Avatar photoSteven Savage

Skill Portability Roundup

by

(9/17/2016 – These posts have been expanded in a book, Skill Portability: A Guide To Moving Skills Between Jobs)

Looking at those huge amounts of skills you’ve gained over the years and wonder how they apply to a new job or a new career?  Here’s a quick and handy guide for you!

Exploring Skill Portability – Why you want to do it, and the DARE system.

Direct Skills – Those directly applicable.

Advantageous Skills – Those that give you advantages.

Representative Skills – Those that tell a story.

Enhancing Skills – Those that enhance other skills.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached

 

 

Grow Up, Don’t Grow Old

by

I’m a 40-something year old “Professional Geek.”  “Geek 2.0” I call myself, and rather shamelessly at that.  I’m a geek professionally, a geek for money.

I also to not intend to “get old.”  I’d also recommend you, my professional geeks, do not either.

Oh, I intend to mature.  Maturity is how I turned my interests into a career.  Maturity is how I realized this blog is needed.  Maturity is why I value each contributor here.  Maturity is like a good wine or cheese, it’s where things age into a delightful form.

So please, by all means you pro geeks, mature.  Mature and grow.

Just don’t get old.

When you get old you become worn out.  When you get old you become stagnant as opposed to mature.  When you get old you become out of date.  When you get old your age becomes the first and perhaps only thing to matter.

So by all means grow.  Mature.  Grow up.  Just stop before you get old.  Keep enough of the useful enthusiasm that got you here to stay energized.  Keep enough of the energy that drove you so you keep developing, and keep maturing.

As you tell people about your fannish, geeky, and otaku ambitions, they’ll tell you to grow up.  What they really mean is to give up and get old, stagnant, and boring.  What they mean is being like an ideal norm that isn’t normal because it’s all statistical averages and doesn’t exist.  It means pre-aging yourself into ossification.

So don’t grow up and get old.  Mature enough until you’re ideal for what you want, and go on being the person you are, the professional you are.

In fact, shout this to the heavens, because if you’re the best you, the mature you, then you’ll have one hell of a career edge over people who gave up, “grew up,” and grew old no matter what their age.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Why Sharing Career Lessions Needs Translation

by

Recently I got laid off.  I could probably add “again,” but I’m living in Silicon Valley, where “laid off” is sort of the minor flu of careers.  We all catch it occasionally and it’s not that remarkable.

So beyond my job search, I’ve also been working on learning lessons to use into my suddenly-delayed book on job search.  I appreciate the irony, and wanted to make sure I not only applied what I learned to my search (which is working) but captured new lessons.

I’m used to doing this; sharing my experiences with others.  In fact, I encourage other people to share their own career experiences.  But I came to realize as I discussed my delayed project and lessons with people, I’ve missed a crucial fact: translation.

Read more