Promoting Professional Geekery #21: Start A Geeky Group At Work

Your work place may be the geekiest thing ever or it may be so straight-laced people fear there's going to be an office comedy made of it.  No matter what, it's a great place to form a geeky group – and a great way to support professional geekery.

Think of all the things you can do at work that bands people together for geeky interests, or just band geeks together.  A gaming group, a group for programming arduinos, an anime viewing group, what have you.  Why not found one – you and all your fellow employees may enjoy it.

It's also a great way to support professional geekery.  Yes it may be fun and relaxing, but it's also a huge professional advantage:

  • It lets you meet your fellow geeks at work – which lets you band together to work on your careers as well.
  • It makes people at work aware of the geeky contingent there – and shows them in a good light (well, hopefully).
  • It gives people away to meet the professional geeks at work and get to know them.  You might find a few unrealized professional geeks there.
  • It raises your profile at work by being so involved in bringing people together.
  • It shows off your skills and interests, which might open opportunities for you to apply them.
  • It helps promote other geeky interests at work – who knows what will emerge next from the fertile mind of your fellow progeeks?

There's really no downside as long as you do it right. 

Steven Savage