Stereotype-Fu: Be yourself!

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Continuing the series on dealing with stereotypes in your career, one thing people rarely consider is that you can fight the negative stereotypes you face as a fan, techhead, sports nut, etc. by BEING that role to the hilt.

If people hold stereotypes of you, it may be best to not worry about it and go around BEING that fan, b-movie fanatic, comic book reader, etc. to the hilt.  In short, be less repressed and more open about your interests and your geekery – without being aggressive.

This doesn't work in every situation – it won't work in the case of hostility, extreme negativity, and conflict.  This is more a tactic to help defuse more passive or just plain ignorant stereotyping by BEING the fan you are.

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Your Office and Geek Pride

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I'm not one for decorating my cube at work – mostly as my ideal decoration is printouts.  But I want to take a moment to praise the decorating of cubes for progeeks and profans.

I could talk about motivation, reminders, etc.

But instead I'd like to praise the geek pride of it.

When you've got your baseball figures, your anime figures, your posters, your pictures, your  bust of Optimus Prime, you're saying "I am a geek and I am proud of it."  You're telling people about yourself – perhaps even exposing yourself to ridicule – as well as opening a dialogue about what you like.

This is a good thing (done with some forethought of course, depending on what your fandom is).

This is making a statement about who you are and what you like – proudly and openly – at a place that your livelihood likely depends on.  It takes courage, and it asserts who you are.

So I say go for it.  Let people know who you are – in fact, if you plan your "fan display" carefully you can generate dialogue and respect for you as well.

Even that bust of Optimus Prime can benefit your career if you know, for instance, the head of IT is a big Transformers fan . . .

– Steven Savage

It’s About Information

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99% of fandom, geekery, otakudom, etc. is information.

One secret of building a geeky career is realizing that most of what we love – and thus what we want to do – relates to information.  Games on video and video games, fiction in text or animation, movies or films.  It's all encoded, processed, delivered, and shot into our brains.

So if you're looking for a geeky job, there's a good chance it's entirely or partially about  the creation, delivery, and access of information-heavy resources.  A video game on DLC is no different in this way than the latest song downloaded from a band.

I realized that there are three sides of information delivery: The Information itself, the Creation (and alteration) of information,  and the Transmission of information.  In examining the career to turn your fandom into payday, ask yourself which of the three (or all?) are you on?

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