The Professional Advantage of fun – relating

Earlier I'd praised the importance of fun, even dumb fun.  But I'd like to go one bit further for us progeeks – fun has not just an inspirational or recreational advantage, or an intense skill/life building source – it can be useful on the job directly because it helps you relate to people.

I work in IT, and have since 1995.  I am old-school, hardcore IT geek turned manager.  My hobbies have proven invaluable on the job.

We all need to be able to relate to people, and I dealt with a lot of geeks – still do in fact.  Having similar hobbies proved invaluable.  In short, the fact I can recognize Halo action figures and characters from Naruto is a great way to build rapport.

Geekery is a great way to get to know people.

  • It shows that you have similar interests.  It bridges gaps between people.
  • It shows you're like other people – they can relate to you.
  • It shows you have a life outside of work (which may sound odd in geeky jobs, but there you go).
  • It gives you a way to socialize with people outside of work, and build deep relations with them.
  • It gives you a way to recreate with people you work with, to blow off stream, and relax.

So yes, that fun you have has other uses besides the skill-building or recreation and such I talk about.  It lets you relate to people and helps you connect with them, and that's important no matter what your job is – and important as a person.

– Steven Savage

EDIT: I made a mistake and put down my IT career as starting in 2005.  It actually started in 1995.

Job Has Evolved into NeoJob!

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

News of the Day 7/16/2009

Big news yesterday was Twitter's breach of company security. Note this is not the service itself – it's the fact that internal apps (namely, Google-hosted) were opened with a hacked password. Here's some perspective. Note that the hacker is sending around documents they acquired since May, so there may be much more news about this.

Career:
Get out of your comfort zone! – A look at fear and networking.

MUST READ: Recsssion proof your career. Good advice on good attitude.

A nice map on job-postings per population – Also part of indeed.com, a good search aggregator.

Economics/Freakonomics/Geekonomics:
Simply, companies have too much debt – A quick look at the situation and some hint at what's going on. Namely? We're going to see more Chapter 11, less credit, and we'll be seeing this for years to come. As I've harped on several times (and will in the upcoming podcast), I think we're due at least another mini-recession in 3-5 years unless there's a lot of change.

Mobile:
Seven startups looking to do some important things in the mobile space – A bit of job-worthy research for you.

Publishing:
Financial Times editor predicts most news organizations will be charging online within a year. Interesting article, worth some thought since it's from a big name in publishing, and seems to be on a growing trend. Career/economic thought: how much of this is a game of chicken, where publishers want to charge, but want to see what others do, and aren't sure if they should be the first to do it (and thus maybe take a hit), or the last (and thus look like they "have" to go along – yet also may be late to the game).

Social Media:
How universities are using social media – May give you some ideas for your business/career/institution. As social media has been adopted more by the youthful, this may also twig us onto upcoming larger trends of what the population will expect.

Technology:
Zoho doesn't seem to worried about Microsoft's Web Office – A feisty blog post. I get the impression Zoho plans to hold on, provide alternatives, and let their opponents hurt themselves, all while carving out a nice niche.

Microsoft plans to have motion-capture system Natal work with Windows – Granted it's also for meetings and virtual communications, but I've got the feeling this is jumping the gun on an unreleased technology. Plus I sense a potential Microsoft 'Bob' moment of some very bad and stupid things being done with this that turn people off. On the other hand, there will be some room (at least initially) for Natal developers.

Video:
More on the Hulu-blocking PS3 browser issue – Sounds like it was a provider issue, but this points out how murky a lot of relations are in the online video area. You haven't seen the end of these issues.

– Steven Savage