
  • 6.042 Math for Computer Science (Potpourri Introduction)
  • 14.02 Microeconomics
  • 15.279 Intro to Managerial Communications
  • 15.401 Intro to Finance
  • 15.761 Operations Research
  • ESD.051 Engineering, Innovation, and Design (Listener)
Politics

MIT Freshman edit

Fall

  • 8.01 Physics: Mechanics - Prof. Greytak
  • 3.091 Intro to Solid State Chemistry - Prof. Sadoway
  • 18.01 Single Variable Calculus - Prof. Brubaker
  • MAS.110 Fundamentals of Computational Media Design - Prof. Bove
  • 6.A53 Entrepreneurship and China Advising Seminar - Dr. Eng
  • SocialSaver UROP at the MIT Media Lab
  • Learning to Learn at MIT - My "near fail" experience that caused me to pull it together

Spring

Other Stuff

Nuvola apps kpovmodeler.png AP Physics (Science)

30px-OneNote.png Open OneNote Notebook

Note: Works only in Internet Explorer and Opera. Firefox refuses to support MHT. More info

Nuvola USA flag.png AP US Government (History)

30px-OneNote.png Open OneNote Notebook

Note: Works only in Internet Explorer and Opera. Firefox refuses to support MHT. More info

Nuvola apps package wordprocessing.png English 12 (English)

Nuvola apps kbrunch.png Calculus (Math)

30px-OneNote.png Open OneNote Notebook

Note: Works only in Internet Explorer and Opera. Firefox refuses to support MHT. More info

Nuvola apps edu languages.png AP Psychology (Psychology)

Nuvola apps package editors.png AP Micro Econ (Economics)

Nuvola apps bug.png Biology (Science)

Nuvola apps kmplot.png PreCalc (Math)

Nuvola USA flag.png American Studies (History)

  • Projects
  • Notes from Out of Many Textbook
  • FTCE test  : FTCE test failure reveals how to rip through the FTCE test.
developed Headline Notetaking Format

Nuvola USA flag pen.png English 11 (English)

Nuvola apps edu mathematics.png IAG 4H (Math)

Nuvola apps edu science.png Chemistry (Science)

Nuvola apps package network.png World Cultures (History)

Nuvola apps korganizer.png AP Macro Economics (Economics)

Nuvola apps file-manager.png English 10 (English)

Nuvola apps kig.png IAG 3H (Math)

Nuvola apps bookcase.png English 9 (English)

Nuvola apps kverbos.png Western Civ (History)

Projects
Outlines
Maps and Creative
Essays and Reports

Nuvola apps edu phi.png IPS (Science)

Nuvola apps kcalc.png IAG 2H and IAG 1H (Math)

Nuvola apps kate.png Latin

Latin 3

Projects
Notes
Journals

Double Entry Journals have 2 components: What I Learned (a summery), and Personal Response (a reflection)

Latin 2

Projects
  1. Roman Travel Project
  2. Sejanus
  3. Echo and Narcissus Myth
  4. The Journey of the Hero
Journals

Latin 1

Money-256x256.png Entrepreneurship (Business)

30px-OneNote.png Open OneNote Notebook

Note: Works only in Internet Explorer and Opera. Firefox refuses to support MHT. More info

Nuvola apps personal.png Business Law (Business)

30px-OneNote.png Open OneNote Notebook

Note: Works only in Internet Explorer and Opera. Firefox refuses to support MHT. More info

Nuvola apps amarok.png Pop Music (Music)

Nuvola filesystems folder blue open.png Other edit

Nuvola filesystems folder blue open.png 8th Grade

Nuvola filesystems folder blue open.png 7th Grade

Nuvola apps kuser.png About Me edit

Michael Plasmeier
"ThePlaz"
Yahoo APM: Membership and Geo Platforms

My name is Michael Plasmeier, but almost everyone calls me Plaz. I am a Associate Product Manager at Yahoo - working on the Membership and Geo-related platforms teams. I graduated from MIT in 2013 in Computer Science and Management. I am halfway between the tech and the business world, doing both web development and product development. My interest in doing both started while I was working on GridView, an app I built after 10th Grade that reached 1.3 million users on Facebook.

Internships

Last IAP, I was a Software Development Extern doing testing in Ruby on the back end at CardSpring. Last summer, I was Product Manager at Disney Parks and Resorts Online where I worked on a project for Disney Cruise Line. Last January, I worked in management/strategy consulting at Altman Vilandrie & Company. The previous summer, I was a web developer at NextJump, an online affiliate advertising firm in New York. Prior to that, I was an extern in the Office of the Chief Scientist at State Street. My freshman summer I worked at Deutsche Bahn, the German national railroad, where I designed the smartphone version Touch&Travel, an app that lets you pay for the train with your phone.

MIT

At MIT I was heavily involved in classes, usually taking 7 classes a term, while being involved in student government. (I wrote about how I do it in Working out a System.) senior was dedicated to wrapping up requirements. Junior year at MIT I focused on EECS classes, as well as being elected president of Baker House. My second year at MIT focused on management classes. I was also involved in the vendor selection and implementation of the new dining plan. Freshman year, I took core classes and served on the Athena and Printing Committee. (I wrote about just hanging on freshmen year in Learning to Learn.)

Websites

I built a lot of web projects in high school. My most popular project, was GridView [1], an app for Facebook which lets you add the profile pics of all of you're friends to your Facebook profile. GridView had over 1.3 million users and made me some money.

