Fan To Pro - The Blog of Professional Geekery

Why Aren't We Geeking The Job Search?

Let's be honest here, my progeek kin (Progeekin?), the job search is a nightmare.  if you have your own business, the search for clients is probably somewhat saner, but I'm not ready to reach that conclusion because I'll probably get a good talking-to from people with their own businesses.

But anyway, it stands, the job search is crazy.  HR is ossified, overstressed, or both.  Recruiters slog through insanity for us, but need our help.  The resume and cover letter are a pain.  Job search sites are sometimes not helpful, and the more they experiment, the worse it gets.  The interview process is . . . well, you get the idea.

OK we know it's awful.  Part of what I post here is how to deal with the job search, along with my usual random complaints and charmingly witty observations.

But I just want to post a question here for us to think of - what are we doing to change this?

Promoting Professional Geekery #23: Start A Pro Section At A Con

The roundup of Promoting Professional Geekery is here.

OK you're speaking at a con about careers.  You might be managing an entire track of career events.  So what more can you do to encourage people attending your convention or conventions to try the route of the professional geek?

Why, by inviting other professionals - but not just to speak.  Give them tables, give them their own area.  Start a Pro Section at your con.

Promoting Professional Geekery #21: Start A Geeky Group At Work

Your work place may be the geekiest thing ever or it may be so straight-laced people fear there's going to be an office comedy made of it.  No matter what, it's a great place to form a geeky group - and a great way to support professional geekery.

Think of all the things you can do at work that bands people together for geeky interests, or just band geeks together.  A gaming group, a group for programming arduinos, an anime viewing group, what have you.  Why not found one - you and all your fellow employees may enjoy it.

It's also a great way to support professional geekery.  Yes it may be fun and relaxing, but it's also a huge professional advantage:

• It lets you meet your fellow geeks at work - which lets you band together to work on your careers as well.
• It makes people at work aware of the geeky contingent there - and shows them in a good light (well, hopefully).
• It gives people away to meet the professional geeks at work and get to know them.  You might find a few unrealized professional geeks there.
• It raises your profile at work by being so involved in bringing people together.
• It shows off your skills and interests, which might open opportunities for you to apply them.
• It helps promote other geeky interests at work - who knows what will emerge next from the fertile mind of your fellow progeeks?

There's really no downside as long as you do it right. 

- Steven Savage

You Could Be Rich And Not Know It

“The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it's twice as big as it needs to be.”
-unknown

You could be rich and not know it!  And I’m not talking about getting an email from a Nigerian prince.  I’m talking geeky street cred, or as it’s known in more formal terms, social capital.*

Social capital is the richness of your network, and it’s the key to fansourcing, learning new things, influencing the world out there, and getting a favourable introduction to someone in a position to help you get your dream job.

Promoting Professional Geekery #20: Help Out Reporters!

Want to help the world appreciate the fan-to-pro ideal, the geeky lifestyle?  Try getting yourself in the news, and in a way that's not overtly embarrassing.

Help out reporters.

Promoting Professional Geekery #19: Flaunt It!

The best way to promote pride and awareness of professional geeks?  Well there's many debates that can be had, and I myself won't side with one way or another in order to encourage people.  But one of the more effective, in my highly biased but doubtlessly right opinion, is to basically "flaunt it."

No I'm not talking about wearing a T-shirt reading "I am a professional geek, bow before me" unless that's your thing and you have a good design.  I'm more talking about the fact that you go out of your way a bit to communicate you do what you love for a living and believe in it.  Not shoving it in people's face, but keeping in mind there are chances to promote the ideal.

Some of them MAY involve the obnoxious t-shirt and the shoving it in people's face, but I'd like to keep those the exceptions.

It's important people see proud, happy, healthy progeeks.  There's too much assumption you can't do what you love for a living.  There's too many negative ideas of basement-dwelling obsessives being the closest thing to professional geeks (not that there's anything wrong with that if it's your thing).  They need to see people who are progeeks.

They need to see you.  You're an example, a role model, a testimony.  Yes, I realize just how disturbing that is, but stick with me here.

