Networking slowdown

Part of my job search is falling by the side as I try to earn more money with part-time work. I may be shooting myself in the foot with this decision, but I'm leaving the Success Team I started through CPC Job Connections, mainly because I don't have time to attend this networking team because of my part-time jobs. I won't go into the details of the work, but as you've read here before, I'm busy with many part-time jobs as a way to bring some much-needed cash into the house.

I talked about it with the team members a week ago, and it was a decision I didn't make lightly. I recently had to leave The Public Press because of these same time commitments, and I fear that any other volunteer work I do may have to cease for awhile so I can concentrate on making some money and still look for full-time work. The reality of now having such full-time work is beginning to really hit, and I need to do what I can.

I guess it's a decision all unemployed must eventually face: Start working and do the job search and other related things, such as networking and volunteering, as secondary parts of the job search.

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Synergy

The oil spill story I wrote about last month for Spot.us is now running on The Public Press web site. Up until about a month ago I volunteered at The Public Press but unfortunately had to stop because of job hunt overload and my part-time work is piling up. It's nice to see they remember me.

It's also nice to create some synergy with my work for Spot.us and The Public Press. Marketing myself, as I'm learning, takes many forms and getting the word out about my work, job hunt, etc. is happening on many fronts: Facebook, Twitter, this blog, WalletPop.

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Not-for-profit jobs growing in U.S.

I've written here before about non-profits and not-for-profits and why I'd like to work at one. I expanded on that idea for this WalletPop story about how not-for-profits need more workers than for-profit businesses, and how they pay a little more. Interesting stuff from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, one of my favorite places to get job data.

Due to time constraints, I recently had to stop volunteering at a nonprofit, The Public Press in San Francisco. But I'm still volunteering at RedwoodAge.com, although it's not a non-profit. With unemployment about to run out and more part-time work slowly coming in, along with the need to still find full-time work, I just didn't have the time to volunteer at the Public Press as I had hoped. As you'll see from the WalletPop story, many low-paying jobs that would normally be done at a not-for-profit are instead done by volunteers for free. I can't afford that, for now.

I've also got one less part-time job than I did last year. I was going to start doing some investigative work for a company that does background checks on new hires, but their work has slowed down and I won't be needed as much as I had hoped. They still might call on me to track down some public records, but I'm not expecting much during the recession and less hiring going on at companies.

However, I added another part-time job writing press releases for a local non-profit, and will discuss it here soon once I'm certain it will be a long-term relationship. I was given a tryout recently and wrote a short press release, which I got in local papers and some online sites, and I think I did well enough to warrant more writing for them. So at least with every minus, a plus comes along.

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Thankful for the little things

As one of my favorite holidays of the year approaches, (what could be better than gathering with friends and family and eating?) I try to remind myself of what I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving and how it relates to my job hunt:


I'm especially thankful for the family and friends who have encouraged me during my job hunt and who try to help in many ways.


I'm also thankful for the many part-time jobs I have and to the state unemployment department for keeping me off the streets by providing me some money in exchange for my hard work or my taxes. It seems like every day I add up how much I'm making, or about to make, from my part-time work, so that I'm sure I'm making progress. I've detailed these before, but here are the many jobs and/or projects I'm working on that are either bringing in a semi-regular paycheck or I hope will soon someday:

1. United Reporting. A great company that has treated me well as I collect police arrest logs for them.
2. AOL's personal finance site, WalletPop.com, where I'm among a host of bloggers who write daily. I've said it before, but if you want to read my stuff that would have made it to this blog, at least some of it, then bookmark this:
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/bloggers/aaron-crowe/
It's a Web site I plan on writing more for, and a job for which I'm very grateful for because this blog led me to it.
3. Spot.us, a community funded reporting Web site where "crowdfunding" is used to raise money for serious journalism in the Bay Area. I have two story pitches there, one of which I plan on writing soon.
4. Writing, editing and designing city newsletters. With only one client so far, the work is sporadic but gives me hope for the future. This is work that I think will start to increase early next year as I push to plant more seeds for my consulting business.
5. Investigative work for a company that does background checks on executive hirings. Early next year I expect this job will start, where I'll go to courthouses and gather public documents on potential hires.
6. RedwoodAge.com, a Web site devoted to people 45 and older. It's an Internet startup in Mill Valley and so far I'm not making money at the blogging and few stories I do for the site, but I hope it will someday pay off well, as many people who work at startups look for.
7. The Public-Press.org, a noncommercial news site for the Bay Area that is expected to go live with news in January. The site is already running, and for now mostly deals with the need for alternate media. I'm volunteering at this Internet startup as an editor, although I don't expect it to be a paying job anytime soon. For now I'm helping coordinate stories and I'm also blogging about the media.

Lots of work, although I'm trying to concentrate on the actions that pay and less on the ones that don't, because bills still have to be paid. I'm writing in four blogs, only one of which pays, so some of that writing may have to be cut back. All of that doesn't leave me much time to look for full-time work, which is my ultimate goal, so it may soon be time to rethink my strategies. My hope is that some of these part-time jobs and volunteer work will lead to full-time work somewhere down the road. This blog, a non-paid effort, led to a part-time gig for AOL, so at least that worked.

For all that, and all of you faithful readers, I'm thankful. Have a nice Thanksgiving.

Beer results

Look at the beer drinking poll on the right for the final results, but here's what actually happened at the end of the meeting: I went home without a drink. The meeting started late, lasted late, and I didn't reach BART until 10 p.m., which isn't incredibly late, but I still didn't make it home until 11 p.m. Again, not incredibly late, but late enough when you have a babysitter to relieve, a kid sleeping upstairs, and a wife on her way home from work. And I was fighting off a cold, which I'm still coughing from.

The Public-Press.org meeting? Long discussions about stories in SF that I don't know if they'll get done. I plan on talking to the founder more on Thursday morning when I volunteer to see where I fit in.

At WalletPop.com today, I wrote three entries: Spam (the meat), what Citigroup and other newly laid off workers should do when competing against their former colleagues for new jobs, and what most people will use their gift cards for this Christmas: Check them out, and many others by yours truly.
Bookmark this:
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/bloggers/aaron-crowe/

Drink or go home

Tonight I'm going to an editorial planning meeting of The Public Press, an online source of noncommercial news for the Bay Area that I'm volunteering at. It's a nonprofit.

After all of the heavy discussion about content and the direction of the news site, the talk will eventually turn to going out for a drink. The offices are in San Francisco, and I've heard that some people are talking about going to North Beach afterward for some drinks. My dilemma: I have to take BART all the way back to Concord after the meeting ends around 9 p.m. or so, so my parents can be relieved of babysitting duties and go before midnight. My wife is working tonight, as she does most nights. Journalists, as you may have seen in a few movies, can drink. There are plenty of Facebook groups dedicated to them.

It's not the worst possible problem, I admit, but I am torn: Beer or home to family life. Vote now!

Volunteering again

Only a few days after the election, and I'm already renewing my vow to volunteer as a way to help some groups out and to lead to a job. After successfully doing some writing for Congressman's Jerry McNerney's re-election campaing (which he won), I've committed to helping two groups out, both of which I've written about in the past week or so here.

One is RedwoodAge.com, a Web site focusing on an often overlooked group on the Internet: 40 and older. I wrote a short story for it Thursday about testing for Alzheimer's Disease, and won't get paid for it. I plan to continue writing for it every once in awhile, partly to show that I can write for the Web, but also to hopefully lead to a paying, full-time or part-time job for the site someday. It's a for-profit Internet start-up, so the payoff may not be for a long while. I also hope to start blogging there and become an expert on aging issues.