I hosted and produced the video podcast Tecker 911 [2] along with some of my friends. Tecker 911 was a series of 100 5-15 minute shows each which covers a technology topic in a way which is relevant for ordinary people, with a focus towards students and our community. Tecker 911 was also shown on our local public access channel Channel 11.

I started SeniorQuoter, [3] an open-source web application for senior quotes collections for high school yearbooks. In 11th Grade, I lead a Dynamic Website Building Instruction and Practical Experience Group Study at my high school. I helped 4 other students learn PHP and MySQL and then I project managed version 2 of SeniorQuoter, the administration interface.

Tecker and Conflicter were question and answer services I built in 10th Grade. They never really caught on, but they were the perfect way to learn PHP. Dictionary Robot is something I tarted last year, but abandoned later. In 10th Grade, I was a member of Team 484 and in 11th Grade I was their webmaster.

In 8th and 9th Grades I wrote bunch of programs for the TI-83+.

Tech

My first two years at MIT, I was a regular on The Weekly Spin, a weekly take on tech stories and tech policy.

On my Tech page I have had a few pages about Devices I own and other small things that I have built. For example, I also made some improvements for MediaWiki, the software that runs ThePlaz.com and Wikipedia. I made a new skin for MediaWiki and a few MediaWiki extensions


Other Accounts

I also tag a lot of stories on Delicious. I also have over 70,000 photos on Flickr. I Tweet kinda regularly. I also post things to YouTube. And of course I have a Facebook. It all comes together on my FriendFeed.

Website Content

On my site you will find:

  • Updates on what I am involved in
  • Links to my other projects
  • My comments on the world
  • Photos and videos I have taken
  • School work and notes I have made
School Work

I hope that this knowledge will help people less-fortunate than me persevere and succeed. All of my work is under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 license, meaning that you may use it and re-post it anywhere as long as you post my name/nickname, provide a link back to my site, and don't make money off my work. Many people visit my site from overseas where the school system is not as good. See Site Mission Statement for more

    • For 9th Grade I have posted projects I did on the computer
    • For 10th Grade I have posted not only my work I made on a computer but laboriously scanned all of my handwritten notes and worksheets
    • For 11th Grade I am only posting my own notes (no worksheets) from very structured classes; I am scaling back
    • For 12th Grade I used a tablet PC, so I have posted my OneNote notebooks from the class
    • For MIT Freshman year, I used a tablet PC for the first semester; realized this was a bad idea; so I used paper which I scanned and released as large PDFs the second semester. Note MIT actually does the same thing I do with MIT OCW.
    • For MIT Sophomore I will continue to post large, comprehensive PDFs.
    • See also my Notes Key
Tech

Theweeklyspin.png The Weekly Spin

The Weekly Spin is a weekly rant about technology and tech policy with Michael Gdovin. We often cover the cell phone industry, the FCC, DRM, and Michael likes to throw in some Apple rumors.

Download the latest episodes: TheWeeklySpin.com Audio Podcast

Nuvola apps laptop pcmcia.png Student Tools edit

Nuvola apps knewsticker.png News edit

ThePlaz in often mentioned or interviewed in the news

MIT
MIT Dining
MITx/EdX
Baker Piano Drop
Tecker 911
GridView
ThePlaz.com Praise
  • Sam's Praise about my site
  • Baron Harkonnen's Thanks
  • Thanks for uploading Flickr photos
  • Uses Many ThePlaz.com Wiki features
  • A Drexel professor told me on the first day of class that I take very good notes and I would graduate suma cum laude from Harvard due to the quality of my notes at Gov School
  • Hi I saw your page about that download for the ferris wheel unit for IMP4, I didn't download it but even the info you had on the page helped me out. I have no idea what I'm doing and just started this year- i really get stuck on my homework EVERY night. Right now im working on HW 2 "As the ferris wheel turns" and i have no idea what I'm doing. But i just wanted to say thanks cause I'm gonna download that once I'm farther into the unit!--A Facebook user (J. S.)
  • Just wanted to let you know: I stole your headline method of note taking from your website and it is completely saving my life in American Studies. -Rebecca C.
  • Hey, you do have one of the best designed websites I have seen lately. Good job. A little flashy, but still functional. --Email comment 8/18/2010
Videos

Nuvola apps multimedia.png Video edit

Tecker 911 Logo.png Tecker 911

Nuvola filesystems camera.png Photos edit

Trips/Vacations
Universities
MIT
Haverford High School
Places/Events/Daytrips

(need to update)

Tech/Unboxing/Products
Pictures on the Wikimedia Commons

TI-83--rotated.png TI-83+ Stuff edit

Nuvola apps kcmprocessor.png Tech Stuff edit

I am a lot into technology. Here are links to some of my web sites as well as modifications and how-to articles about other software.

My Websites
Devices
MediaWiki Tweaks
Essays/Thoughts
Other

Nuvola apps gaim.png Miscellaneous edit

Nuvola apps remote.png Site Statistics edit

For up-to-date info see Special:Statistics

There are 6,499 total pages in the database, including 1,578 pages in the main namespace and 5,000 files uploaded. These counts do not include OneNote notebooks on minisites or SkyDrive, and count multi-page files (PDF and Word) as one page.

There have been a total of 5,163,449 page views, and 16,470 page edits since ThePlaz.com was setup. That comes to 2.53 average edits per page, and 313.51 views per edit.


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