Business
Jack Molisani Finding the right job in the content strategy field has always been a challenge, and it's getting harder as computers take over more of the applicant screening process. Changes in the industry - especially the convergence of technical and marketing communication duties - also mean that you you have to be proactive about managing your career, even if you aren't job hunting. Jack Molisani knows how to navigate this challenging landscape. He is both the principal of a staffing agency that focuses on content talent and the organizer of the LavaCon content strategy conference. We talked about: the origin story of the LavaCon conference the content management and publishing systems used to execute omnichannel strategy the convergence of marketing communication and technical communication what content professionals need to know to prepare for emerging trends in content practice the importance of speaking to senior management in their language how to deal with applicant tracking systems when you are preparing and submitting your resume how to completely skirt the automated job application world by working your professional network and improving your visibility Jack's bio Jack Molisani is the president of ProSpring Technical Staffing, an employment agency specializing in content professionals. He’s the author of Be The Captain of Your Career: A New Approach to Career Planning and Advancement, which hit #5 on Amazon’s Career and Resume Best Seller list. Jack also produces the LavaCon Conference on Content Strategy and Technical Communication Management, to be held in virtually 24-27 October 2021. Connect with Jack on social media LinkedIn Video Here’s the video version of our conversation: https://youtu.be/1he6YNdGkjc Podcast intro transcript This is the Content Strategy Insights podcast, episode number 107. As marketing communication and technical communication slowly begin to converge around omnichannel distribution strategies, content professionals need to stay on their toes. Both the details of the work and the ways that employers seek out content talent are changing. Jack Molisani can help you navigate this new terrain. He runs both a content staffing agency and LavaCon, a big content strategy and technical communication conference. Interview transcript Larry: Hi, everyone. Welcome to episode number 107 of the Content Strategy Insights podcast. I'm really happy today to welcome back Jack Molisani. Jack, you may know, he does a lot of stuff. He's runs ProSpring Technical Staffing, an agency that focuses on content professionals. He also organizes the LavaCon conference, which is ... Well, tell us more about LavaCon, Jack, because that's coming up pretty quick and you've been doing it how long now? Jack: This is our 19th annual conference. We've survived a dot-com crash, two recessions and a pandemic. Larry: Wow! Way to keep it going. That's amazing. I just want to observe just for the folks who are listening, that I put on a Hawaiian shirt for this because the name LavaCon comes from ... Well, tell the origin story real quick. Jack: The conference started in Hawaii back when there was STC region seven and eight. We had a combined conference in Hawaii in the year 2000 and everyone kept saying, "I can't wait till year." I'm going, "There is no next year. Hmmm. Maybe there's an opportunity here, but what's my niche?" Right? There's the STC conference. There was Win Writers at the time. I said, "There's not enough conferences with us, with a little gray in our temples." Jack: I did a content strategy conference and content documentation management, and that worked and we had it in Hawaii. That's why it's called LavaCon. That worked until the market crash in 2008. After that, I brought the conference to mainland U.S. cities, but I wanted to keep that aloha spirit that we were known for. The local music, the local foods,