Help me find my next job

This post represents the first step in an experiment in publicly seeking work via the living web. I started by posting here at Radio Free Blogistan because this is still my best known brand and the blog site most closely associated with my name. (Who am I? I’m Christian Crumlish, a.k.a xian).

What kind of work am I looking for? While I am always interested in short-term contract work and consulting gigs, I am most interested right now in landing a full-time job. My internal clock tells me that Web 2.0 is taking off and I’d like to be part of something bigger than myself. Yes, over at Mediajunkie I help people plan web strategies and build websites and launch blogs and such, and I will continue doing that, but Mediajunkie consists of me and a loose network of colleagues whom I hire when I need help and whom I refer overflow work to. In a sense, I am the hub of that network and it is limited by my reach and my range.

The time has come, something tells me, to join a team where I am not the biggest cheese. I want to learn more from people smarter than me and better at business. I want to learn how to grow a startup or how to help an established business best take advantage of the living web.

What do I have to offer? First and foremost I am a writer. I’ve made a living writing professionally since 1992. Wrapped up in that are most of my other skills. I’m a world class communicator, equally comfortable speaking extemporaneously in front of a large audience (live or broadcast) and collaborating in small groups. I am also a communication troubleshooter. I detect when people are miscommunicating and I get things back on track. I have a knack for understanding both sides of a conversation and I’m good at putting myself in other people’s shoes.

Because of that mixture of skills and talent, my web-related expertise revolves around user experience: interfaces, information design, nomenclature, content strategy, blog strategy, syndication strategy, and so on.

If you’re interested in hiring me, drop me an email message or give me a call (415-672-5759). Even if you don’t have a position currently open, I might still be interested in talking to you about future opportunities to collaborate. As I said before, I’m also available for shorter term consulting contracts.

If you think you know of a good opportunity for me, especially in the social network system/software web application space, please let me know. I am specifically hoping that my extended network of friends, colleagues, readers, and other connections will help me extend my reach and find the best possible niche for me to flourish in over the next few years. I really think things are taking off in this space and I want to be in a position to put my analytical skills and my practical experience to use. I want to help. I want to contribute. I want to influence.

And I’m asking for help. It might be cooler to do this all on the Q.T.: act invincible and seem as though I can do everything all by myself without help, but that’s just not the way it works. I’ve learned over the years that I don’t always ask for help because I want to look stronger than I am, but I’m learning to be real about it and not worry so much about exposing my vulnerabilities to the jungle atmosphere of capitalism at its worst. Instead I’m putting my faith in the collaborative potential of an open economy.

If you think you can help me find my next job, please let me know. One way you can help even if you don’t know of a specific opening or opportunity suitable for me would be to link to this weblog entry, with linktext along the lines of “Christian Crumlish is looking for a job” or “help xian get hired” or the equivalent.

Thanks in advance.

P.S: Of course I’ll continue looking for projects and work using all the now-traditional automated web tools and the job search elements that are starting to appear in social network systems, such as LinkedIn. Here’s a little value-add to make this entry useful to people beyond just me:

Om Malik writes SimplyHired is LinkedIn

They might have been late to the party, but it seems SimplyHired, the job search site is wasting no time adding interesting features and services to its offerings. The latest being a hook-up with LinkedIn. The companies are likely to announce an official partnership later this week, but what I can tell you [is] that as part of the deal, a tiny icon under every listing will allow you to see who you know at the company. Smart, and frankly something HotJobs or Monster should have thought a long time ago. From what I gather, SimplyHired has about 3 million job listings. They have also rolled out a brand new set of features – ratings and apply now features. On their blog, the team members write, “RSS and better searches are just 2 of the things we are working on. We are just getting started, and even the new features will be refined and reworked over the next few weeks.”

(Be sure to click through to GigaOm to visit the links I left out of the quoted text above.)

P.P.S: Until I land my next job, I’ll be putting links to this article on all my weblogs. Apologies in advance to readers of my various sites for the redundancy!