career

Job Has Evolved into NeoJob!

by

I've talked to people who, one day, realized that their job wasn't what it had been.  They hadn't changed, but the job had.  Requirements changed, software knowledge needs changed, etc.  Suddenly they were doing different things, or worse, were less and less qualified to do what they were doing anyway – and seniority wasn't cutting it.

Jobs change.  They change in the skills needed, in the contacts needed, in the knowledge needed, and the vendors you deal with.  Jobs evolve, grow, mutate – and even die off.

It's way, WAY too easy to assume that a job will be the same forever.  We have names for jobs, good solid nouns and adjectives, that give us a sense of solidity, of permanence.  Jobs are an activity and a process though, they slip out of the simplicity of nouns and adjectives (or end up adding new ones).

I can't emphasize this enough – stay aware of how your job – and your career – are evolving and changing.  Follow trade mags, news, take classes, etc.  Be aware of it, because chances are in this high-speed, erratic, global economy, what you do is going to change even if the title is the same – and what you do in the future will change as well.  Make job review a regular part of your life – perhaps even meet with friends and fellow pros every six months to discuss your careers, compare notes, and seek advice.

With geeky jobs, it's even worse – stuff we progeeks do is often cool, cutting edge, creative, diverse, and evolving.  The tools we use change, the goals change, the vendors change, what we produce changes.  Manga moves in on comics, comics license to movies, movies create special effects unimaginable ten years ago, videogames becomes series of DLC, anime goes online, etc.

The way around this is, as I noted, constant research, awareness, and evaluation.  Band together with your fellow progeeks, it'll make the bumpy – if exciting – ride much easier.  The world is going to change – and so will your job, perhaps even the one you're doing right now.

– Steven Savage

Convention Idea: Career Tracks

by

My original column on how conventions could invite more "career" guests (legal reps, marketers, special effects teams) along with their "name" guests generated a good deal of feedback from various people.  After some though, I've decided to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and flesh out other ideas on how conventions and similar fan/geek events can encourage professional development as well as fun.  There's no real endpoint to the series – and I'm always looking for new ideas.

For this column, I want to focus on another way to make conventions skill-and-career building as well as social and fun – a career track at a convention.  I've seen a few ideas like this implemented from con to con, and wanted to discuss my ideal version of how they could be done.

Read more

Fandom Achievement List

by

So you're looking at your fandom experience, at your hobbies, and asking yourself "OK, what did I learn and what can I do?" so you can think about your career or add to your resume.  It's not always easy – you've done a LOT, but you may keep thinking over the same two or three skills.

There's a trick I've found that works well: an Achievements list first.

Sit down and list all the things you've accomplished in fandom: running a convention department (and list every year you did it), creating a website, editing a fanfic series, doing a group cosplay, etc.  Put those down on paper or type them up in a word processor or spreadsheet – I recommend a spreadsheet (more below)

Now that you've done that – and gone as far back as you can – next to every achievement, list all the skills and abilities you used JUST for that achievement.  Don't worry if you repeat yourself, list them for every achievement, even if you put "sewing" next to every single costume you finished.  If you used a spreadsheet, you can create a separate cell for every skill, keeping them all in one big column.

Now sort through the lists of skills and see which stand out – which keep popping up and which stand out (this is why a spreadsheet helps).  You now have a huge list of what you've done, a rough idea of how often you use a skill, and ideas of skills you may never have thought of.

So if 90% of your fan/geek activities involve writing convention program booklets, you may have a sign of your skills and interests there.  When "photography" pops up more than you expect thanks to your cosplay work, you may have a career option – or some skills to try and use on the job.

Of course, this method also works fine on your career too, geeky or not, but I felt introducing it this way had a bit more impact!  Besides, we usually are more aware of our careers than we are of what we do in our fandom, since we're usually busy having fun in the latter.

– Steven Savage