I'm sorry to have been away for such a long time. The short answer is that I've been rather absorbed in my new job.

The longer answer is that I'm not sure what effect my new life is going to have on my writing. Having been out on a spiritual ocean for so long, I might need to find my land legs and see if I can write on the ground.

But enough of that. Let me tell you about my new job.

I'll start with a general description, then give some technical details for those who are interested.

A college roommate of mine, whom I last saw at his wedding in 1983 (I think it was '83), found Real Live Preacher, read a bit, and contacted me. He was until recently the president of the American Cancer Society Foundation. Executive guy. Smart, driven, high-achieving. Nice guy too. His name is Rob Mitchell. Rob and his friend Hank Zachry, who is also a serious business guy, currently the president of his own company, started Philanthromax, a consulting company for nonprofits that produces instruments that assess and analyze charitable giving trends.

Rob told me about his new company and asked me to evaluate their website, which I did. It was a standard Web 1.0 site. Nice graphics. Static content. Based on the image roll-over menus, I suspected it was laid out in Photoshop, sliced up, and published with Dreamweaver.

I sent Rob a rather lengthy email in which I described Web 2.0, the power of social media, Content Management Systems, and so on. Web insiders are already yawning but it was new to him.

We had some conversations, yada yada yada, and Rob and Hank asked me to take their current site and turn it into a Drupal site, Drupal being the ultimate (IMHO) open source CMS. I was also asked to install a payment gateway system for the purchase of their new product, the highly technical and hush-hush PhilanthroDEX, a fancy nonprofit forecasting instrument developed by a team of Ph.D. statisticians. When the team "hit" on their algorithm that ties nonprofit giving in the U.S. to a series of 40 or 50 financial markers, there was a rush to the patent office.

Don't you love the intrigue?

So I developed their Drupal site on a contract basis. The project was completed and I got paid, which was nice because we were COMPLETELY out of money. Here is the site I finished for them. I did the theme work myself, using the graphic look from their original site. Technical details below if you are interested.

Apart from a few little things, their site isn't making use of Drupal's considerable abilities. My next project is to actually use some Drupal muscle to turn their site into a robust social media site around which conversations about nonprofit fundraising, giving trends, and other topics can take place. I have 10 weeks to finish that project. (10 weeks to put the machinery in place, so to speak, and begin working the site to encourage those conversations.) At the end of that 10 weeks, their our site will be the model for a website package that we can also sell. "Like our site? We can set one up for you."

What does this mean for me?

1. If I do a good job, I have a chance at a permanent position with Philanthromax, which I think I would like.

2. I'm also thinking of temporarily changing the name of this blog to something like "Chronicles of a Clueless Working Boy" or something. I'm going to return to blogging regularly, but I'll be writing a lot about my new job for the next couple of months. Kind of a subject change for me. Life in the corporate world.

3. This is kind of a secret. but you could help me in my quest to land a permanent job. I'll tell you more about that in my next post.

Technical Details for those interested

The new Philanthromax site is a Drupal 6.16 site. I developed the theme using Artisteer, a tool that is looked down upon by serious Drupal gurus and professional theme designers. However, I think it is a marvelous tool if you need a straightforward design. A wysiwyg interface that produces a master file that is then exported to a theme collection of php and css files. If you need to change something in your theme design, you return to your master file, make your changes, export, upload, and you're done. With tools like Artisteer you simply need to know their limitations. If you need a fancier theme, go to a serious theme developer. If not, you can keep your work in-house without having a theme specialist on the team.

Modules I'm using:

1. The standard drupal core and optional modules like blog, poll, etc.

2. Node Block - turns sidebar blocks into standard nodes for easy updating.

3. Taxonomy Access Control - allows me to restrict content access based on user roles and tags. Only members can see the highly confidential PhilanthroDEX files. Oooooh!

4. Panels - a free form layout module that I used to design our landing page for PhilanthroDEX members. Demo here.

5. Views - a module which allows me to construct various ways for users to view information. (Example: "Take all blog entries labeled as "news" and put their titles in a block on the front page) I think this module has been adopted into Drupal's core for Drupal 7. It's practically a core function now for most serious Drupal users.

I'll be rolling out a lot of new functions and cool stuff over the coming weeks.

More later...

Gordon

I have a lot of things on my mind these days. Needing money will provide an amazing clarity of vision, though, so I find that mostly I’m dreaming about finding a job. I admit I’m probably building it up to be something far beyond what is realistic, but I keep imagining leaving the house in the morning, whistling, and grabbing a cup of coffee as I go out the door. A paycheck that comes regularly. Not having to worry about the next gig, or the next writing thing, or the next website.

I know this is an insanely unrealistic view of things, so you don’t have to leave comments to tell me so. I’m enjoying engaging in a little fantasy. I’m well aware that reality will - as it always does - slap me upside the head and bring me back down to earth.

Still…a job. Wow. Can you imagine?

People with jobs are like, "Yeah, we can imagine. We go to our jobs every day! I know, but I'm just saying...

