Pursue What You Enjoy

As strange as it sounds, the best training for my own job as manager of the Center for Creative Leadership's on-line assessment instruments came through my interest in woodworking. It started several years ago when I had saved enough money to buy a heavy-duty table saw. Before I spent what was for me big bucks, I wanted to find testimonials from real woodworkers. I was tired of the marketing hype on the manufacturers' Web sites and of the lone view of a single product tester in a trade magazine. What I found were hundreds of woodworking Web sites filled with direct, honest feedback from users, and I tapped into it like crazy.

Then a funny thing happened. I started noticing that some of the sites were much better than others. Some were more readable, easier to navigate, and faster. From following my hobby, I have learned many useful Internet skills, including how a threaded discussion works, how to upload photographs and drawings, and how to write a bit of HTML. All of this knowledge transfers indirectly into my job of making on-line assessments at CCL better products.