Another place I'm volunteering is at Public-Press.org, a site I've written about before. It's a nonprofit San Francisco Web site that aims to be a news source in the City and Bay Area, and I think is a strong option for the future of journalism. It won't run ads but will survive off grants and donations, much like public television. I'm already blogging there about journalism, as are other members of the group, but the main work I'll do is as an editor. It will likely be similar to the work I did as an assistant metro editor at the Contra Costa Times, and maybe more, so I won't be over my head. But one purpose of volunteering, at least for me, is to grow my skills, so I plan on learning, or trying to learn, how to manage a Web site there and see where that takes me.

That's one great thing about these two sites: Since they're online, I'm forced to learn some online skills that I didn't have in my print days of employment. Also, the Public-Press could end up being a paying, editorial job for me somewhere down the road if the project is successful. I met with the editor on Thursday, and I plan on volunteering at the San Francisco office for a half-day each week. The place is full of Spartans (San Jose State University), so it can't be too bad.

McNerney for Congress

As the campaigns end, so does my volunteer work for Congressman Jerry McNerney, above, who is running for re-election to the House on Tuesday. I'll be at his Dublin headquarters on Tuesday morning, answering phones and doing whatever is needed on Election Day. McNerney supports green power, which I support, so I hope he wins.

The volunteering was interesting, and I spent most of the time doing what I wanted to do -- write. I was glad to help and I learned a lot about how campaigns run. I'm still waiting for lunch/meetings with McNerney's communications director so I can either learn how to get into such a job, or work in his office or somewhere else as a staff member and help the public with their problems.

After Tuesday, I plan to continue volunteering while looking for fulltime work, and plan to volunteer at The Public Press and other media Internet startups. It should keep me off the streets.

Coming Monday: My endorsement for president and what the next president should do to fix the economy and create new jobs.

Making money at journalism

Newsrooms throughout the country continue to lay off workers, in hope of saving money and trying to figure out how to reinvent themselves as the Internet takes their advertisers and readers. The Christian Science Monitor is ceasing print publication and will be online only, the New York Times reported today. Time Inc. announced plans to lay off more than 600 people. The layoff news just keeps getting worse.

Despite the slow death of Old Media, as David Carr reports, online sites must still get their news from somewhere since most don't have their own reporting staffs and rely on newspaper stories for content. And as newspapers slowly redefine themselves, Internet news sites such as Spot.us are moving to fill the void by asking readers to pay for journalism that they're unlikely to see elsewhere. Take a look at the site, I have a few story pitches myself that I'd like to work on: why solar power is so expensive for homeowners and why more isn't being done to lower that cost; and a followup to the Cosco Busan oil spill a year ago in the Bay.

My favorite newspaper, the NY Times, wrote about Spot.us and crowdfunding a few months ago. It's a great idea that I hope takes off, and not only so I can collect a paycheck again.

Newspapers will always be around in some form, whether in print or online, and I'd like to see them succeed and go online. People will always want somone to tell them the news, tell them a story, and show them how the news affects their lives. But if they don't, and continue cutting their staffs to the bone and leave coverage holes, then groups such as Spot.us, The Public Press and redwoodage.com will jump in and find a way to make money on the Internet, or at lesat break even. Redwood Age, for example, is an interesting news site because it targets people over 40, an underserved market on the Internet who want their news without all the social networking of Facebook and without having to give up private information about themselves online.

The Public Press

As the election comes to a close and I look for another volunteer opportunity that could lead to a job, I've decided to get involved in at least one non-profit and for-profit Internet startup as a writer and editor.

The first is The Public Press, not to be confused with Public Press. Both have .org at the end of their Web addresses, and only a hyphen separates their Internet addresses. For the immediate future, I'm going with The Public Press and will volunteer as an editor and sometimes writer and blogger. I recommend reading the Web site, but I can tell you that its main goal is to provide a noncommercial press in the Bay Area, although the focus for now is on San Francisco.

I'm also going to write for another Internet startup that also provides news without ads, and when the site goes live (hopefully later this week), I'll be sure to write about it here and extol its virtues while asking for reader participation. It's a great concept that relies on readers to pay for content that they're unlikely to see elsewhere. When it goes live, I'll have plenty of links to it and to other stories about it to give Unemployed Dad readers a clear view of what it is.