Promoting Professional Geekery

Promoting Professional Geekery #29 – Be Accessible

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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 . . .

  • People need to reach you to call upon your expert knowledge, sublime wisdom, and other things you are, of course, too modest to claim.
  • There are cons, events, chat groups, and  more that you should attend – you need to be accessible to be invited.
  • You need feedback on the things you are doing, both positive and critical.  If people can’t reach you, how can they do it?
  • Those who may want to call upon you may not always know what you do.  You need a way to tell them and show them.

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.

  • First, as I harp on endlessly, get a web page for yourself.  Find the right domain, get up a page simply (Rapidweaver, WordPress, what have you).  This lets you show who you are, get found in search engines, and funnel people towards a media you control entirely.
  • Make sure you have contact information on your page – or better yet an email form that people can fill out so you can avoid spam.  Those are pretty easy, and many simple apps and web packages come with them (or you can go to http://www.wufoo.com/).
  • Have the right social media profiles that fit your needs – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.  Again, find what fits your personal tastes and need for privacy – though as usual I’ll emphasize LinkedIn is wonderful, useful, restores hair growth, and makes kittens smile.
  • Be sure your web page has links to these social media profiles – it helps tie everything together so people can reach you the way they want.  By choosing what to show and how to connect, you, of course, still keep control.
  • In the web page/social media that “advertises your progeekery” be sure to have a section that covers what you do in that vein.  Perhaps you list panels you do, books you’ve written, etc.  Let people know what you do (it also helps filter out people that really don’t need to talk to you).
  • Review your “accessibility plan” regularly to make sure it works for you.

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.

– Steven Savage

Promoting Professional Geekery #28: Help With The Job Search

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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.

– Steven Savage

Promoting Professional Geekery #27: Do A VLog

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Writing, blogging, etc.  All are ways to get out the word for professional geeks – that you can turn geek into a career (or at least geek out your current one).  Of course not everyone responds to the written word.  Some respond to diagrams, others to writing, others to speech, yet others to baked goods.

Since I’m not sure anyone has invited a way to communicate the fan-to-pro message via donuts, let’s see if you can help out your fellows by going beyond the usual blog or web page and go visual.

Try a video Blog, or vLog in the usual condensed internet vernacular.

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