(For more Promoting Professional Geekery, see this Roundup of past columns.)
Geek events are great for careers – they let you attend career events, network, etc. You know I’m a big backer of going progeek at conventions and more. I kind of write about it obsessively.
But there’s also a way to help people who do the events to make it pay off for their career no matter what they do.
That may sound odd – after all running a Hetalia game contest or a panel on the history of Star Trek may not sound that professional. But it’s really all in perspective – you can help people see the professional potential in what they do.
See, running a con, running a fannish event, running a club, takes a lot of skills and abilities. A lot of events are like businesses, or seminars, or other supposedly “professional” things. The experiences of doing them could be valuable to careers – as long as people know how to leverage them and portray them to clients and employers.
That’s where you come in with this professionally geeky potential – helping people see the opportunities.
See you, the progeek, can look at these events and help people realize how to use them. It just takes a little perspective, training your eye to see the opportunities out there. For instance:
- If people work together at a well-run con, they should act as references for each other. It’s literally like working together.
- People who do specific geeky events should put their skills on their resumes (and note their hobbies in more details).
- Geeks who publish various progeeky/geeky things should put them on their resumes, LinkedIn profiles, use samples, etc.
You can probably think of many more opportunities right now just looking at that list. For that matter, you can probably think of a few friends who should be sprucing up their resumes right about now.
This is because you have the experience to see the professional, and thus progeeky potential in people. So start taking that unique viewpoint into fannish groups, cons, gaming teams, and more. Start looking for the professional potential – and helping people realize it.
It’s all around you. Trust me, I know . . .
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/