Thoughts on What's Next + Restarting the Daily Blog

Evolving ideas about what I'll do in the fall and updates on what I'm doing in the meantime

As I’ve spent the past couple weeks diving deep into what’s next for me, I’m starting to get more clarity. I’m transitioning out of an operating role at Dual School and will be fully done by early August, 2022. I hope to start a full time engagement at a growth-stage company in September 2022 in marketing or business development to help a startup establish its narrative and expand.

Here are some of the priorities I’ve determined:

1. I want to work with a great team - At Dual School, I had flashes of working with great team members, but because of our the precarious nature of non-profit work, it was hard to hire a robust team with any amount of job security. I get so much energy from working with smart people, and want to find an environment that can attract and retain talent. I’ve also missed the lack of team-based environment this spring as I’ve been working on three part-time engagements.

2. I want growth opportunities (skills, compensation, connections) - Growth is exciting, and energizing. I like to be challenged, supported, and connected with other people who are also working hard to solve problems. I want to feel like quality work is rewarded, and that I’m getting better every day.

3. I want to work on a problem that I find compelling - If I’m going to be marketing a product, or selling services to other organizations, it has to be something I genuinely feel more people should be using. I have little interest in monetizing user data to sell to advertisers, for example.

I’ve been talking with people in my network to get a better understanding of the opportunities that are out there. If there are people you know that I should talk to, please let me know.

Concrete tasks that have helped me in my search

Here are some of the key things that have helped me thus far in this exploratory process:

• Defining potential future versions of myself, for example: I could be a community lead for a small technology company helping to boost user engagement and retention. or I could be a content marketer helping to establish an organizations brand and reputation in a space. (Hat tip to Matthew Grande of Careerage for this exercise)

• Browsing open positions in venture capital portfolio companies to understand the types of roles organizations are looking to fill at their stage of growth.

• Narrowing my focus to two main fields: marketing (specifically the content and writing side) and business development (partnerships, sales, relationship building).

• Beginning to tailor my online presence and portfolio to speak to the things I would need to be able to do to succeed in these roles. For example, I updated the About section on my website to highlight content creation work I’ve done in the web3 space.

As I was browsing job opportunities this morning I was compelled by this posting for a Content Marketing Manager at AngelList Talent. The role involves things like brainstorming content ideas, hosting podcasts, determining content strategy and learning about new technology. This was the first job that I saw that I felt like would be a GREAT fit for me.

Seeing this posting gave me some energy that the things that I know I’m good at can help me find a great position somewhere. So I’ve spent a lot of time today going back to my roots of writing a blog and a newsletter. I’m restarting my daily blog at zcjones.com and my first post is live here.

That’s what’s on my mind this week! Thanks for reading.

Best,

Zack