Before getting to the point let me explain two things about this blog post title.
First, I wasn't comfortable with the word "Geek" because people always tend to picture a guy or a girl sitting in their room full of empty chips bags and spending 25hours on Internet.
I just kept it to have a catchy title but now let’s just read it "Computer curious person" to make everyone satisfied.
Secondly, you may think "Yet another bullshit article about generation Y". Well, guess what? It’s not! And here's why: I know a lot of people from this generation Y (my generation, I'm 23) who don't fit in the description you may read on business newspapers (unless you consider knowing how to use a mouse and a keyboard and having an iPod is an asset).
Many people of this Y thing don't like computers, don't adore the software in it and most important they are as frustrated when they use a computer as the other generations.
This a crucial point because, on the other hand, Geeks enjoyyyyys using a computer all the day (as far as they have a minimum of freedom). Even when it crashes they still enjoy fixing it!
Now let's get to the main topic: How (on earth) recruiting geeks will profit to your company?
As I said we are used to technology, internet and all the stuff close to that.
We know how to search Google and have the best results, we are natively close to computers and new software’s and we follow tech news which makes us aware of new (may be free) services and tools.
We are familiar with computing languages, technical data and love to handle and optimize this stuff.
I had my first work experience (not a summer/student job) but a real experience, at 18. Since that time I did several long internships in 5 companies in various positions: Marketing, Sales, Finance and now in IS, but let's skip that.
It's just amazing how people underestimate the tools they are using and prefer instead doing it manually, like comparing two files by printing them and going row by row.
I'm not flattering myself, but for each position I occupied, I manage to build what Henry Ford called: Productivity optimization tools and that taught me a lot!
Writing some Excel's VBA code isn't that hard for people used to it or linking an HTML form to a spreadsheet a get the results directly instead of always typing and typing.
Want a good dashboard for your financial charts and projections? Sure, I'll do it.
The other advantage is that they have experienced and seen many programs so when you train them to use yours it will only take a couple of weeks before they nailed it (and maybe show you some new features).
This can save you a lot of cash if you have any small tech or web projects, I mean if you want to roll out an internal website or a collaborative platform for example, you will know who to put in charge instead of hiring someone to do it.
And even if they don't have any knowledge about that, Geeks are curious by nature and are, for most of them, self-learners using forums, step by step tutorials, videos, etc.
Geeks are what mass media meant with the generation Y speech: they are the real digital natives!!
They will help you make and save a lot by bringing those skills and interest and re-engineer the way your business people do their work.
Now the problem is: Those people are often already working in the company, but in IT and IS.
