Kossack Jobs Club

There's been some talk about the Democratic party providing more community and more services to its members. I think it's time for some action. I want to start a Kossacks Jobs Club.

I'm envisioning localized blogs or websites with job postings and employment news. Some people have indicated that there might be legal problems with Democrats only hiring Democrats. There's gotta a be a way around that, doesn't there? It's not like the hiring Dems would be forced to hire other Dems. In any case, if there's a lawyer in the house familiar with unemployment law, can you post what you know?

Even if posting jobs is a problem, there's another job-related service we could provide: ADVICE. Advice on how to find a job, on which field to go into, what kind of training to get, and how to start one's own business. There's a lot of smart unemployed Kossacks out there who need your help. They could go on to make immeasurable contributions to society if somebody in our community gave them a hand. I for one would be thrilled to work for myself, if I knew what I had to offer that people would want.

The other related idea I had was getting a jobs-club or jobs-advice-club going through my local DFA Meetup. If you're in the Oakland area, would you be interested in helping me get this going?

What say you, Kossacks? Do you give a shit about your fellow reform Dems? Do you want to see more smart interesting people get jobs they enjoy and are good at?

•  Actually

  since the Supreme Court has gutted employment discrimination law, I don't think that there are any problems with hiring people based on their political viewpoints. In fact, I know that there have been cases taken up for wrongful terminiation based on politics, and the plaintiffs have all lost. After all, "political leaning" is not a suspect classification under substantative due process or the 14th Amendment.

  by julie37 on Tue Dec 21, 2004 at 01:20:37 PM PDT

  •  No kidding?

    Now THAT'S fascinating about the cases regarding wrongful termination based on politics. And a good point about the 14th Amendment. Thanks for the info.

    A word after a word after a word is power. -- Margaret Atwood

    by tmo on Tue Dec 21, 2004 at 01:43:32 PM PDT

•  Can't help in Oakland...

  ...though given that it's like 20 degrees here in DC, I wish I could.

  I'm all for the jobs club idea... there are several reasons:

  1. Finding people who know how to code HTML and who are interested in doing political work is harder than you would think. Being on the jobseeking end sometimes and on the hiring end at others, I think that institutions would benefit from this as much as individuals would.

  2. Politics is a rough business, and this could be a great way to show people support for their choice to get involved.

  3. I'm down with anything that helps Kossacks organize on a more local basis. Especially as the site draws a bigger and bigger audience (I'm fairly new myself), breaking it down to groups that can establish a more intimate sense of community would be great.

  by redsoxkangaroo on Tue Dec 21, 2004 at 01:21:59 PM PDT

  •  Good political HTML coders hard to find?

    Thank you - this is EXACTLY the kind of advice I was hoping to spark. I'm extremely surprised to hear you say that it's hard to find people who know how to code HTML and are interested in doing political work. It seems like you can't swing a cat in the Bay Area without finding an out-of-work HTML coder, but I don't know how many of those guys are interested in politics. I've never bothered learning it since I figured the field was flooded already. If I could find out if what you say is true out here as well, that would open up whole new worlds.
    

    A word after a word after a word is power. -- Margaret Atwood

    by tmo on Tue Dec 21, 2004 at 01:48:28 PM PDT

    •  The problem...

      ...is that coders got hooked on $ 5 years ago, and political work never pays like the private sector. I learned HTML and such because it was a way to find my niche in the political world, not the other way around.

      The other thing about political work is that it makes time demands that normal jobs often don't ... late nights that aren't necessarily convenient, and that sort of thing.

      The combination of good political sense and technical abilities is getting less rare, but there's still a market for it. I find that by hanging out with political folks, and then bringing technological solutions to their problems, I earn a lot of goodwill, and my career in politics, while not putting me at the top of the heap (you won't see me on Crossfire), has been one of steady work and opportunity.

      A lot of people who got involved with Dean's campaign by starting their own state Dean blogs or whatever have found that their expertise is now in demand. I think that the trend will continue, and that the market will stay strong for people who are into politics and have technical skills who aren't demanding software developer salaries.

      One way to get started is to fire up your own blog (you may have one already), and take a disciplined aproach to it. Don't go crazy for every tin foil hat theory, as that is a big turnoff for political professionals...just find the interesting stuff that's out there, and write about it. Gently grow your audience, and you'll start to gain contacts in politics in the Bay Area and beyond.

      by redsoxkangaroo on Tue Dec 21, 2004 at 02:01:28 PM PDT

      •  php, sql and security...

        HTML is a bit of a soft skill. But even the backend coding aspects are still job-dormant. Even for those willing to work for less.