After my sister helped me get my resume into some order, I realized that I actually have some marketable skills. The only issue is arranging them in such a manner that a human resources person would notice them.

• Good writer.
• Very nice set of generalized web design skills - running a server, handling light IT stuff, html, graphics, blah blah.
• Experience with Drupal CMS.
• Social media specialist with corporate experience.

I have begun to understand that the last of these may well be my most marketable skill. I developed a blog network for the Christian Century, and worked with Marcus Goodyear to develop another one for the high calling. Both of these have borne considerable fruit. And I’ve been working with a company in New Braunfels to develop the social media aspects of their website and have had amazing success in improving their rankings with Google.

And there is this: I am one of the early bloggers who managed to develop quite a nice little blog for himself. I have been immersed in social media from early on.

So with my sister’s help, I put my resume together and applied for my first job. USAA had a listing for a chief corporate blogger and social media manager.

“Who is more qualified than me?” I asked myself, as I cheerfully uploaded my resume to the USAA website. I never heard back, which is understandable. Uploading resumes to websites is a long shot. It’s something you do so that you can honestly say you’re looking for a job. It’s something you do while you work your own network and try to find opportunities that come through relationships. I’m not saying people don’t get jobs by uploading resumes, but the best opportunities usually come through personal relationships and networking.

Right after I uploaded my resume, I decided to put together a profile at Monster.com. So I did. That was on a Monday. The next day I got a call from someone who worked at Venturion, which I identified as some kind of corporate recruiting agency. I was flattered and agreed to stop by and meet with Don Huse that very week.

Don’s office was impressive. Rich carpet and dark paneled walls. I was quite intimidated, I must say. But Don’s opening words definitely put me at ease. He shook my hand and said,

I have to tell you that I’m a big fan of your blog. I’ve been reading Real Live Preacher for years now. My wife and I kept saying we should visit your church. I finally did - the week after you resigned.

Wow, the guy actually knows who I am. I know that among a certain community of blogging people, I’m sort of well known. My writing for the Christian Century has kind of gotten my name out there. But if you take 1000 people at random in my city and ask if they have heard of me, the odds are that none will know my name. So to find a corporate recruiter and job specialist who is aware of my situation and perhaps values my gifts is…well…really something.

Coming next: I meet for 3 hours with the people at Venturion and find out that my resume needs a lot more work.

AND…wait for it…my first job possibility!

Once I decided to look for a 9-5 job, I entered a whole new world. And it’s not a world I’m very familiar with. The last time I had that kind of a job was 1989, when I was a chaplain at Baylor Medical Center in Dallas. In the years since I worked for Covenant Baptist Church on a part-time basis and made my living doing a variety of other things. I’ve worked hard and have a lot of experience in a variety of areas, but it’s been a long time since I had to live and work in the corporate world.

I didn’t mention this, but the straw that broke the camel’s back for me was a medical issue with my middle daughter. We don’t have very good insurance, and, as usual, it’s not covered. Facing serious medical bills, I finally realized that I can’t keep stringing together a bunch of part-time gigs and consulting opportunities. I just can’t afford to live like this anymore. Financial stress is a bitch. I’ve lived with it for a long time. And I’m tired.

So, it’s a real job for me. And I’m excited about the possibilities. Rather than feel bad that I don’t know much about corporate life, I’m going to trust that I can figure it out. And hey, it will give me something fun to write about. As long as I’m careful and don’t get dooced, you and I could have some fun with this, right? RLP drops into the corporate world and tries to figure out how to survive there. It’s like a Foy story come to life.

The first order of business was putting together a resume. I called my sister in Houston and she said she would help me. I wrote a rambling little account of all the things I’ve done with my life and sent it to her. She called me back with some sobering news.

“Hey Gordo. (Only my sister and my dad are allowed to call me Gordo.) Okay first, you have to change the message on your mobile phone voicemail. That little thing you’ve got about how you don’t like voicemail and send you a text message instead? Anyone who calls you and gets that is never going to call you again.”

Damn, I’ve got to start checking voicemail again. Oh well.

“No problem. I’ll change it.”

“Good. Um, this stuff you sent me? We’ve got to reorganize it. No one wants to read all those details. We need it organized with most recent employment first. And short statements with clear verbs are what’s needed. Short statements about what you have done, highlighting your skills. I’m sending you a resume template.”

“Okay.”

“And finally this. I don’t know exactly how to say this, but all those years you were the pastor of a church? They aren’t going to help you. And if the wrong person is looking at your resume, all this church stuff might actually hurt you.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“It’s not that corporate people don’t appreciate the Church. It’s just that they don’t know how those skills will translate. They’re looking for someone who can help them and who has some skills. Don’t get me wrong, there might be some people out there who WOULD appreciate your ministry experience and know how it translates. What I’m saying is, if you’re submitting a resume online and don’t know who is going to be looking at it. You might want to de-emphasize it. Or just leave it off altogether.”

Wow. Just like that I find that 20 years of my life might not be all that helpful. Okay, so I’ll redo the resume thing. No problem.

rlp

Coming next: RLP meets monster.com.