You go to cons and there is a cosplay competition.
Online there's art competitions.
Wargaming conventions have endless battles.
Fandom, for all its friendly nature, likes a good bit of competition. it's fun, it's challenging, it's exciting, it gets people going.
So I've been speculating – could this friendly competition be used towards the cause of progeekery? Could we channel friendly fannish compettion to help people in their careers?
A few thoughts of how this could be done:
Who Gets Employed: Imagine a fannish community having a message board or web page for people trying to get jobs. Divide it up by profession, and as people start looking, they post their progress. Announce "winners" each month in who got a job – then ask them to share their secrets.
Judge The Components: Have competitions for best portfolio, best resume, best professional site. This'd be good in trade-oriented communities like artists and writers.
Interview-Off: Have a part of a fan community that posts interviews with pros who fit the community's career interests. See who can get the most interviews a month or a quarter and share the intellectual wealth as it were.
Get Me To The Geek: Have working fans "adopt" a job-seeking fan in a competition to see whose "apprentice" can find a job first.
These are just a few ideas, I'm sure you can come up with more.
So, let's hear yours . . . how can we use fannish competition to fuel progeekery?