Culture

Make It So: More Specific Career Panels

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Awhile ago I spoke at Con-Volution, a new convention in the Bay Area (we are blessed with cons out here) that was very practically focused. It had a lot of panels examining things in depth, talking specific skills, and getting pretty deep into doing things. I of course took my usual career roadshow there becaus I’m me. You know me.

It also got me thinking. In depth panels? Skill-building workshops? People with career interests. Career Panels?  Hmmm . . .

Right now there’s a lot of separate skillsets you need to do your job search and career building properly. There’s also specific things you have to do to get your career going that are also separate skillsets – making a good resume, for instance. Conventions, which often have “effectively doing stuff” events could have workshops and panels that address these various elements and skillsets. Not just a resume panel here or a website workshop there – instead have as many as possible that cover all aspects of careers.

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Geek As Citizen: To Teach

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Last week I discussed how we Geeks should work to archive, organize, republish, and propagate our works – and really to encourage people to do something with what they write (or at least the good stuff). Now back to my speculations on the Geek role as a Citizen (and eventually back to this more specific speculation).

And related to publishing? I think a major role of Citizen Geeks is to teach.

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Geek As Citizen: To Warn

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As this series has gone on, frankly it’s been a bit surprising. I explored areas I didn’t expect, found a few areas (like experimentation) that needed more depth, and think this may be a permanent column on “geek citizenry.” But most of it has been just plain fun, as I think of the issue of geek as citizen.

I love being a geek, being both an enthusiast and a tinker. Of course that’s what I’m inclined to do through whatever forces shaped me. But I have a blast doing it.

However, there’s also less pleasant sides of geekery, that I think come to the fore in using our inclinations to be good citizens. I’m going to cover what I consider one of the core ones.

Namely, we’re the ones who need to raise the red flag when stuff goes wrong.

My basic theory, which I’ve gone on add nauseum, is most geeks fit the “applied” category here at Muse Hack; we have a body of knowledge we’re interested in that in turn we apply and experiment with in a personal way. We thus stand in the middle of both academic and activity, and we in turn often see a lot of information, even if it may be rather narrow due to our inclinations.

Thus, informed and active, passionate about information, connected, we’re also going to be the people to see when there are problems or that problems are on the way. We’re people who stand on the crossroads – in some cases we design the crossroads – so we just see a lot.

We’ve got to shoot our mouths off. Lives may even depend on it.

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