Have you ever applied for a job that’s asked you to show awesome work you’ve created or done?
At the backend of Summer 2021 I applied for a role at a world class conversion company and the first step was to share something awesome. The awesome thing I picked was a recent SEO project that I’m quite proud of.
I was rejected.
You see, I wasn’t sure what to include as my awesome thing. It’s hard to objectively analyse your projects and decide what’s awesome – at least it is for me. Am I the only one?
If I had the chance to do the application again then I would share a different project. I’ll share my new awesome thing in a moment.
But with a bit of time to reflect I’ve come to realise a few things about why the SEO project wasn’t a good choice.
The project wasn’t awesome.
Fundamentally that’s the issue.
Sure, it’s very successful and continues to create thousands of visits to the site, including downloads. But, any SEO who knows what they’re doing could have created a similar project. It’s a solid piece of work. Yet it doesn’t stand out as something awesome on a global stage.
The reason I’m so proud of that project is because of the energy invested in building the business case so the project got approval. Jumping through a lot of internal hoops and driving the project forward.
There’s quite a bit of emotion tied up in that. Subjectively the project is awesome, objectively, I don’t think so.
So here is the awesome work I would share
This is the project I would share in future when asked about an awesome thing I’ve done or created.
It’s Vancano’s Map Generator for Photoshop and it can create maps that look like this:
The first version was created about 8 years ago (sometime around 2013). I revisited the tool recently and added a new style to it and a few icons.
For a long time I didn’t think it was that awesome. It was fairly easy to create and based on the art for my own maps – which I consider to be average standard.
However, I’ve not used the generator in a few years, and turning to it with fresh eyes I’ve got a different view.
- It’s a solid add-on that generates consistent results. So it speeds up the process of creating a map for an imaginary world.
- Very few writers learn Photoshop and create their own tools. Even less so when I first created the map generator.
Would my Photoshop add-on have been enough to get me to the next round of that job application?
I don’t know. Maybe. Though maybe not. At this point it doesn’t really matter, next time I’m asked for something awesome I know exactly what to say, and won’t be shy about it.
Here’s a snippet of what Vancano’s Map Generator can do:
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