Joshua Ness

I found a job!

Yes, thank you, thank you. Actually, the job found me. A few weeks ago, I was asked by Dynamic Solutions Group to check out a venue in New York City. They were hosting an event for a new client, and they wanted me to verify the amenities of a downtown space. The owner, a friend of mine since 2000, was also in the process of re-branding and launching a new business line for which she needed some social marketing advice. Through progressive conversations, it was also learned that some of her clients were leaning on her to adopt some social engagement strategies into her value proposition.

She’s never had to do that before.

After a few nights of talking about how to implement social marketing into her own re-brand and into her clients’ overall event strategy, it was decided to put me on staff. Here’s the kicker, though: the company is in Vancouver, WA.

I am in New York City.

It turns out this is okay. The tech and social marketing communities in NYC are far and away more active and available than in the Pacific Northwest. With this job, I’m able to flex my creative muscles and help to set marketing strategy, and I’m also in a position to hone my social media skills through lectures, workshops, and networking in the big city. I’m also able to travel.

And I love to travel.

In the past month, I’ve been to Portland, Seattle, Washington DC, and Las Vegas. The rest of the summer will bring Boston, Orlando, and other major cities as we continue to implement social strategy into events and conventions for myriad clients, some of them rather large and influential.

So, ladies and gentlemen, I’ve made it. I moved to New York with no job, no place to live, and only two friends in the city. I’ve since found an apartment in north Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn with an awesome roommate, built a social and professional network, and landed a great job where I’m in the room making strategy decisions and influencing the outcomes of major business deals.

Now is when real life begins.

I was really excited this week for a potential job in New York. Based on the description and my skills and the interviews with five members of the marketing team, I thought I was a great fit.

But I received an email today telling me that I’m not. They were impressed, but they would like to see me in a different position. The problem is that they don’t currently have that perfect position available.

So I’m back to the drawing board. They’re a great company and some great people. I’d be stoked to work with them if anything comes available in the future, but I’m not holding my breath.

I was VERY excited about the prospect of moving to the city. I’ll get there, but it looks like I’ll still be here in Texas when my birthday rolls around at the end of this month. Oh well. There’s always 33!

I recorded a couple videos this week. One of them is a résumé introduction video. It’s bad and I’ll probably re-record it once I get a device that shoots better video than my webcam. It’s posted on my Facebook Social Media Résumé. There’s also a short intro video that’s attached to the QR code on my physical résumé.

Leave me a comment and tell me to stay motivated.

This week was a big week.

• I interviewed with a New York tech firm specializing in health care.
• I had a second interview with the aforementioned firm.
• I procured the entire West Wing series for my viewing pleasure.
• I suspended my CrossFit membership for financial reasons.

The interviews went extremely well, and I presented some new outreach ideas which hadn’t previously been considered by the marketing team. I wanted to send a thank-you note to the five or so people with whom I spoke, but even a rush-delivered card would have arrived next week, and I didn’t wish to wait that long. So I called up a florist in SoHo and told them about my predicament. Since I didn’t want to deliver flowers, they selected a small desk trinket which could be paired with a personalized note. So I sent that. I’m not sure how many people send gifts as a post-interview thank-you, but I hope it was well-received.

If all goes well, I may be moving to the big city before the month is over. This means I’ll be in New York for my birthday on the 29th. I’m grossly unprepared to move, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I know approximately five people in the city, two of whom I was with in college, one is a colleague I met online, one is a friend of a friend I partied with in Paris, and the last is a bartender who served me several beers on my last trip in November. Quite a network, I know. If I’m offered the job, I’ll likely pack a couple bags, leave my car here, and get on a jet plane.

In professional news, I completed the web event and contest project I was working on over the holidays, and now I’m just left with the tasks of migrating the community to the main site and writing a case study to present the data. I learned a lot from this experience, and it was neat to work with a client that wasn’t a brick and mortar location with things like store traffic to worry about.

So with any luck, these are the last few entries I will be writing from Texas. Once in the Big Apple, I’ll likely start a new series to document my experiences. I’ll also likely never call it “the Big Apple” ever again.