One of my takeaways from college studies was that I didn’t want to work in a job that offered the same work-script each day. Right or wrong, this was the time in my life that I decided I didn’t want to code computer programs for a living because I saw the the activity as repetitive. It wasn’t the end result of the computer program that influenced my thinking, but rather the act of writing code. I wasn’t the most gifted code writer in my class. I completed assignments, but often by brute-force and will power through hours of trial-and-error. I do enjoy writing computer code, but I didn’t see myself doing it for a weekly 40.
During this time, I found that I enjoy work variety. I enjoy solving new puzzles each week and the process of creating new things. There was a bumper sticker at Georgia Tech during my undergraduate years that said “we don’t fit the mold, we make it”. While I didn’t pick an engineering major or pursue an engineering career, I share many characteristics with engineers in what motivates and inspires me. I love to examine a process to see how things fit together to create work.
So I’ve pursued job assignments in information technology, product marketing, and digital marketing during my career. In all of my work I’ve been involved with creating something new to solve a problem for a customer. So this is what I enjoy most about my work. I see work as the opportunity to create, to bridge, and to learn.
Onward and upward!