Kilian Valkhof

Building tools that make developers awesome.

Creating your own chances

Life, 1 September 2008, 2 minute read

I spent the summer in Barcelona. It has been the most social time of my life, I think. As I write this, it’s a little past midnight and I’ve been in my room, alone, for the entire evening. Ah, contrast.

I would’ve never gotten a job offer in Barcelona if I didn’t open myself up to it, didn’t show passion for working abroad by contacting different people and making ways for them to contact me.

Sure, I didn’t get that internship abroad that I would’ve liked, but a week after that I was working, working in Spain and living 50m from the beach. And now I have two fantastic job offers ready back here in the Netherlands. If I can, so can you.

Passion

Most of you have a passion for working with the web. It doesn’t always come trough in clinic blog posts about technique this or that, or in talking about petty details with your client. Show it more. Get angry at your boss if he doesn’t give you the time you need. Excite your colleagues with a great new technique. Say no to a client that is being unreasonable, write this blog article. Be honest, show Passion.

Show the passion you have for what you do, when you can. Don’t take “Oh! I’ve got this problem with my email…” for an answer.

Get angry, get exited. It’s scary, it makes you vulnerable and it might even work out adversely but that’s fine, don’t care about people that can’t handle someone with passion for what they do. Remember:

By showing passion, you create your own chances.

Polypane browser for responsive web development and design Hi, I'm Kilian. I make Polypane, the browser for responsive web development and design. If you're reading this site, that's probably interesting to you. Try it out!