Advice

The Two Sides Of The Geekonomy

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Those of us working in – or hoping to work in – the Geekonomy are always trying to understand it a bit better.  It's a bit of an obsession of mine, because I feel like there's "something" out there for us progeeks and profans to grasp, but I haven't fully grasped it yet.  I can get some idea of the form of the Geekonomy, but its still fuzzy.

I've said for awhile that the Geekonomy, that place where geekiness, fandom, and industry comes together, is information-driven.  Its computers and video games, anime and novels, and at least a bit self-referential as everything ties into each other.  The fangirl that writes fanfic also uses Facebook and debates publishing on Lulu.com.  The dedicated otaku uses Photoshop to do art, makes web pages, and buys manga at the bookstore.

Of course, this is leading up to a recent insight of mine.  Namely, that the Geekonomy has two sides that are intimately intertwined.

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Pro-Fan Pride: The Joy of Knowing

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What makes you great as a profan/progeek – or a fan/geek/otaku that wants to turn their hobbies into a job?

The fact that you know this.

Seriously.  You, from your love of anime to your disturbingly deep knowledge of sports statistics, have an idea of just what you want to do with your life.  Your fanfic, fanart, web pages, blog posts, reviews, what have you all give you a bloody good idea of just what you should be doing in your career.

Right now you're lucky.  Right now you have direction.  Right now you have something you care passionately, deeply, obsessively about and will push yourself to achieve.  It could be anything from finishing a video game to writing a web page.

But you care and you know what you want to do.

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Job Research: Look for the Best Of

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You have any trouble finding the right resources for your job and career?

If you're the average progeek, there's two situations:

  • You haven't done enough research, and when you do you are overwhelmed with the books, websites, meetups, and other resources and have no idea to start.
  • You have done the research long ago, and you're still painfully aware of just how much stuff there is out there you can use to find a job, research a career, etc.

One of the problems we progeeks face is, being information-oriented one way or another, being plugged in, is that we're swept away by a flood of options when we do career research.  Sure, we're great at surfing the web, mining amazon, and finding local event boards, but we have no idea where to start.

We could go do everything, and read everything, but we just don't have the time.

We could be very selective, but we worry we'll miss something.

We have frankly, no idea where to even start

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