I'm in a unique situation where I don't have to work [1]. Ok, maybe at some point I need to do something so I can justify a couch for our little freecycle decorated apartment and I wouldn't mind upgrading our wine from two buck chuck to something in the $5 range. But I'm making a conscious choice to dig deep in my search to find something I can be passionate about and I want to take full advantage of this opportunity.
If you ask anyone who knows me or has met me in person, they will tell you that I am passionate. If asked to describe me in a single word I bet 95% would say passionate even without a picklist. Yet I think passion is very difficult to recognize in today's hectic real-time 140 character world. The subtle nuances of emotion visible during a face-to-face conversation are hard to detect through the web, especially if they've already scrolled off the bottom of the page or get stuck at the bottom of the inbox. Energy, excitement and passion seem to get lost in the digital conversion to 0s,1s and ABCs.
The last time I wrote a resume and interviewed for a job was 20 years ago and I'm struggling with ways to show my passion in this digital age. Bits and words fly before our eyes in record quantities, how do you make them stand out?
I've been researching existing products and solutions full time for the past six months, 50 hours a week.. for fun. Before that I spent a year writing my own mapping/photo sharing utilities during our 6 year sailing trip .. because I could. I'm an engineer who sees software as his canvas, not for the raw beauty but for the power and efficiencies that can be leveraged through its use. I know social media works and I've been engineering various solutions to help companies engage online that are targeted to their unique situation of products and customers .
I spent 13 years developing and managing some pretty cool bleeding edge software that helped engineers build the gadgets you use and love today. I worked with some of the leading technologists writing software to simulate what would happen every nano-second deep inside the chips, boards and systems that most developers consider boolean (0s and 1s). Then I went sailing for six years, just my wife and me on our own 44 foot boat for 33,000 miles at 5.5 mph. Life slowed down, we wrote a geo-blog, website and even started one to help people get ready to go sailing on their own. My focus shifted from developer to consumer and I have helped countless people in their endless struggle with technology. It kills me that the thing that brings so much joy to my life (and occasional frustration) is so misunderstood and underutilized by others.
Passion doesn't always translate
As you can imagine I've spent lots of time online in various social networks, help forums, developer groups and interacting/sharing through blogs and comments. Meet almost any Google employee and I guarantee you'll be blown away by their excitement and positive energy. Look at their help forums or ask any of the users how they would describe Google and you'll get different response. I have spent 100's of hours and no one notices, give me five minutes face to face and you'll say passionate.
Our sailing sites have received overwhelmingly positive feedback, but frequently we have responded to questions with long well thought out responses that took hours to put together and get... silence, nothing! I have reached out to help a fellow bloggers and received questions about my "real intentions". But I've also blown away people when they get a real response from a human who actually read their blog prior to submitting it to a Cruising Blogs Search (with maps) that I implemented.
I've spent the past two weeks banging on Buzz trying to understand all the issues while helping other users who are struggling. The world seems to have been polarized by Buzz so I wrote guide to me. Then I wrote a job description for a Google Customer Advocate which I think would help solve some of the problems. I laughed later when someone got upset that I was posting so much and thought I was being overly negative. Later he realized what I was trying to do and how hard I had been working.. we were struggling for the same outcome but got caught in friendly fire, the passion didn't translate!
I recently found a company with a job description that finally popped. If I hadn't already read the CEO's blog post about not showing up early, I would have driven over to introduced myself. I spent a couple of hours reviewing the site and even woke up at 4 am with my head spinning full of ideas. I sent off my first real cover letter in 20 years to someone who doesn't know me.. I really hope my passion shows through!
This snippet got me thinking
In the context of social media you must be natural and passionate. Ok if you are a cheesy salesman maybe social media isn't for you because the same basic rules of almost any social interaction apply, just be yourself. If you are passionate almost anything is possible even in the digital age. If you really want to experience my passion I suggest we get together face to face.
The flow experience sounds similar to swing in rowing.
[1] The most common question I get is "are you rich?". No .. not even close. I've always worked hard and saved so that I could follow my heart/dreams. Six years of sailing have tought us to be frugal, those skills are proving very valuable during my search for the next career based adventure.
