I launched this website in early 2018 because I left a full-time executive position at the end of 2017 and was about to launch a practice in communications consulting and writing. (I also wanted to do meeting design and facilitation but alas: no takers for that.) But I started writing on this website platform for one simple reason: in the earlier years of my career, I benefited so much from the advice of wise peers and mentors, many of whom I am now good friends with, and I wanted to pass along that service to others.
My writing on this website has occasionally branched out a little beyond advice-giving. Sometimes I dip a toe into giving a take on what was happening in the fields in which I work – nonprofit, philanthropy, all things social impact – and sometimes I comment on current events through a communications/narrative lens since that is, after all, my field of expertise. But overall, I write for myself, and I write for others, and I have been surprised and gratified and touched by the responses. Strangers or casual acquaintances, as well as former colleagues, have come up to me at conferences and meetings and told me how much a particular piece resonated with them and I was so, so glad to hear that.
This is one of the reasons why I have resisted monetizing the writing I do here – I never wanted to be beholden to any goals or strategies solely to grow my audiences so I could then make money off of them. I simply wanted to write what I thought felt right and authentic for me to comment on. In a way, it is odd that I felt so resistant to monetization, because I am the sort of person who will go out of their way to get the paid subscription for someone’s Substack or Patreon simply because I support who they are and the content they’ve been generating. But this website wasn’t ever supposed to be my main source of income; I was able to make money elsewhere.
My life, and my career, have taken some abrupt twists and turns over the past year and a half and now I am contemplating some big changes in the near and long-term future. The biggest changes: I have started the process of finding a full-time job and my husband and I are also seriously considering whether our next jobs will take us somewhere out of northern California, where we’ve lived for the past 15 years. We love our life out here but most of our family and close friends are back East and we have also become increasingly aware that we live in one of the most expensive zip codes in the country, where everything from gas to groceries to pet washes cost about four times as much as it does elsewhere.
There are so many factors that have informed our thinking on these possible big changes. Factors such as:
–The declining health of my parents and the age of his parents.
–The convoluted consequences of California Assembly Bill 5, which changed the landscape for independent contractors in California for everyone BUT the independent contractors hired by the Ubers and Lyfts of the world, the types of companies that prompted the legislation in the first place.
–The chaos and disruption in my areas of work (the social sector), and in the job market overall, prompted by the wannabe dictator in the White House. A combination of tariffs and massive public and private layoffs have meant that unemployment is on the rise, and job openings – any job openings – are getting hundreds, if not thousands, of applicants. I took the last quarter of 2024 off to help support my mother through a challenging health episode; before that period, I had to turn down job offers to manage my workload, but after the inauguration and the implementation of Project 2025 happened, all pending and prospective job offers simply vanished. Since the watering hole dried up, I have been happily absorbed in creative endeavors, like podcasting and writing fiction, but I very much miss working with good people. (I also miss wearing nice clothes and accessories – half-kidding, but half-not.)
–My spouse’s job situation changed this year, and has changed again. (I am so grateful that his work enabled me to do what I’ve been doing for the past year, and now I’d like to Do My Part, so to speak.)
I know, by the way, that finding a full-time job will not be easy and it will likely not happen within a few months, or a year, or even ever. In addition to the aforementioned chaotic and diminishing job market, I am a Woman of a Certain Age, and I think age-ism is very real, even though people tell me I look and act absurdly young for my chronological age (one, Korean skincare and good genes, and two, I have Gen Z kids who keep me up to date on the latest cultural trends).
In addition, while I am secure in the knowledge of my many skills and my varied and wonderful work experiences, I am not at all sure that organizations want what I can give, at the moment. Like: On the plus side, I can pretty much do anything when it comes to communications or grantmaking or executive leadership – messaging, branding, marketing, thought leadership, executive communications, strategic planning, internal, external, website, campaigns, storytelling, narrative change, organizational development – these are all things I’ve either led or been deeply engaged in, throughout my full-time AND my consulting career. I can take the most insanely complex issue areas and translate them into stories and messages for multiple audiences. I am also EXTREMELY productive (I accomplish a lot in every job I’ve ever been in) and I really like to make work fun and engaging for myself and for others around me (from one of my earliest jobs, the president of the organization wrote THIS in a reference letter: “She did more to bring life and fun to this dead-ass culture here than anyone I’ve ever seen”). I have also learned and accomplished a lot in the diversity, equity, and inclusion spaces. I feel like I have given good advice and mentorship support to a lot of people – up, down, and sideways from whatever position I happened to be in at the moment. And finally, while budget and administration and management are not my favorite work activities, I do feel as if I’ve had a good track record in tackling them thoughtfully and with compassion.
I am seriously wondering whether organizations want those qualities and skills anymore? It feels like job descriptions, these days, are emphasizing “AI integration and management” (I am not opposed to AI, but I don’t automatically trust the people who are pushing AI tools as the end-all, be-all of everything) and media relations (which I’ve done, multiple times, and I sense that people asking for this aren’t quite on top of how much the media landscape has changed). I also had a recruiter ask me, in a hinting sort of way, whether I’d be open to making sweeping changes to a team she didn’t seem to know anything about, by which I guessed (I think correctly) that she was asking if I’d be willing to fire people. And I sensed that my answer didn’t satisfy, which was that yes, I’m all for finding that alignment between the right person and the right position, and am willing to make tough decisions and choices, but, um, would I be able to first take my own measure of the situation and the people? Apparently not.
[As a side note: A few people have told me that the honesty in my writing here will not be helpful and may even be viewed with alarm by a prospective employer. This reminds me of the feedback I have consistently gotten whenever I’ve participated in a 360 review – 98% of responses rate my direct communications style as “refreshing” and “extremely helpful,” but 2% will always, always rate it as “hurtful,” or “overly directive.” I want to quote Groucho Marx here and say, “I don’t want to be a member of any club that would have me,” but I think what I’m trying to say is, if prospective employers want a toe-the-line, never-say-what-you mean type, come-up-with-an-unconvincing-spin type of person, then yes, I agree, I’m NOT the right fit.]
To sum up: I have been incredibly blessed with good fortune and privilege, despite the uncertainty that exists in the present and the future. I have had a wonderful career and I have so many good things in my life and also we are very far from financial desperation. So many people in this country are worse off and there is a part of me that wonders if I should leave the shrinking number of job openings for them, and plan for a future in which I never work again. But despite all of the reasons not to seek out another opportunity, I still can’t get rid of this feeling that I have more to contribute. I have had the happiest moments of my life with respect to personal events – but I also have so many cherished experiences of great moments at work, where achievements came to fruition, or people valued each other and worked towards a shared goal, or everyone felt really proud of hitting a milestone and knew exactly what each and every person had done to hit that goal.
My jobs, in other words, have helped sustain and nourish my belief in the potential of this great, complicated country to find better ways forward, because those job experiences have exposed me to all of the amazing people and organizations you don’t hear about underneath the screaming, stress-inducing headlines of the day. Each and every time I worked at a full-time job, or worked with a client on a communications project or piece of writing, I met so many people who were so smart, so insightful, and so clear-eyed and passionate about making the world a better place. If I do succeed in finding work in the next year, this, really, would be the thing I’m most looking forward to.
Minna Jung Consulting 