Whenever people see functional (or at least functional enough) progeeks, even those who are just realizing their ambitions, they see that important idea manifest: you can do what you love for a living.  You can be that.

Here's how you "flaunt it" without overdoing it.  Unless you consider me to be overdoing it, to which I say "bow before my virtual t-shirt."

• Mention it in your blog, site, posts, whatever.  Be proud of it.  Talk about your experiences.
• Discuss it at cons as I've mentioned ad nauseum.  Show people it is possible.
• Help out people professionally - to find their geeky careers.  They'll realize it's possible.
• Geek out at work and be yourself - appropriately.  People should know you're a geek - just like they know who's a gamer, football enthusiast, foodie, spawn of the Deep Ones (it's the gills).  Be the reminder or example.
• Stop repressing and start expressing.  Learn to catch yourself when you're harshing your own geek buzz when it's not needed.  Learn to let it out so people can see.
• Be yourself.

You are the testimony, the reminder, the example.  Scary thought, but it's up to us to show people dreams are worth living, even if it's in ways you never expected.

- Steven Savage

 

Promoting Professional Geekery #18: Evangelize About A Professional Association

Last week I mentioned that, to promote the idea of professional geekiness, you should let a professional association you belong to know about your fellow fans, subcultures, etc. with an interest in said profession.  OK, so you got your fellows informed about people like, well, yourself, right?

Now it's time to turn it around and let your fellow fans know about your professional association.

Promoting Professional Geekery #17: Evangelize To A Professional Association

If you've read this blog for any length of time, or any of my books, you know I'm big on people joining professional associations.  They're great for networking, for keeping your skills up, and more.  They're de rigeur for any professional.

So I'm going to assume that you're joining one, have joined one, or are so seized with guilt after the above paragraph you're going to join one.

Now, when you are/if you are part of a professional association, you want to make sure they know about things from the geeky side of things.  They might not always know about the people who have a passion for the same subjects they do - but are coming at it from the fan/geek/otaku side.

A Reminder Of Why You Geeks, Nerds, Otaku, and Fanpeople are Important.

Let me note that SOPA is a reminder of why you, the geek, the fan, the otaku, are important.

SOPA was and is  a grand illustration of ignorance, greed, and stupidity.  It would  destroy a great deal of freedom, was a legal and technical nightmare, and contained so much wrong it'd be hard to describe (fortunately others have done this for me).

Of course we geeks knew this.  Tech geeks could see where this was dangerous technically and security wise.  Culture geeks saw how this could destroy sites and communities.  Artistic geeks could see their livelihood curtailed or destroyed.  We knew in short it was REALLY BAD.

An awful lot of geeks rallied to give congress what-for, and are continuing to do so.  They do this because they get how things work - and know what's happening.

Promoting Professional Geekery #16: Pass On The Books!

if you're any kind of professional, you have a lot of books that you read to assist you and improve your lot.  If you're any kind of geek, you have a lot of books in various formats.

So if you want to keep promoting professional geekiness, it's time to start passing the books around.

Of you don't have to give them away permanently (though it might be nice to buy some as gifts, hint, hint).  Just make sure that those amazing, life-altering, career-building books get read by the right people - in short, people like you.  If you don't want to give them away for awhile, then recommend them forcefully.

I'm big on recommending and lending (OK, pushing) books to people, as you can kind of tell here with my reviews.  There's reasons:

• There's a lot of books out there for careers and related subjects, and filtering them is hard.  You can sort through the dross.
• There's also the case of finding the right books out of all the good ones - you know which ones fit your friends and fellow fans.
• If you do lend out books, it's a good way to save friends, family, and fellows money.  In fact you save money just helping them sort through the wastes of money.
• You can find what won't bore or confuse people - which is a big issue in career books.  What excites one person may bore others.
• It helps keep people reading and improving their careers.  Always good.

And best of all?  Once you start doing it, other people start doing it.  They'll help others, they'll pass books on to you.

- Steven Savage

P.S. Don't forget book-lending for eBooks like Amazon, or just posting good reviews for books.  Anything that gets the word out!