Writer, Agilist, Elder Geek
And our question this week is one that a lot of people ask:
How do you make the jump between “mall/retail/survival job” and “real job,” considering the chicken-egg situation happening with jobs and experience?
This is a question everyone has asked for decades, and is probably going to keep asking for a long time to come. How do you leap from your lousy job to a real job – and how you get the experience you need.
If you want to promote the professional geek ideal, there’s one thing you have to do.
I’m not talking running cons, doing events, writing books, and so forth. Those are all fine and you should do them (if not all of them). One thing you need to do if, like the motley crew here, you want to help people be professional geeks, is to be accessible.
Being accessible is indespensibe if you want to help people in their geeky career endeavors. It’s not something we think of very often because it’s a “being” as opposed to an “action.” It’s being someone people can reach and find out about is very important because . . .
So, you, my fellow progeek, need to be someone people can reach. Perhaps not overly so, you may value your privacy, but people need to be able to know about you and contact you. Take control of it – and make it work the way you want.
If you want to change the world (you know in a positive way), in a way to help people find their interests and live their hobbies (you know, in a geeky way), make sure people can reach you.
Just make sure it’s in the way that is something that fits your needs.
Quickly, who reading this is good at the job search? You know resumes, cover letters, networking? OK, at least decent? How about “my job search abilities aren’t as bad as most people I know?”
OK if you fit into any one of these three categories, you’ve got a way to do what we do here – promote the Professional Geek ideal. In fact, you’ve got a way that’s very valuable, but you may not see it.
A good job search is a skillet. In fact, it’s a very unique skillet because a lot of people don’t have it.
Ever met people who are good at what they do, but don’t have a job? Ever met someone who is good at getting work but just never seemed that qualified? That’s your proof right there that the job search is it’s own, unique skillet.
If you’ve got the job search skills, in fact if you’re just about average, you can help out your fellow geeks by helping them get better at the job search. Teach them how to do better resumes, to interview, to do cover letters, etc. Even if you’re only good at one part of the job search, share the knowledge you do have.
There’s also many ways to do it. You can write up a blog post, do a video, speak at a con, act as a personal counsellor, etc. Done right, your job search skills can be immortalized for many others – in fact I keep technique write-ups I send to people.
This helps promote professional geekery in one of the most important ways – helping people actually do what they like for a living by teaching them how to find work. It makes the dream real.
So often the ability to find a job is the only real difference between people making their dreams cone true and not. It’s a sadly neglected, ill-taught skillet overall, made worse by changing times. You, those who are good enough to enlighten others, can teach the skills that help dreams come true.
So, take an honest assessment of your job search abilities, and see if you should start being an advisor, reach out to friends, do panels, etc. You can make a huge difference to current and future progeeks, and make their dreams a reality.
That will light the way for others.