Once upon a time, the word geek was an insult to degrade the introverts who worked hard and played Dungeons & Dragons harder. However with the rise of technology that will soon replace basic human interaction and ‘ironic’ t-shirts with the words ‘geek’ and ‘nerd’ splattered all over them, a paradigm shift has occurred.
Whilst the hunter gatherer archetypes once ruled the playground with their superior sport skills and biceps; it now belongs to those who have the knowledge to recite Pi to 20 places and prepare a 50 page dissertation on why Marvel triumphs over DC.
Journalist
Whilst journalism may not sound like a geeky job, reporting the news is what the world needs; a fourth estate to bring the public the truth. However, there are plenty of niche publications which allows the journalists working there to geek out over something they’re passionate about. Whether it’s Movies, Games, Comics or Cars, there is a niche publication for everyone to unleash their inner geek.
Not only do you get paid an average salary of £22k to write about the latest news and reviews the things you love, but the more experience you get, the more access you have to your niche. Imagine one day getting press access to Comic-con, interviewing some huge names like Robert Downey Jr or Sean Bean (and finally ask him why his name doesn’t rhyme.)
Librarian
A book worm loves a good lexical adventure. Their rooms are usually decorated with piles of tomes and they themselves can usually be found curled up with their nose in a book and a warm beverage in hand, immersing themselves in a fantasy world.
For those who love nothing more than to be surrounded by books, a job in a local library could be ever so quietly calling out to you. Being surrounded by shelves filled by what seems like an endless amount of information and wondrous fiction is only made better by the fact that on average, a Librarian can earn £23k.
Special Effects Make-Up
Zombies, ghosts and monsters appear in every form of entertainment including movies, and someone has the responsibility to make those actors look so ghastly. These make-up aficionado can turn even the best looking actors into an icon that can void the bowels of the most hardcore horror fan.
These make-up artists must research every tiny detail of a monster, making sure that the creatures live up to the expectations of every fan – casual and die hard. It’s one thing being immersed in how realistic the zombies on ‘The Walking Dead’ look, but to actually be the one to create them brings a whole other level of geeky excitement.
Those who bring fantasy to life can earn a lot under the right contracts, with talented makeup artists earning £300 a day.
Video Games Designer
Those who play and enjoy video games on a regular basis used to be shunned by the extroverts who believed sports were more important than the Konami code. However since virtually all sports are available through various consoles the need to venture outside has all but disappeared.
The video games industry is a multi-million dollar industry and a lot of people don’t realise the amount of time, effort and money that goes into the development (Bungie’s Destiny currently holds the record, costing £310 million.) Those who spent hours turning their passion for virtual worlds into a career have the potential to earn around £30k through the various roles that include software creation and forming concept art.
Editor
For those who were once members of the grammar police, enlightening the masses on the difference between ‘your’ and ‘you’re’ and when to say ‘who and ‘whom.’ A career as an Editor could be perfect. If you get a kick out of correcting your colleagues grammatical errors and lexical dilemmas on a daily basis, then carefully reading all their work and making sure the sentences are structured correctly could be part of your daily routine.
So if you’re a pro at prose and wouldn’t mind an average salary of £26k then you could be the last line of defence between publication and grammatical misunderstandings.
Historian
Over the years, history and the wonderful perspective of hindsight has taught us that:
iPhones will always be buggy upon initial release.
The Simpsons will outlive us all.
If the Mayans don’t finish something, it’s not the end of the world.
Historians provide analysis on facts and theories to find out who, what, when, where and why. Often successful Historians make it onto TV, shows like Time Team and History Hunters have proven extremely popular, especially with hungover students.
The career offers an insight as to how our ancestors lived before us and allows the passionate workers to study the events that shaped the world. Those with a History degree can pursue a plethora of careers in both teaching and within the media; these careers usually come with an average salary of £22k.
Chemist
Chemists have dedicated their time and amassed a crippling student debt to gain a PH.D, allowing them to specialise in one of chemistry’s awesome sounding sub-sectors (who doesn’t want to work in Cosmochemistry).
So for those who can recall the entire periodic table off the top of their heads or just can’t seem to put that book on Helium down, an interest in a career in chemistry is an expected reaction, with an average wage of £30k.
Nasa Scientist
Sure, that kid who studied hard might have been a geek for breezing their way into Mensa and eventually obtaining an appropriate degree, but a career at NASA is an ultimate dream for the geek whose mind wanders the stars.
Working on projects that will wander the final frontier, designed to explore strange new worlds, seeking out new life and civilisations, boldly going where no man has gone before is a dream for the red shirted trekkie. Luckily a NASA scientist has a higher mortality rate than the ill-fated red uniformed cannon fodder and has an average salary of £50k.
For those whose IQ points rest in top 2% of the population and can breeze through a series of University Challenge as if it were nothing more than a cheap pub quiz, the sky could no longer be the limit. Besides not only do you get to work with space, the final frontier, but the space related jokes must never get old!
Legal Hacker
When you think of a hacker, you probably think of a person hunched over a laptop with green codes streaming through the reflection of their glasses like something out of The Matrix. Unfortunately that doesn’t happen and hacking itself is mostly illegal, unless you do it for a company.
Yes you heard right, a company will employ you to be a hacker, legally and you can get paid anywhere in the region of £50k if you do it well. Whilst this doesn’t include corporate espionage or entering a Tron-like world, it does involve trying to find weaknesses in websites and anti-virus software. Some websites like Facebook even reward people who bring to their attention exploitable weaknesses.
Work at Google
Running Google must be insanely complicated, with all the pandas, hummingbirds and penguins running around (Our SEO guy tells me these are algorithms but what does he know?).
Well, Google’s head office is actually a nerdvana. Fully equipped with gym facilities, arcade cabinets and a quirky design. It is the perfect way to ease those lucky graduates who managed to grab a job at Google into the real working world.
The building is riddled with areas to nap, slides for when the stairs are too much and enough facilities to justify living on the carpark to save on rent, not to mention you’re working for the biggest search engine in the entire world. With roles from PR to Coding, there are plenty of options to unleash all your geeky ideas, whether it’s with site improvements or a themed doodle for your favourite author, Google has many roles for many skilled people.
Not only does Google provide an environment that is not only a fun place to work, but also a fun place to live, it also pays its workers a starting median salary of k (£51k.)