Avengers Endgame: how trivial passions can nudge a career

The Internets reminded me that today was exactly 2 years since Avenger's Endgame was released. I remember that day vividly for a few reasons

1. woke up before sunrise (way before the alarm went off).  
2. I wore this (now that I think about it) borderline appropriate T-shirt and then.. 
3. .. showed up before 7:00am to watch that movie at Century Shoreline before going to work. 

This is still the only movie that has a scene that can make me tear up consistently every single time (I know, I know - it's ridiculous). 

That day was interesting from a work perspective for another reason. Along with a few other people at work (and with some crazy last-minute negotiating), we'd pulled together the Thanos Easter Egg on Search. It was typical of a lot of Easter Eggs on Search at the time, in that it wasn't really anybody's job, but we pushed it through because we loved the idea enough to do it. My day job on Media experience on Search helped me justify it a little bit I guess. :-) 

We expected it to do like some of the Easter Eggs we'd put in before, but this went crazy viral. Like more Search traffic than the actual movie viral - it also ended up being one of the most positive press stories for Search that year.

It also planted the seed for me to take a job later that year leading Delight for Search that involved creating many, many, many more Easter Eggs as well working with the Doodles team.

The experience stretched me in many ways - creatively, taught me to work with even more diverse functions (brand marketing, artists, creatives etc.) and think about things I just hadn't before.

And as I look back, it was mostly because of a movie I was really, really excited to see and a reaction I had in a brainstorming session that was "Omg, we have to do this!"

I often coach people on my team to think about what they want to learn or to be, and plan their career moves accordingly, but sometimes, just sometimes, it can pay to just follow your passions and instincts at work. Who knows - it might shape your career?