Learning on the job is divine!

Generally, conventional wisdom tells us that the fine art of job interviewing means that you maximize your strengths, and minimize (or even trivialize) your weaknesses.  When I interviewed for my current job, my "weakness" was simply that the position was in an industry I have never worked in before -- financial services.  So I was honest with the Chief Operating Officer and VP who interviewed me, so they were clear that although I'm a marketing expert, my only experience with their field was as a consumer (after all, I've had mortgages, credit cards, car loans, and checking and savings accounts!).  Turned out that my commitment to do whatever it took to learn the ropes of my new industry sufficed.  And I'm having a BLAST learning the field.

It reminded me of my first few weeks working as a product manager for a technology company.  I'd sit in these large team meetings, and keep a running list of all the mysterious acronyms and techie terminology -- then every Friday, I'd invite a couple of engineers out to a bar -- I'd buy the pitchers of beer, and they'd explain the difference between TCP/IP and C++, HTML and codecs.  Willingness to learn, and commitment to doing whatever it takes is what makes life exciting.