career

It’s About Information

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99% of fandom, geekery, otakudom, etc. is information.

One secret of building a geeky career is realizing that most of what we love – and thus what we want to do – relates to information.  Games on video and video games, fiction in text or animation, movies or films.  It's all encoded, processed, delivered, and shot into our brains.

So if you're looking for a geeky job, there's a good chance it's entirely or partially about  the creation, delivery, and access of information-heavy resources.  A video game on DLC is no different in this way than the latest song downloaded from a band.

I realized that there are three sides of information delivery: The Information itself, the Creation (and alteration) of information,  and the Transmission of information.  In examining the career to turn your fandom into payday, ask yourself which of the three (or all?) are you on?

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Convention Idea – The career table

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A roundup of other convention ideas is here.

You've gone to many a fannish convention, event, etc.  There's ALWAYS tables of stuff there, from flyers for other conventions, advertisements for service,s and even giveaway/white elephant tables.

So if you're working with a convention why not suggest a career table?

Have a table just for people to put out flyers for colleges, temp agencies, coaches, online training, networking groups, etc.  People are going to look for interesting flyers and opportunities anyway – set up a clearly designated table just for career things.  Tie it into your other career events if you want.

This of course may or may not work depending on the size of your convention, interest, and space.  But properly promoted and maintained, I see it as a viable idea to try – doing it for a few conventions may let it take it off.

– Steven Savage

Convention Idea – Engage your technology

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The roundup of ideas for providing more career/professional elements at conventions is here.

Most of my "convention suggestions" for professional events have focused on, well, the actual conventions themselves.  So as I brainstorm other ideas, something else has come to mind.

Making job and professional elements part of the convention website and forums.  People are going to be going to the website for information and to network on the convention – so add a professional subsectrion if it fits.

Some ideas:
* Add a career section to your forums.  People can discuss jobs, what they'd like to see, etc.  Have people who regularly speak at the con on careers (or organize those events) moderate it.
* Consider a "going pro" section of the website to have pro-attendees network, see events, etc.
* See what kind of job-oriented newsfeeds, job feeds, etc. may be available for the "pro" part of the site or forums.
* Form a mailing list for career-oriented convention information.

There's plenty of other possibilities I doubtlessly haven't come up with.  But if you're going to add serious pro elements to your convention, why not go further with the website?  It'll keep interest, attention, and help promote your ambitious ideas so people get involved.

– Steven Savage