On December 16, 2013 I will complete my Presidential Innovation Fellowship at the Smithsonian. And as I don’t have another gig lined up, it means I’ll be a free agent starting on 12/17.
I’ll be a bit of a moving target for a month: packing up my Washington D.C. studio, spending the holidays with my family in Boston, traveling to Lima (Peru) in early January, seeing friends in San Francisco, and relocating to NYC in late January. After nine amazing years in the Bay, it’s time to give the Big Apple a chance.
Seeking Serendipity
Earlier in my career, having no job lined up would be a scary prospect. But at this point in my career, I’ve done enough interesting things and created a lot great relationships to the point where I know a new adventure will soon open up.
I’m a big believer in serendipitous opportunities. I’ve argued that a blog is one of the best ways to create your own luck. So here I am, taking my own advice. Of course I’m talking with a few folks directly as well, but I’m not limiting myself to that.
If you’ve ever wanted to work with me, or know of a person/team/company that might, this blog post is my way of saying “I’m all ears.”
What I’m Looking For
Of course, this all works better if you have a better idea of what kind of work would be the best fit.
Short-term: Consulting Work: In the past few 6 months, I’ve engaged a handful of companies in various consulting roles, mostly around content marketing. Its been everything from training a 50 person communications team at an international bank on content strategy, to running interviews, writing and visual design for a series of case studies for a B2B startup. I anticipate having bandwidth for a few projects as I figure out my medium-term plans. More on my consulting work here.
Medium-term: Full-Time Work: For the next few years, I’d like to be in a growth and/or product role a post-seed stage tech company that’s either based in NYC, or truly embraces remote workers. Areas I’m interested include website builder / blogging platforms, consumer education, SaaS products that serve small-to-medium sized businesses, and in general, products that enable people and organizations to be more capable and empowered to do great work.
Statistically Improbable Experiences
To help sell books that you couldn’t flip through (like you could in a store), Amazon once had something known as “statistically improbably phrases“. Comparing a particular book to other books in the same category, you could get a sense of what was unique about this particular book. Certainly you can learn a lot about me through this blog and through my LinkedIn profile, but here are a few elements you’re unlikely to find in other product/growth people.
- Embarked on a challenge to get personally rejected every single day for a month
- Recovered from a total knee dislocation to win an NCAA championship
- Published a best-selling book on Amazon
- Taught courses on the science of behavior change to 200+ students at Stanford & around the world
- Learned enough Ruby on Rails to build a habit-change app called RewardBox
Get in Touch
I’m pretty easy to get a hold of. My Gmail address would be: jasonyshen and I tweet at @jasonshen. Look forward to hearing from you!
