follow-up on passion

welcome to introspection ft. harsehaj! ⭐️ i’m harsehaj, a 19 y/o always up to something in social good x tech.

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onto today’s topic: follow-up on passion ⚡️ 

as we know, actions speak louder than words.

i’m fairly certain that many of the amazing opportunities i’ve been blessed with are largely credited to my willingness to speak passionately about topics i care deeply about, and then acting on that passion.

this might be an unpopular take, but i believe demonstrating enthusiasm and excitement in professional conversations is an asset, especially while you’re young. otherwise, unfortunately as you grow older, you’ll realize that others will start interpreting your excitement as a ruse. 😞 

that’s exactly why it’s important to also follow-up on your passion. don’t allow it to remain as a powerful verbal discussion or great interview. let your true colours shine through — real enthusiasm paired with actions to back it often go a longer way than any formal qualifications.

let me contextualize this with an example. i very recently accepted an offer to join an ed-tech startup as an ai mentor and believe 2 things sealed my offer:

1) the interview-turned-conversation i had with the company’s founder was charged with so much passion for bridging accessibility gaps in education. 🎒 i was able to pull from personal experiences and speak ardently about some of the work i’ve done in the space. it was no longer question-answer interview, but a discussion between two people that care deeply about the same problem.

2) after the interview, i was asked to send the founder a few ideas to boost student engagement over email by following week. i was still buzzing with energy after that chat, and immediately designed up a slide deck with 4 different ideas accompanied by graphics and reasoning for each point. i had it ready and sent to her by that same evening. 🤓 

passion speaks volumes, but don’t just speak it. showing my agency and interest in thinking through strategy further proved how much i cared about the opportunity, eventually landing me the offer. (:

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