Ask A Progeek – Volunteering

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What’s our “Ask A Progeek” question today?  This comes from “Manga Therapy” and my posts on my job search findings!

I was wondering what do you think of volunteer work while job searching.

The short answer is “I think it’s a wonderful idea,” but let’s go into this in a bit more detail, because it’s important.

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Steve’s 2012 Job Search Roundup

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When Steve lost his job, he jumped into the job search and tried to apply all the advice he’d been giving – and learned a lot in the 3 weeks it took to find a job.  Here’s the entire list of articles:

  • Relocation and Regional Issues – Where you are and where you look matters, and regions can vary radically in how your search works, or doesn’t.
  • Resumes – Steve discovers resumes are even more important than he thought (which is saying something), and discusses their value.
  • Job Search Boards –  Job Search boards do pay off – if you use them right, under the right circumstances.
  • Networking – It’s not just networking, it’s the Networking attitude that makes a difference.
  • A Blitz Works – Slow and steady may win the race, but an all out rush may win you the job search.
  • Be Your (Best) Self – It’s important to be yourself, while showing your good side.
  • Empathy – Empathy is the key to connecting in your job search.
  • It’s A Campaign – It’s a comprehensive campaign to win the job – learn how to wage it.
  • Miscellaneous Findings – A grab-bag of observations that may help you out!

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/

Promoting Professional Geekery #46 – Find Your Coaching Specialty

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

So you want to help people out in their careers – from a progeeky point of view – you can always coach them.  After all, people are glad to have someone provide their expertise to help them out in their careers – and even more so when it’s a fellow geek.

Of course, what good can you do as a coach?  I mean where do you start?

It’s simple, you figure out two things.

1) What you should coach on.

Are you an expert at the job search (like I mentioned earlier)?  Good with resumes?  Excellent at finding career paths for people?  There’s clearly something you’re good at – and like to coach on.

So find it.

Look you probably can’t coach on everything, and even if you could, you’d be better at some things than others.  So find your specialty.

Also, you don’t always want to coach on some things.  Maybe you’re awesome at cover letters but hate discussing them.  Fine, find something else so your attempts to help people don’t drive you nuts.

You can always branch out later if you’re underestimating yourself.

2) How you communicate best with people you’re coaching

So you know what you’re coaching on – but how do you communicate it best?  What are your personal, technical, and methodological preferences?

Perhaps you’re good at one-on-one.  Maybe you like to help in groups.  Maybe you work best by email.  You may have physical, locational, or financial limits or advantages to use.

So find how you can communicate with people best, and find a way to use your coaching skills via that method – or methods.

Really, that’s it.  Just find what you’re good at, how you communicate it, and go for it.  We’ve got enough progeeks and potential progeeks out there that need career help, and what you do will make a difference.

Hey you may even want to do it via blogging, which sounds kind of familiar . . .

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/