job search

How A Helpful Letter Produced A Firestorm

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OK, clearly I missed the whole Shea Gunther drama, so let me recap.

  • Monday, Mr. Gunther sends out an email to people who applied to a job for a cleantech news site, listing criticisms and giving advice on the job search process. It hit the newsat the Guardian.
  • This hit the Gakwer network, who posted it in a rather negative context.
  • This produced what we technically call a “shitstorm” and Mr. Gunther ended up with a predictable amount of trolls and insults – as well as people praising him. Though the usual dogpile of would-be internet tough guys/gals is odd to see as this is about job search advice, and I don’t get why it’d get people that riled up.  Mr. Gunther summarizes the experience here.
  • You can read his entire list of advice in this Scribd document.

I’ve read it Know what? It’s good advice. In fact, I advise that anyone read it, as his tips are accurate, if skewed towards the writing positions in question. Mr. Gunther lists a whole lot of trends that are troublesome, gives advice, and makes good points about what people do wrong.

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Ask A Progeek – The Job/Experience Issue

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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.

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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