Avatar photoSteven Savage

Keeping It Together in the Job Search

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I know a lot of people on job searches.  I know a lot of people unhappy with their jobs.  I hear from them a lot.  There's a lot of advice I can give but there is one important piece often missed.

In a job search, or when having a lousy job, take care of yourself.

  • Keep yourself sane by taking breaks, going to counseling, talking to friends, etc.
  • Keep yourself healthy because the last thing you need is health issues.
  • Keep yourself on task by improving skills and job search abilities.
  • Keep yourself involved by talking with people, hanging out, working with your church, etc. 

Doign these things is important for several reasons.

First, if you keep it together you can find a job or find a better job.  If you fall apart, you'll only make things worst.

Secondly, if you keep grounded and growing, you'll open up new opportunities to get it right.
Third, it keeps you from draining your resources – financial, social, etc. so you have the resources you need to go on, and succeed.

So, take care of yourself.  The foundation to succeed is your own sanity and health.

– Steven Savage

Geek Jobs in your back yard: Part II

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Bonnie had noted earlier that those of us looking for geeky jobs may want to search our own back yards for them before assuming we have to move (easier for some of us than others, says the guy living in Silicon Valley).  I wanted to add to her excellent post by nothing that there's a tool that makes it even easier.

LinkedIn.com.

Yes, LinkedIn.Com is one of my crush objects, but with good reason – one of many reasons being it's Company search function.  If you want to find jobs and companies in your own backyard, here's what you'll want to try (go on, give it a shot even if you're not looking);

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What Is a Geeky Job?

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So I talk about Geeky jobs and being a professional geek and so forth.  Geek 2.0, Modern Literati, etc.

So what do I mean by this?  In short, what do I consider a geeky job?  Admittedly I never put it into words much, but with the one year anniversary of the blog, I figured I should try.

First of all, to me, Geeks (and Fans, etc.) are people who get worked up over something.  They're passionate and intimately involved in what they do.  Drives and motivations may differ, but they get INTO things.

Secondly, Geeks, Fans, Nerds, etc. get into doing things with what they like.  They're not (always) passive consumers.  They do websites, fanfic, fanart, role-play, fantasy sports, conventions and more.  They are involved.

Third, Geeks are usually about the information – from sports statistics to new recipes to the latest anime.  They thus tend to take to communications technologies quicker for obvious reasons.

So a  Geek is:
* Passionate
* Involved
* Informational

So to me a Geeky job is one that:
* You are passionate about.  There's a visceral element to your involvement.
* You are involved in creating and doing stuff you care about.
* You communicate with others, grow, exchange information about what you do.

A geeky job varies from person to person for obvious reasons – which is the point.  It's what gets you going, involves you, and drives you to communicate.

Granted there are jobs that are likely geekier than others because they involve passion, involvement, and information (say, manga artist or social media programmer).  There are some that are doubtlessly non-geeky for most of the population.  But a lot of it is personal.

Also a job may be very geeky even if its not in a geeky area, or is part of something less than geeky.  Working IT is geeky almost everywhere, even if its in a very dull area – which I can confess to experiencing first hand, when I worked in 'boring' industries, on some wonderfully geeky jobs as a programmer.

Passionate, involved, and informational.  Those are your markets for a Geeky job – and you can look to see what you can do that fulfill those three traits in your career.  If you have that, you have a geeky job.

– Steven Savage