My Qualtrics Experience – Braden Sharp – Data Scientist, Sales Ops – Provo, UT

What did you choose as your Qualtrics experience?

If I’m being honest, the Qualtrics experience stresses me out. As a single, meaningfully-employed 24-year-old who doesn’t like to travel alone, finding a once-in-a-lifetime experience on a yearly basis is overwhelming.

This year, however, the planets aligned in my favor. Between the introduction of user-friendly electronic billboard services, a bold move on the part of a millionaire bachelor-turned-advertiser, and a limitless supply of hype from my friends and coworkers, I found myself in a social goldilocks zone for checking off item number one on my bucket list—be on a billboard.

On June 3, headed southbound on I-15 near University Parkway, I checked that box. There, on a 48’ by 12’ sign, I saw my face with the simple caption: “If the millionaire doesn’t work out, here’s your chance to settle for much, much less.” Then, in bold letters, the link to Date-Braden.com.

The website describes all my best qualities (e.g., my ability to change guitar strings, my handwriting), the reasons women with low-to-average standards ought to be throwing themselves at me, a few of my deepest flaws, and as little personally identifiable information as possible. In other words, all the necessities for successful online dating in one convenient place.

Then, I waited. With website analytics prepared and a one-month free trial of LifeLock (just in case) ready, I let my message spread. Progress was certainly slow for the first week or so, but through a handful of news articles, a semi-viral tweet (@callmemartini, I owe you), and the good old reliability of traditional advertising, I found myself with hundreds of responses and thousands of hits on my website from all around the world.

One of our objectives at Qualtrics is to encourage employees to Learn, Lead, and Live. What did you learn through this experience?

This billboard experience has left me with two main takeaways. First, ideas are worth pursuing, even if they seem crazy. This billboard has connected me with people I never would have met otherwise, and incidentally has led to another bucket list fulfillment—being interviewed for the news. I’m not saying I’ve accomplished anything significant through this because I haven’t, but jumping at the opportunity despite my plethora of reservations has led to an experience I didn’t think was possible.

More importantly, I’ve learned that we’re surrounded by good people. The only thing that has surprised me more than the attention this endeavor has received is the overall positivity of that attention. A huge number of the responses I’ve received have come from people who have no interest in dating me but had a good laugh at my website and wanted to let me know. Admittedly, this started as a selfish attempt to win the attention of a very specific demographic, but I’ve had a surprising number of positive interactions with total strangers. So, even if the billboard doesn’t catalyze my romantic pursuits (Which I never thought would happen, but there’s potential. I'll keep you posted), I’m so glad I could connect with people I might never have met without it.

This is just one more example of why you might want to check out our open opportunities at Qualtrics and see if you are a fit!

Read more #QualtricsExperience stories on our #QualtricsLife blog.