I’m less interested in my next position’s field or industry than I am in joining an organization where I have the possibility to grow as a contributor and eventually influence and lead from within the organization. As you’ll see below, I list a lot more must-haves for the organization and its culture than for any position I might hold.
In short, I’m very open to trying new things.
However, as I say on my Hire me page, I’m being pretty discerning about where I land next.
So let’s establish some healthy boundaries. . .
Opportunities
I’m seeking opportunities and organizational contexts that:
Ask me to do meaningful work: My efforts should have positive effects beyond the organization and the people it immediately serves. I have a deep drive to be of helpful to people in all kinds of circumstances.
Provide intellectual challenge: In particular, I love working with others to chip away at big, wicked problems. I feel most centered, content, and productive when I am exploring something novel—a problem, a subject, a community—to learn more about it, to help others make useful cognitive leaps and connections around it, and to help shape decision-making.
Take advantage of my interdisciplinary thinking: My work is almost never constrained within a single field of study or practice. I regular draw on history, the sciences, literature, education, and cultural studies—but I’m comfortable exploring, using, and talking about topics and practices ranging from the digital humanities to watershed management.
Consistently ask me to create something new(ish) or do something different and challenging: I am a deeply creative person, and I enjoy creating all kinds of things, from white papers to conferences. One of the quickest ways for me to fall into a rut and burn out is if I do the same kind of month after month, year after year.
Responsibilities
I’m most interested in positions that will expect or entrust me to do at least some of the following:
- Crafting high-quality work—especially written work in a variety of genres—quickly and on deadline
- Mentoring and coaching others—and to be mentored myself
- Distilling complex topics for diverse audiences, in any number of multimedia formats
- Interdisciplinary research deeply inflected by the humanities
- Growing something, literally or figuratively
- Offering constructive critique or feedback
Colleagues and work culture
I love, love, love being around bright, engaged people. I enjoy leading and learning from teams of them.
I like working with people who have different life experiences and perspectives from my own.
I make people laugh, and I enjoy laughing. Like, a lot.
While I’m not necessarily looking for work in the nonprofit or cultural sectors, I’m looking for an organization that serves and prioritizes people, the environment, or the public good over maximizing shareholders’ profits. (I’m impressed by ConvertKit’s mission, vision, and values, for example: Teach everything you know, create every day, work in public, default to generosity, creator success is our success, and do it with excellence.)
I want a place where people have big, healthy lives outside of work and they bring their whole, authentic selves to work. Having full lives outside work makes people more interesting, more creative, and better collaborators.
I want to work in an organization where the people on my team and I have autonomy to share, evaluate, and implement ideas. I’m not interested in completing a to-do list that includes the things your organization has always done, in the ways it has always done them.
I prefer grassroots energy, ideas, and organizing to top-down imperatives. I prefer a flat organizational structure to one that is highly hierarchical.
I’m seeking an organizational culture that rewards employees for speaking truth to power, for example if they see the organization or its leadership treating people unfairly or taking actions that undermine the organization’s stated values.
I enjoy meeting with people, but I need a work culture where, even if I’m supervising people, I have time to think, to get my own work done, or to spontaneously help others with something that urgently needs addressing. I don’t thrive in positions where my schedule is tiled with meetings from 8:00 to 5:00 every day.
I need a work culture that is evidence-based. I don’t need my everyone in my workplace to think as I do (in fact, I hope they don’t!), be woke, or have earned a Ph.D. in climatology or epidemiology, but I do need my coworkers to be able to identify reliable sources, be open-minded when new evidence comes to light, and treat one another kindly and equitably. I take very seriously the everyday work of antiracism and striving in small and large ways toward a more just world, so I don’t work well with bigots.
Location, Location
For personal reasons, I need to remain in Boise, Idaho until December 2023—though I’d welcome new challenges well before then.
Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, I’ve been working remotely since March 2020. I’ve become quite proficient at remaining productive, staying connected with others on our center’s leadership team, managing a remote team and diverse projects, and designing and hosting events remotely or online.
TL;DR?
I’m looking for work that:
- is meaningful, novel, and challenging;
- serves the greater good as much as or more than shareholders’ or board members’ interests;
- offers opportunities to collaborate with interesting, intellectually curious, empathetic people;
- asks me to draw on multiple fields of knowledge and practice;
- offers a compensation package in line with my experience, skills, and expertise; and
- can be done face-to-face in, or remotely from, the Boise, Idaho area.
Let’s talk.
Even if you’re not hiring right now, I’d love to do an informational interview with you if your organization has many of the qualities I describe above or is interested in hiring people with experiences or perspectives similar to mine. I’d like a better understanding of what possibilities are out there, as well as in what directions I should be focusing my growth. I’d love to hear from you what experiences and knowledge I should seek in the coming year or two.
Say hello!
It’s always nice to know I’m not sending these words into a soulless void. You can reach me at lesliemadsen4 -at- gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you—yes, you in particular.