        As a side note: Have we done much to bring the diaries into the RSS age? I would love to see diary notices as a themed feed and daily themed autoresponder. Would improve coverage.
        

        by singularity on Tue Dec 21, 2004 at 02:07:21 PM PDT

  •  "people who know how to code

    HTML and are interested in doing political work.."

    Really - people are hard to find?  Which institutions, if you don't mind my asking, would be looking?  This is definitely right up my alley but I haven't made the move back to DC yet and don't know quite where to start looking.

    by daria g on Tue Dec 21, 2004 at 02:06:49 PM PDT

    •  Get Back Here

      And get on the WIN list...I'm not on because it's a Women's Information Network, but I hear that there are jobs aplenty posted on it and I have heard from more than one source that tech jobs that post there don't get the kind of applications that people who are hiring are hoping for.

      But let me be clear: They're not just looking for someone who can code. In my experience, they want people who can code a little html, write (and Kossacks should be able to do that), and have decent project management skills.

      It's a town of connections, but that combination of skills seems to get noticed pretty fast. Think about it...thousands of little and big organizations, and every one of them needs a person who can do those things.

      by redsoxkangaroo on Tue Dec 21, 2004 at 09:23:10 PM PDT

      •  Thanks!!!!!

        Thank you very, very much for the tip.  I didn't know about the WIN.  I was reading the "dcpubs" group over at Yahoo for listings but I had forgotten all the other inside info I used to know about.  I did work and live in DC just a few years ago, and perhaps could get a job fairly easily with my old company but I hate to just take the default option without looking around a little bit.  

        I write (and edit) better than I can code, most days, and I suppose my learning curve will not be too slow on the rest; the department where I used to work was, like, me and five project managers.

        I really can't tell you how helpful it is that you've mentioned this.  I'm currently stuck in New England and trying to plan a move back to Washington, and it gets to be a real drag because I just want the process over with - so it surely brightens my morning to think that there will be a good number of job prospects there.  I left school not long ago and am sick of being broke, too. :)

        by daria g on Wed Dec 22, 2004 at 05:48:17 AM PDT

•  legality-shmegality

  The legality of such an endeavor wouldn't be an issue if you just ran job postings on a site linked through DailyKos. How many Repugs check the DailyKos? And of those, how many would apply for a job they would know to be in a non-friendly-to-Repugs environment? This system exists for Repugs already - it's called the Good 'Ol Boy Network. Why not start a Good Fellow Democrat Network?
  I already post my job openings at a clearinghouse for archaeologists. It wouldn't be a hardship to also post them at a Dem-Friendly site. Certainly citing that site in the cover letter would be the signal that your potential hire is potential fellow Dem.
  Best of luck.

  by Rainman on Tue Dec 21, 2004 at 01:22:00 PM PDT

  •  Thank you

    Thanks for the encouragement. I'm thinking that it'd be better to do it and see what happens than worry about the legalities, especially as Julie37 noted above, many plantiffs have lost cases alleging political discrimination.
    

    A word after a word after a word is power. -- Margaret Atwood

    by tmo on Tue Dec 21, 2004 at 01:50:23 PM PDT

•  I'm down for this

  As it is, I will go out of my way to support like-minded people.  Hell, I dumped 2 contractors already based on their pro-Bush statements, like I agreed or something.  I flat out told them what the issue was and they both agreed that we'd all be better off not working together.  The plumber even gave me a couple of names of other plumbers he knew who are Dems.  Yay me!

  by fabooj on Tue Dec 21, 2004 at 01:25:55 PM PDT

  •  Oops, hit post

    I'm even willing to carry links or ads (discounted) from Demb. on my websites, provided they don't fall outside the scope of work.

    by fabooj on Tue Dec 21, 2004 at 01:27:14 PM PDT

•  I like it!

  ...let's find me a job!

  by MrSalem on Tue Dec 21, 2004 at 01:26:08 PM PDT

•  Post jobs in dKosopedia? n/t

  by lilithvf1998 on Tue Dec 21, 2004 at 01:59:48 PM PDT

  •  Posting jobs in dKosopedia

    That's something I've thought about, as a halfway step between just posting diaries and creating whole new blogs. I'll give it some thought and see if I can come up with a system.
    

    A word after a word after a word is power. -- Margaret Atwood

    by tmo on Tue Dec 21, 2004 at 05:28:18 PM PDT

•  Better late than never.

  I really like this idea.

  by Dan Hogan on Mon Jan 03, 2005 at 05:21:27 PM PDT