More than just a hobby

In my whole life, I have developed interest in different things, at different stages of my life. When I was at uni, I liked tutoring children and was doing a degree in Computer Science - that's how I started in eLearning, a combination of educating people and computers. At this point in my life, I like eLearning and ceramics. They are a bit too different to combine, but I am thinking of ways to do that.

When I was looking for a job, I listed ceramics as part of my Other Interests section... along with travelling, reading horror books, 3D animation and cooking. One of the job applications I did called back and the person must have Googled my name because he asked me about my ceramics work. (If you Google my full name, you'll get this website as the first result.) I was fortunate enough to get called in for an interview and was really keen on the position as it was eLearning plus multimedia.

At the interview, the word ceramics kept coming up. I mentioned that ceramics is one of my passions and throughout the interview I tried to convince them that eLearning is also one of my passions. I felt that it was important for me to assure them my passion in ceramics will NOT hinder or disturb my work performance in eLearning. Short of telling them I have split personality - Irine the eLearning person vs Irine the ceramicist - I felt I failed miserably. As I was leaving the interview, one of the interviewer wished me luck with my ceramics exhibition.

I had mixed feelings. Was I being penalised for having a serious interest in something else other than my professional work? I didn't get that job, and the reason why was because the person who got the job showed a more decisive interest and enthuasiasm in the career path.

Any thoughts?