Writer, Agilist, Elder Geek
So you’ve got all these skills and abilities and geektastic inclinations. You want to use them on the job search, and so you put them on a resume or talk about them. Let me suggest you take it a bit further.
I suggest you make your job search a way of leveraging your progeek skills and interests. In fact I suggest you try basing some of it on what you do anyway.
I would like to very strongly recommend you give a look at Make Magazine (http://makezine.com/).
I have a friend who’s into Maker culture. He also is the reason I now lust for a 3D printer, and he got me to go to Maker Faire (http://makerfaire.com/). One of my interests now is to examine the connections and possible connections between geek and maker culture.
In that spirit, trust me, go buy a copy of this and take a look at it and see if it’s you.
Essentially it’s a collection of projects, reviews, and interesting stories by Makers doing what they do – making, repairing, and molding stuff at home. It’s science, imagination, engineering, cooking, and double-reverse Mythbusters fused together in what is essentially a publication of applied home mad science. Decorative LEDs, books on fermentation, furniture from PVC, it’s all there.
Why you should check it out?
Now my “make” is books and cooking, not Quadracopters or coffee makers that turn on via the internet. But it’s still valuable for me (and exposes me to a lot of fascinating tech). Give it a shot.
And, yes, I plan to explore Geek/Maker/Career intersections more. You’ve been warned.
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/
(For more Promoting Professional Geekery, see this Roundup of past columns.)
“But wait,” you say, “Steve you constantly talk about having a recruiter list. How can this be new to this series?”
And I can respond “Shut up, that’s why.” But in reality because there are specific recruiting list issues you want to follow if you’re specializing your focus on promoting particular career goals. Goals like, say, using your geekiness on the job.
So for those of you who haven’t heard me go on (or like to hear me go on) I always encourage people to keep a list of recruiters to hand out to people on a job search. You can of course flesh it out in your own job searches, and have a handy list to give out fast.
This is great for promoting professional geekery.
There’s the obvious solution, of course: you can help people out fast on the job search. But there’s another reason as well.
You get to know these recruiters, know who works, and know how they interact with people like you. You can make sure they’re right for the present and future progeeks you know – you can even keep sub-lists or let people know what recruiters truly fit “them.”
It may take a little extra effort to tweak – especially depending on your own career and experiences. But it’s a good way to help people out.
Also you can encourage others to do this and start sharing lists. Maybe your artist friend has an art list, your friend in gaming has a gaming list . . .
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/