So far, so good! (aka - how my first week at Hookt went)

Well, it has been a week since I first started my job at Hookt and so far, it has been a really good experience! Let me elaborate why:

1. I love the office. Sure - it's a very small office, probably less than 1000 sqft in size, and it shakes too every now and then (because of the train below it) - but it offers a certain feeling of "warmness" that I don't feel in big offices. When I was being interviewed by my (now) manager, he told me that being in that small office was all about getting to experience the "experience" that it has to offer - and now I know what he meant by that :)

2. I love the commute. It's very close to the Waterfront skytrain station - and by that, I mean it's actually inside the Waterfront station! I live in a condo just below the New West station and so all I have to do is to go down the elevator, take the train, read some news, and then 30 minutes later, I am at work!

3. I love the location. It is centrally located, right at the heart of downtown Vancouver. There are 3 food courts that are very close to our office, we are right by the water, and of course, the best thing is that if ever I feel tired, stressed out, or if I simply need some inspiration, I would just step out of the office, do my long walk around the harbor for a couple of minutes, and then I would go back feeling refreshed!

4. I love the work. Everyday, I look forward to coming in early as I feel this eagerness to conquer hard challenges at work. I feel very excited about engaging myself and others in coming up with solutions to all sorts of problems and it feels very fulfilling to be able to come up with a good one. Sure, I am kind of scared also about tackling big problems that I have never seen before in my entire life - nevertheless, I love the feeling of it as I feel like I am constantly being challenged and nothing feels sweeter than being able to squash that challenge! Level up! :)

5. I love being in control of my work. Being autonomous and empowered with how I want to do my work is probably one of the biggest thing that makes this work very exciting. I am constantly discovering new ways of solving problems - not only the technical ones, but also, about managing my work and the expectations of other people. Sure, I sometimes feel overwhelmed about the amount of work that I have to do but learning how to manage those is also a skill that I have to learn.

6. I love the uncertainty of things. Being in a team that develops a product that has yet to prove itself introduces a lot of uncertainty, not only on whether I'll still have a job a year later, but also about whether the product itself will be successful or not. However, with this risk also comes a very big opportunity for me to largely shape the future of our product (and no, I don't mean that in a generic job description kind of way) and of course, the potential to make something really useful that millions of people will possibly use. I want to make a very good product that a lot of people will use and Hookt gives me the opportunity to do just that.

7. I love working with the people in our team. I really feel the genuine interest that they have about the product as well as their desire to make it really good and quite honestly, it is contagious :)

Well, that's that! :) See you tomorrow Hookt office!

"So what are you most passionate about?"

After failing to answer the "passion question" which ultimately led to me not getting the job offer at Microsoft, I wanted to do a little retrospect about the things that I think I am passionate about. As I have said earlier, I consider myself passionate about a lot of things. However, since I never took the time to sit down, arrange my thoughts, and think about the things that I am very passionate about, expressing these verbally to someone would probably just result in that someone not really understanding what I am trying to express. And so I think that organizing and listing these thoughts from my mind will help me not only understand myself more but also, help others understand the things that I am passionate about. I will start by listing down the things that I think I am passionate about.

1. I think I am passionate about technology. In particular, I like following stories about cutting-edge tech gadgets, startups, and rumors about tech companies. Every morning, I use Flipboard to browse and read stories from Mashable, Engadget, TechCrunch, FastCompany, etc.. Going through these helps me stay afloat with the rapid pace in which technology moves. It also helps me learn about the next big things in technology and how they can be used to solve our day to day problems.

2. I think I am passionate about proving to myself that I can do very challenging things. Whether its at work, job interviews, or just for fun, I like to be constantly challenged. I like to work on things that nobody wants to do and do a very good job at it. I especially like it if it's something that I have never done before. Maybe this is just for the sake of self validation or a crave for a praise from somebody but this is something that I am very hungry for at the moment.

3. I like to think that someday, I will make a product that is really awesome and that it will solve a particular problem that a lot of people have - and so I think I am passionate about observing regular and simple problems that people encounter in their everyday lives and going through a mental exercise of how I can use technology to solve them.

4. I have also recently discovered that I think I have this passion and obsession about making customers really happy and satisfied. I have started to go the extra mile in order to validate their needs and make sure that I build what they want. Somebody once told me that quality - in the eyes of the customers - simply mean the presence of what they want to see and the absence of what they don't want to see - and this is now what I always say to myself whenever I build something for the customers.

5. I think I am passionate about keeping myself fit. I love hiking, swimming, biking, and running. During the cold season, I tend to slack off, but I make it up during the spring and the summer season.

6. I think I am passionate about discovering great places to eat good food! I like going out with families and friends and try out good food from different restaurants.

So I think that's that. But wait! Now that I think about it, I have never done a lot of successful things with most of the passions that I have just listed above! I have never developed a successful product that a lot of people will use - nor have I ever published even a simple app to the app store. I have made some customers happy but I am still looking for something to brag about. I have never used any of the cutting-edge technologies that I have been learning from the tech media to better the lives of people. I have never applied life lessons that I have learned from Jeff Bezos, Jeff Weiner, Mark Zuckerberg, or other great CEOs to build a kick-ass company or simply, just build a great product. I have never gained any muscles or even a 6 pack ab from doing all of the physical activities that I have been engaged in although I have most certainly gained a couple of pounds already from eating good food from good restaurants.. I have never.. I have never, I have never!!

I think the thing with passion is that something great must come out of it - otherwise, how can you call it a passion? Wikipedia defines passion as "A term applied to a very strong feeling about a person or thing. Passion is an intense emotion compelling feeling, enthusiasm, or desire for something.". I feel strongly about these things but it is probably not strong enough as nothing great has ever come out of them yet. In fact, maybe I should not call them passions at all - maybe they are just "interests" or "hobbies".. or "Likes" in the context of Facebook.

Well, this exercise has proven to be really good and helpful! Now I think I know what I need to do to truly answer the question.. "So what are you most passionate about?" I need to erase my passion list from my brain, start from scratch, and then when asked what is the thing that I am very passionate about, I would probably just answer "Well, I am still figuring that out.."... and probably, a good starting point for me would be to accept that other job offer from that start-up company..