• Job Search 2.0

    October 1, 2009

    If it wasn’t obvious by my open letter to HR, I have been looking for work.

    When Amy and I got engaged, we went round and round about whether to be in Memphis where I was pastoring or in Chicago where she was just getting settled into a pretty major career position.  Through lots of prayer, discernmnet, and discussion, Chicago won out.

    I moved up here at the beginning of May and since then, beside keeping myself busy with wedding planning and then getting us settled into a new apartment, I have been teaching an online class, The Emerging Church in the 21st Century, for Fuller Theological Seminary.

    With the wedding behind us, the apartment pretty much in order, and the class coming to an end, I am getting more focused on looking for work.

    Both because we are so at home in our church community, Life on the Vine, and because we are trying to make decisions that offer us the flexibility to be part of birthing a new missional comminity, I’m not looking for church staff positions.  Instead, I have mainly been looking for staff positions at colleges and universities as well as with non-profit organizations whose work in the Chicagoland area I could get excited about.  I have also given some consideration to working my way into the world of web development through project coordination and information architecture.  I am definitely open to continuing to be involved with online education.

    While I am conducting the job search 1.0-style (job boards, websites, and other manner of non-relational means), I’d rather go the route of Job Search 2.0, via relational connections, leveraging the power of social connectivity.

    So, at the risk of this being misinterpreted as some sort of act of desperation (IT’S NOT), but because I tend to be a relational networker, I thought I would open my search up to a broader audience to solicit your ideas and feedback.  Anyone, especially those of you who know me well, have any bright ideas about jobs, resources, or people I should try and connect with?  If it helps, here’s a basic resume and CV.

    Posted in: chicago, community, social networking

Recent Comments

  • alyssa said...

    1

    great job, you are really setting an example, while others are just sitting around crying about it, you are getting creative and actively seeking work.

    I know if you keep this up you will find something,

    10/1/09 9:59 PM | Comment Link

  • jrrozko said...

    2

    Thanks for the words of encouragement Alyssa.

    10/2/09 2:19 PM | Comment Link

  • Christian said...

    3

    Hey JR. If you want to get into web dev, I'd suggest getting involved with an open-source project that interests you. Perhaps approaching a project that looks in need of some information architecture and offering to help. Trust me, open-source projects are always looking for quality help.

    There are multiple benefits to doing it too. First of all, you'd be helping some project that you appreciate and giving back in a way. Second, you'd have a chance to get some of your work displayed in a public way and have something to show on the experience side of the coin. Third, you can make good connections through working on the project, which might just help you land a job getting paid for it.

    That's basically the path I wound up taking that has resulted in full time software development work. I'm not saying "be like me", but I thought I'd relay my experience because it worked out in a Job Search 2.0 sort of way.

    ps – Your comment system just said my full name is too long. That's pretty harsh, man ;-)

    10/2/09 5:47 PM | Comment Link

  • Christian said...

    4

    Oh, and one more thing re: volunteering on an open-source project. You'll probably learn a bunch more about information architecture in the process.

    10/2/09 6:00 PM | Comment Link

  • jrrozko said...

    5

    Hey Christian, thanks for the advice. I am totally open to that. I mentioned IA and project coordination because from the conversations I have had, they seem to be the web development niches that are most intuitive – meaning, they would use some of the skills I already possess w/o requiring more formal education. Does that sound right? If so, do you have any more suggestions about specific projects or groups that I should check out?

    10/4/09 10:08 PM | Comment Link

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