If you ask anyone who knows me or has met me in person, they will tell you that I am passionate. If asked to describe me in a single word I bet 95% would say passionate even without a picklist. Yet I think passion is very difficult to recognize in today's hectic real-time 140 character world. The subtle nuances of emotion visible during a face-to-face conversation are hard to detect through the web, especially if they've already scrolled off the bottom of the page or get stuck at the bottom of the inbox. Energy, excitement and passion seem to get lost in the digital conversion to 0s,1s and ABCs.
The last time I wrote a resume and interviewed for a job was 20 years ago and I'm struggling with ways to show my passion in this digital age. Bits and words fly before our eyes in record quantities, how do you make them stand out?
I've been researching existing products and solutions full time for the past six months, 50 hours a week.. for fun. Before that I spent a year writing my own mapping/photo sharing utilities during our 6 year sailing trip .. because I could. I'm an engineer who sees software as his canvas, not for the raw beauty but for the power and efficiencies that can be leveraged through its use. I know social media works and I've been engineering various solutions to help companies engage online that are targeted to their unique situation of products and customers .
I spent 13 years developing and managing some pretty cool bleeding edge software that helped engineers build the gadgets you use and love today. I worked with some of the leading technologists writing software to simulate what would happen every nano-second deep inside the chips, boards and systems that most developers consider boolean (0s and 1s). Then I went sailing for six years, just my wife and me on our own 44 foot boat for 33,000 miles at 5.5 mph. Life slowed down, we wrote a geo-blog, website and even started one to help people get ready to go sailing on their own. My focus shifted from developer to consumer and I have helped countless people in their endless struggle with technology. It kills me that the thing that brings so much joy to my life (and occasional frustration) is so misunderstood and underutilized by others.
Passion doesn't always translate
As you can imagine I've spent lots of time online in various social networks, help forums, developer groups and interacting/sharing through blogs and comments. Meet almost any Google employee and I guarantee you'll be blown away by their excitement and positive energy. Look at their help forums or ask any of the users how they would describe Google and you'll get different response. I have spent 100's of hours and no one notices, give me five minutes face to face and you'll say passionate.
Our sailing sites have received overwhelmingly positive feedback, but frequently we have responded to questions with long well thought out responses that took hours to put together and get... silence, nothing! I have reached out to help a fellow bloggers and received questions about my "real intentions". But I've also blown away people when they get a real response from a human who actually read their blog prior to submitting it to a Cruising Blogs Search (with maps) that I implemented.
I've spent the past two weeks banging on Buzz trying to understand all the issues while helping other users who are struggling. The world seems to have been polarized by Buzz so I wrote guide to me. Then I wrote a job description for a Google Customer Advocate which I think would help solve some of the problems. I laughed later when someone got upset that I was posting so much and thought I was being overly negative. Later he realized what I was trying to do and how hard I had been working.. we were struggling for the same outcome but got caught in friendly fire, the passion didn't translate!
I recently found a company with a job description that finally popped. If I hadn't already read the CEO's blog post about not showing up early, I would have driven over to introduced myself. I spent a couple of hours reviewing the site and even woke up at 4 am with my head spinning full of ideas. I sent off my first real cover letter in 20 years to someone who doesn't know me.. I really hope my passion shows through!
This snippet got me thinking
Passion is a secret of the social web
And passion spawns flow experiences:
During a true flow experience, creativity is effortless, your work will move forward at amazing speed, and time itself will cease to have meaning. This is the mindset which will produce your most creative, most thought provoking, and potentially most successful results.Flow experiences only occur if you’re passionate about what you’re doing. A funny thing happens when you enter a flow experience – while you’re not consciously trying, your results run circles around those who are trying too hard because they have unnatural pressure thrust upon them or were forced to do something.
Your social participation shouldn’t seem, it should be effortless
If you have to try to divert attention or use trickery to appear effortless, people will see through it. Web users are connected, activated and smart. They’re not as easy to manipulate as mass markets swayed by obvious attempts at coercion. You walk a thin line by by seeming one way and in reality being another. This only succeeds at putting your digital reputation at risk.
In the context of social media you must be natural and passionate. Ok if you are a cheesy salesman maybe social media isn't for you because the same basic rules of almost any social interaction apply, just be yourself. If you are passionate almost anything is possible even in the digital age. If you really want to experience my passion I suggest we get together face to face.
The flow experience sounds similar to swing in rowing.
[1] The most common question I get is "are you rich?". No .. not even close. I've always worked hard and saved so that I could follow my heart/dreams. Six years of sailing have tought us to be frugal, those skills are proving very valuable during my search for the next career based adventure.
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