Career

Self-reference for success

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You love your Pomeranain, which is why your gamerhandle lets people know they've been P0wned by CerebusPom23.  Your sig file on your favorite message board references your Twitter account.  Your color scheme for your fansite is a subtle variant on your favorite sports teams, each page lovingly coordinated.

If you're a fan/geek, especially if you're heavily online, you've probably got a lot of self-references.  Handles reflect interests, websites reference other sites, your cosplay costume is based off of your love of Japanese history, etc.

Congrats.  You're practicing one of the skills necessary for career success- self-reference.

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The Economic downturn and Profans

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I've wondered if the Economic downturn is encouraging or discouraging profans and progeeks.

On one hand the economy is bad and people don't want to take chances.  It's hard to live your dreams when you're worried about layoffs, health care, housing prices, etc.  It's often a taking a chance to try and go live your dreams, and its hard when you want to be sure you can pay the bills.  Worse, a tough economy means less chance to fall back on friends and family if there's a crisis.

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Moving to a Geeky Job: The Business Shift

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Related to my previous post on geeky jobs, another issue I encounter with people wanting to use their skills on their jobs is the feeling that what they do know, what they enjoy, just isn't going to have a plance in the areas they want to work.  They're good at something that doesn't seem overly fannish, and they just can't see how it relates to the cool things they want to do or the place they want to work.

I relate of course, as a Project Manager.  I seriously enjoy gant charts, forms, coordinating, and organizing.  I've had moments where I am probably having more fun than anyone else on a project.

Indeed, there were times I wondered where I would go with this, many years ago I began looking at ways to go "the whole fan" and do what I liked where I liked.  I was in IT, which satisfied my geek, but I wanted to do more.

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