Advice

Promoting Professional Geekery #39: Help Out Parents

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(For more Promoting Professional Geekery, see this Roundup of past columns.)

If you’re the parent of a future progeek, or a progeek with kids, you know the kind of concerns you have. That concern for your child’s future, that concern about how to shape their lives, or the concern you have no idea what the hell your kids are talking about.

It’s hard enough being a parent in changing times, but support for progeeky parents and parents of progeeks isn’t exactly forthcoming. Trust me, I’ve seen it.

So if you want to help out professional geeks – help out the parents of the next generation guide their children or at least understand what’s going on.

What you can do depends on your skills, knowledge, and what you’re willing to provide:

  • If you’re culturally knowledgeable, you can explain things to parents – the significance of anime, terms, etc.
  • If you’re in a profession or know about one, you can explain it to parents and give them an idea of their offspring’s future.
  • If you’ve got a good understanding about the economy, employment trends, etc. you can impart wisdom to concerned parents, allay their fears, or reinforce them (which, sometimes, you have to do).

Want to find the best way to help – ask what you can provide the parents don’t have (or know they have). Then provide it. Even comforting words make a difference.

The next question is how you provide it. That also depends on your inclinations – and what you’re able to provide:

  • Conventions are excellent opportunities to reach parents who are in attendance, or in attendance with their children.
  • Blogs and sites are useful to reach parents. Just remember you want to do stuff that’ll help you reach people. Consider anything you post you a personal/geek blog could be something to do at a parenting site.
  • One-on-ones. If you know geek parents/parents of geeks you can help out personally.

When helping out parents, you have to also gauge your level of commitment. How much can you say and how long will it take to say it? You could find yourself involved in a deep project . . .

. . . which may be what you wanted. Parenting is certainly a deep project as it is.

– Steven Savage

Ask A Progeek: Name-Dropping

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Been awhile since I’ve published one of these?  Well, we do have a new question for our progeeks: How Do You Name-Drop?

We all wonder – should we mention someone we know in our cover letters?  Should we, in short, shout out we know someone there?

Actually, let’s back up.  Is name-dropping a good idea?  The answer to that is, in general, no.

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Promoting Professional Geekery #38: Raise The Children Well

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(For more Promoting Professional Geekery, see this Roundup of past columns.)

When did you first realize your hardcore geekdom was a possible career?  Me, I think I was about 7 or 8.

I was into science and medicine and such, and already figured that’d be my job.  I got some encouragement from my family, and even more later on in my life.  It probably helped that only a few people even knew what the hell I was talking about, but at least no one tried to derail me.

And, decades later, it worked out pretty good.

So if you want to promote the professional geek ideal start helping out young people.  They’ve got enough challenges to face right now with a failing economy, bad school systems, poor . . . er, wait, I’m depressing myself.

Let’s focus on the positive.  If you’ve got a way with the younger generation, from experience with your own children to recently having been the younger generation, start helping them out.  Bring them into the progeeky fold.

Here’s ways where you can start helping progeeky kids with an early step up:

  • If you do the con scene, do events for young creative, geeky, technical people.  Crafty things, fun events, what have you.
  • Teach, work with, or other wise help at youth events and clubs.
  • Encourage your local schools to start after-school classes or events on careers that you (and your friends) can speak and advise on.
  • If you have kids of your own, younger siblings, or friends with kids, always be supportive of them career-wise.  Even if you don’t have children, the kids and their parents may give you ideas of how you can do more.
  • If you write, then consider books for a younger set on career issues.

Think of what you can do to educate, help, and support.  For that matter, think how many parents may be thrilled that their children are getting some career ideas early that they also enjoy.  That helps a lot when they look at the cost of college.

Come to think of it the parents are someone you should keep in mind, and that’s for next column . . .

– Steven Savage