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Niche Job Hunting
October 14th, 2008
Getting in on the ground floor of a new business or industry
Job hunting is sometimes done better by staying ahead of the pack.
Are you au courant with a particular technology, or business? Is there some new fascinating idea you’ve been glued to, to the point you’re better informed than your friends or anyone else you talk to?
If there is, you may have just got yourself a job, and maybe a career.
This could be a talent you don’t even know you have, or have never considered it as a career asset.
The electronics industry used to be a hobbyists’ business. People would build their own electronic equipment, sometimes to the despair of their friends and relatives. It looked like a pointless occupation.
Actually, that’s also where the original TV repair and cable businesses got most of their staff. When computers came along, competent people were thin on the ground. The income brackets soon matched the demand.
What is now the IT industry was created from that base.
Also hired in what was soon to become the world’s biggest industry were the enthusiasts. They knew enough about the industry and business to be right at home in other roles, like sales, admin, inventory, etc.
There’s still a demand, at the top end of the industry, although the other jobs are now considered normal careers.
Codewriting was, and is, one of the other big monsters which arose almost out of nowhere. On old computers, today’s code-gurus used to sit laboriously keying in old codes like BASIC. They were the real fanatics, who could sit through hours of messages like Syntax error and do the code line by line.
Today, some code is priceless. The enthusiasts weren’t just vindicated, their so-called hobby has changed the world. Their pay at top level is in the millions a year.
This is where you and your skills and preferences can get some vindication of your own.
Enthusiasm can take you to places drudgery never will.
Many job hunters get stuck in the concept of a job as some sort of huge burden, not something they really want to do, but have to do.
That’s pretty much fatal. If you’re an intelligent person, neither you nor anybody else is likely to believe that you really want to be a part time janitor. There’s a credibility problem, and you know it, too. You’re not likely to put as much effort into becoming an unwilling part time janitor as you are into doing something you really want to do.
On the other hand, if you’re an enthusiast, you can talk top level current information until people are running away from you.
You can also talk yourself into a very good job. All those hours on Playstation or Xbox may be your pass to a career. Your endless reading of the financial news and reports can create a career.
In all industries, sales and management are focused on the new products, and these products need support. There’s a desperate need for people who can work independently and reliably. Management needs people who can live, eat, and breathe the products.
Obviously, enthusiasts are a major asset. The expert is always in demand.
You’ll find you get a lot more respect for your knowledge in the industry than you’d expect. That’s partly because there’s a real value to your knowledge.
There’s no end to emerging products and ideas. The people who are au courant are not only valued, but absolutely necessary.
They’re the main source of development in all industries. Every industry has a more or less constant demand for ideas, too, so you’re not about to stagnate at your level of expertise. You can, when you learn your way around the industry, start originating ideas, and those have even higher values.
See where this leads. The code writers not only wrote the code, they engineered the subsequent developments of the computer industry. They were the ones who knew how to put these ideas into practice.
The leading edge of any industry is always a good place to be. You get much more new information, and you also see how these things develop. You can get a lot of support, too, when your enthusiasm is seen to have practical applications.
Most of the internet is ideas-driven. Drudgery isn’t wanted, and trudging through the commonplace isn’t most people’s idea of a good use of the net. Hence the rise of the website developers, and a whole range of new inputs and new widgets and applications which didn’t exist a year ago.
Modern industries aren’t looking backwards. There’s nothing to go back to, and there’s no real interest in More Of The Same, endlessly repackaged. The big money, the real incentives, and the actual fun in any career is based on innovation and achievement.
Finding out how to use your skills in this environment can be incredible. Innovators, inventors, and ideas people rarely stand still, and it never gets dull. Ideas breed ideas, and with the ideas come related concepts.
You’ll find it beats hell out of being an unenthusiastic part time janitor.
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