Fandom Achievement List

So you're looking at your fandom experience, at your hobbies, and asking yourself "OK, what did I learn and what can I do?" so you can think about your career or add to your resume.  It's not always easy – you've done a LOT, but you may keep thinking over the same two or three skills.

There's a trick I've found that works well: an Achievements list first.

Sit down and list all the things you've accomplished in fandom: running a convention department (and list every year you did it), creating a website, editing a fanfic series, doing a group cosplay, etc.  Put those down on paper or type them up in a word processor or spreadsheet – I recommend a spreadsheet (more below)

Now that you've done that – and gone as far back as you can – next to every achievement, list all the skills and abilities you used JUST for that achievement.  Don't worry if you repeat yourself, list them for every achievement, even if you put "sewing" next to every single costume you finished.  If you used a spreadsheet, you can create a separate cell for every skill, keeping them all in one big column.

Now sort through the lists of skills and see which stand out – which keep popping up and which stand out (this is why a spreadsheet helps).  You now have a huge list of what you've done, a rough idea of how often you use a skill, and ideas of skills you may never have thought of.

So if 90% of your fan/geek activities involve writing convention program booklets, you may have a sign of your skills and interests there.  When "photography" pops up more than you expect thanks to your cosplay work, you may have a career option – or some skills to try and use on the job.

Of course, this method also works fine on your career too, geeky or not, but I felt introducing it this way had a bit more impact!  Besides, we usually are more aware of our careers than we are of what we do in our fandom, since we're usually busy having fun in the latter.

– Steven Savage

Not geeky enough for your job?

Have you every worried you're not geeky enough for your job?

A weird thing to say when many of us don't want to discuss our extensive addiction to Legend of the Five Rings in a job interview, but it's actually a factor.  Jobs like game programmer, artist, writer, reviewer, etc. are positions where you're expected to have a certain level of geek on display.  Believe it or not, people do worry about it.

Think of your geekiness as a way of displaying certain talents, affiliations, and even knowledges and competencies.  There are expectations people have, and you may find yourself actually being NOT geeky enough – or at least worrying that during that vital interview with the guy who has multiple piercings, your business outfit may have seemed a tad  . . . boring.

I've had to deal with this.  I still do in some cases as I'm a Project Manager in IT – I am PAID to be the dull guy with Gantt charts, spreadsheets, and organizational skill.  I just do it in geeky jobs, and need to communicate my passion about the subject matter before I discuss my love-hate relationship with Team Foundation Server.

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