Vocabulary and Professional Geekery

Vocabulary And Professional Geekery

Ah, the age of Geek Chic.  People are talking wireless and LOLCats, all our base does belong to someone, everything is 20% cooler, and bandwidth is something we all complain about.  Our language is hip, people, and we're cutting-edge.

When we go on the job search, we're even armed with the culture, memeage, and vocabulary to impress people with our geeky cred.  We're ready to go and impress clients and employers with the right phrases and references.

The only problem is that, even in an age of Geek Chic, you have to check your vocabulary:

  1. Your audience might be behind the curve, and what would impress some may just confuse or annoy them.  You might have to back your geek vocab back a few years in interviews – or drop it or translate it.
  2. Your interviewers or clients may be hip and up to date – in a different area of knowledge.  You might find that you're both up to date- and living in different worlds.
  3. Your interviewer may actually be ahead of the game.  Think you're up to date?  Think again.

It's easy to think people think like us or use the same language and culture references.  It's easy to miss the many ways we can be wrong about this; or we only see one or two ways we can be in error.

So if you're going to leverage your Geek Chic – and you're going to, I'm sure, consciously or not – ask yourself about your audience and think ahead.  You'll communicate better and avoid embarrassment – and leverage what makes you special: being a fan, geek, otaku, an enthusiast.

- Steven Savage

  • http://profile.typepad.com/tamara126 Tamara Hecht

    I find it’s best to just speak regular English and then wait for the other person to use memes or slang. Let them set the level of geekiness, then match it.

  • http://www.megamistudios.com Rob

    I’m going to agree with Tamara; furthermore, if you’re going for a job with the government, you need to familiarize yourself with “Plain Language” standards, which generally tend to be as non-geeky as possible.

  • http://profile.typepad.com/genjipress Serdar (Genji Press)

    Best place to start is the same English most everyone speaks. If it’s not something you could put on the front page of the NY Times without headscratching or consternation, it’s probably not where you want to begin the conversation.

  • http://www.stevensavage.com/ Steven Savage

    If you want real weirdness, try here in Silicon Valley, where startups are next to ancient companies and you never know if the person you’re talking to is hip and happening or totally clueless (or from another cultural strata) until you take time to suss it out.
    It’s a big advantage to have the right vocabulary – learning to use it is quite another.
    Oh, and recruiters? Probably don’t speak the same language as you OR a potential employer.

  • Scott D

    Everyone’s speaking English and no one understands the other. A really good reason to stamp out jargon where possible. It’s one thing for engineers to use technical language with other engineers. It’s another when engineering and marketing or the general population interface. The person who can take the complex and explain it in simple terms without losing the depths of the complexity should be around for any cross-department meeting to avoid confusion.

  • http://www.stevensavage.com/ Steven Savage

    Unfortunately we’re going to have jargon issues because that’s the nature of the beast. It’s the people who can cross boundaries as you note that’s important.

  • Scott D

    I know. Jargon takes an very complex set of ideas and and boils it down to a word or phrase. When two techs or two doctors or two lawyers or two other professionals in the same field talk, the jargon facilitates ease and speed of communication, and there’s nothing wrong there. It’s the cross-field communications, and simpler can be better as long as depth isn’t sacrificed.
    (I swear, there’s a paper in there somewhere…)