In these uncertain times with Covid-19, many people have found themselves out of work or re-evaluating how happy they are in their current roles.
You know how the old saying goes; ‘find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life‘. Searching for a career to suit your personality, merged with your nerdy traits can be a challenge, so we have compiled a handy list of suggestions that may be the perfect match!
Arcade Direct doesn’t just supply awesome arcade games, we are a community of geeks and gamers, to inspire you with a range of weird and wonderful, slightly nerdy products and interests.
We have found the top 10 careers for geeks to give you some inspiration. Let’s check them out!
1. Museum Curator
If you have a love of history and like to visit a museum or two in your spare time, then consider working as a museum curator. This can allow you to work in an engaging environment full time, talking about your interests with others who love it too – perfect right?
Your duties will include overseeing collections and helping visitors understand historical material. This can be a fun and rewarding job if you have a passion for history. You may also have to work on the placement of collections and have an input on how they are displayed to the public.
You can demonstrate your knowledge and enjoy getting up and close with ancient artefacts. You may need a history or related degree for this career. However, this is not always necessary and it will depend on the museum.
2. Video Games Designer
If you like playing games, then it’s highly likely you will love creating them! As a Video Games Designer, it is your job to create fascinating and captivating stories for people to play. Design experiences on a range of different consoles or PC games & applications.
You can create an immersive fantasy world, a product of your own imagination and creativity. This is a highly skilled and incredibly sought after role. Not only can you do something that you love but you can also make a lot of money as a video games designer. There are courses you can take to learn how to create the software and understand all the small details of what goes into making a video game.
Every game has a story, and a team of creatives that brought it to life. Who knows, maybe one day you will create a game to rival the classics of Pacman and Space Invaders!
3. Librarian
If you are someone that loves to read with a long-lived passion for books, then why not look into a career as a librarian? This job requires extensive knowledge, as many people ask for advice on books and novels.
You will need to train as a librarian in order to know where everything is, but if you already have a good knowledge of popular literature, you can will hit the ground running. Daily tasks will include organising books, customer service and cleaning up. What’s more, working at the library can offer you some peace and quiet during the day! There are many small and local library jobs, as well as bigger libraries across the country. Find one that you feel comfortable in and have the knowledge to share.
4. Mobile Application Developer
Mobile apps are not going anywhere, their popularity is rising as people find more ways to save time and improve everyday convenience. More companies are opting for a mobile app experience for their customers, meaning there is a high number of careers in mobile app development.
If you enjoy coding and the idea of creating new apps, head over and check out the latest jobs to become a mobile application developer. Many employers offer junior-level positions, allowing you to learn on the job with one-to-one mentoring. This isn’t easy to learn, and to create a truly professional app will require training and experience, but once mastered this can be an extremely rewarding job. It can be a fun process to be part of building something. These skills also transfer in to other careers such as web development or games design. Maybe you can challenge yourself to create a new arcade game like the Galaxian or the Defender!
You will need to be creative, good at problem-solving, know your programming languages and have analytical skills. This is going to ensure you create an enjoyable app that operates well when it is released.
5. Special FX Makeup Artist
Are you fascinated by horror movies and all the blood and gore that is created in these films? Ever wondered how they create those gory characters in zombie movies, or how those monsters and ghosts look so realistic? Perhaps it is time to dive into the work of special effects makeup.
It’s not easy to get into this industry, and to get into the big blockbusters can be difficult as you have to first build a strong portfolio and get noticed. That said, everyone starts somewhere, and if you have a natural talent, with practice you could quickly rise up the ladder and get a lucky break! This career is about bringing fantasy to life and having attention to detail to make it happen. There is the potential to make good money with a career in special effects makeup and the opportunity to work on awesome movie sets.
6. Historian
If your friends describe you as a human fact machine, and you have a passion for period dramas and documentaries, this is probably the right career for you!
A job as a historian will allow you to analyse and research your favourite topics and write your interpretation of them. You can go on to write novels and help with major projects. You can be surrounded by historic artefacts and documents that can be fascinating if you are a history geek. You can earn good money as an experienced historian but you may have to gain a degree before you begin.
7. Graphic Designer
You may have briefly dipped your toes in the world of graphic design from an early age with many schools offering it as a key subject. It’s the perfect career for those that love to use their creativity and design skills to create new campaigns. You have the option to work for a large company with their own internal design team, or for an agency that work on a variety of projects at one time. Graphic Designers often create for both print and web, from producing printed brochures to designing digital banners for websites and social media.
There are a variety of different projects you can work on depending on who you are hired by. It is possible to work as a freelance graphic designer once you have the experience.
8. Arcade Game Repair Engineer
The popularity of arcade games remains high, with retro machines hired regularly, and pubs and bars hiring boxing machines and pool tables to keep the punters entertained and increase their revenue. Many companies take up long term hire of classic arcade games for their staff to use, and businesses hire our custom arcade machines to promote new products and events via branded activations.
All these machines require upkeep and maintenance to keep them running smoothly, so this is a great opportunity for a new career. The job role involves repairing and maintaining of your favourite arcade game as an engineer. You will gain training and experience to restore machines that are malfunctioning or broken. In addition, your job may include refurbishing classic arcade machines to their former glory. You can expect a good salary for this job and the opportunity to repair cool arcade machines.
9. Ethical Hacker
You may be wondering; is being a hacker legal? Of course, on your own from home – full vigilate style is not a good idea – and could get you in some serious trouble, however, it is possible to become an ethical hacker. If your inner geek calling combines with a passion to do some good in the world this makes total sense. This role often involves helping clients test the security of their websites and systems. Your job is to try to hack into their network and carry out an assessment. It enables companies to improve their security from real threats. This can be a testing job and will require a lot of computing skills.
10. Actuary
If you are good at equations with an analytical brain, then consider becoming an Actuary. This is a highly paid job that requires you to have good mathematical skills and be an expert in risk management. Your duty will be to assess risk for companies and provide insight into how these might impact on their business. You will need a strong academic background and really enjoy working with numbers. But if you find statistics fun, this can be a rewarding and exciting job that sees you apply your skills in real-life situations.
