It’s been several weeks since my last post, so I want to bring you up to speed on the progress of my job search.

To start, the economy has continued to make finding my next great permanent position difficult. Finding opportunities and getting interviews does not seem to be an issue (it's quite possible to find a job in a recession); it’s finding employers that are ready, willing and able to move to actual start dates that seems to be my problem in this recession.

When I posted last, I had had six or seven positions and contracts that had been cancelled--even after we had started final negotiations, I had received a written offer, and in one case, after I had already started on the project. In each of those situations, I was told that the company had decided to cancel or postpone the position because of the economy.

Since that time, I’ve had several more contracts and positions cancelled while in final interviews.

On the positive side, I’ve landed two short-term projects with some prior clients and partners of mine. And I am starting to reach out to employers who had previously postponed positions until the beginning of 2009 to schedule discussions with them.

Here are the opportunities that I am currently working on:

CIO Services Consultant, in partnership with a Boston, Mass.-based consulting services firm.

* I was referred to these consulting opportunities by an author and publishing networking contact. My initial “interview” was very unique in that I didn’t even participate – it was a review of my LinkedIn profile. I was then invited to several phone interviews with the firm’s VPs, the COO and the co-founder to discuss my CIO/CTO, SOA and organizational change management experience. What excites me about this firm is the potential opportunity to help the company expand into the Chicago/Midwest region.

Status: We have partnered on a proposal for the first of potentially three projects with one of their major clients. We are scheduling our next meeting with the client’s CIO to present our proposal.

Program Manager (contractor) for a Chicago, Ill. technology services firm.

* I have worked with the founder of this firm for several years, both as a manager hiring their consultants and as a consultant for them. One of their clients’ SharePoint projects has grown considerably, and they need a Project Manager. They also have an infrastructure project and a PMO development project that we are discussing.

Status: I met with the founder and internal IT team last week to research these projects’ as-is situations and desired near-term needs and concerns. I am drafting and will present my proposal this week.

VP of Program Innovation for an entrepreneurial new media marketing software and services firm.

* The founder and I are both US Marines supporting our regional Marines For Life teams. He liked the new ideas and "take action" approach I brought to our USMC volunteer efforts, which led to several brainstorming sessions where I came up with a number of major new market and product opportunities.

Status: We have agreed to start working together on an ad-hoc basis, commission-only, for the project and client leads I bring to him, as well as the new ideas we can bring to market together.

Project Manager, Web Redesign (contractor), for several firms.

Status: These are all either paid projects for organizations with whom I have done prior work, or these are non-profits where I am volunteering my skills and experience.

Here is a brief run down of some of

You do not have flash or javascript support.

Average (2 votes)

Reply