Oliver Gonzalez Blog

These past weeks have been very exciting. A few months ago I started looking for new opportunities when we decided to close ChefValet.me.

Since then, I’ve been very busy looking for my next gig. The cliché turned out to be true: It’s a job looking for a job. Lots of networking, careful tracking of the companies I was pursuing and an extensive overall of all my career related materials and communications.

I’m very grateful for all the doors that have opened during this process. The fact that more doors have opened than those which have closed is very motivating.

With a lot of excitement I’m happy to announce that I’m joining the Turner family, more specifically, the CNN.com Strategy / Business Operations group. This is an excellent opportunity to continue my career in digital media in one of the top news websites in the world. More importantly, with a very impressive team of people from whom I hope to learn many things and share many successes. I’m glad that this position will allow me to work with all the different teams on CNN.com and collaborate with them to improve specific areas of the site.

I’m also very grateful to all who have helped me achieve this. Everyone who provided me with ideas, feedback and connections.  Duke University provided a career coach, Kalpana Murthy, to advice me through the process. As someone who isn’t experienced in looking for a job, this was very helpful and Kalpana provided me with very professional and practical feedback that made my search much more efficient and productive. 

I also want to thank those with whom I’ve shared a wonderful career and collected amazing memories. Specially to everyone at El Universal and INNOVATION, where the bulk of my career to date has taken place.

Last but not least, I’m incredibly grateful to my friends and family for their support, in particular for Elizabeth’s patience and relentless support. She had to bear the most difficult parts, from the long trips abroad while consulting to the tight economic times while bootstrapping Chef Valet. This is as much her achievement as it is mine.

I wish you all the best and hope to stay in touch during this part of the journey.

Onwards…

I’ve decided to start a job search and I’m reaching out to my network to let you know of my objectives and ask for your support.
I’m still developing Chef Valet, which has been a very interesting opportunity but given its narrow niche, I see it currently as a side business. My consulting work has been very productive and insightful. However my personal goals have changed and I would prefer to belong to a company team and see projects through to their completion.
I’m looking for a position in an innovative company or a startup in an industry that I’m passionate about: content creators, content strategy, multi-channel marketing or consumer lifestyle technologies.

Location wise, it would be ideal to stay in Atlanta, however, we’re willing to relocate for the right opportunity. Our desirable locations are large cities in California, New York, North Carolina, Boulder/Denver, Seattle, DC/Virginia, or Dallas/Austin.

These are the types of positions I’m looking for:

1. Content creators/publishers: A strategic or product development position in a company whose business is the creation of content with a heavy emphasis in Digital Media. This is where the bulk of my experience lies. I can help these companies identify opportunities in digital media and develop products and services to grow and monetize their audiences. This includes news as well as entertainment content but I’m a strong believer of the opportunities in narrowly focused content companies.

2. Content strategy: A position in a consumer oriented company that wants to use content as a critical component of the user’s experience. My experience with content companies translates very well to this practice. I can leverage multiple content channels to make sure these companies produce and publish the right content at the right time to greatly improve the quality and value of their product or services. This implies a bi-directional approach, treating clients as users as well as contributors.

3. Multi-channel marketing: I’ve been working on the opposite side of the table here, creating audiences for advertisers. I’m a strong believer in marketing strategies that coordinate the use of all the channels where the company’s target audience lies. I’m looking for a position where I can innovate in the use of digital media channels to reach the appropriate audience with the right message in order to fulfill the company’s goals. I bring extensive knowledge on how the audience interacts with different outlets and I’m very marketing driven.

4. Technology applied to the consumer’s lifestyle: In a broader sense, my passion is consumer oriented technology and I would love to work in a company that either develops or uses the latest technologies in innovative ways to improve the consumer’s lifestyle. This encompasses a broad range of companies but I’m most passionate about retail, hospitality, food services, health/fitness and communications.
I have begun a list of target companies and will be checking their job boards and will notify you if I find positions at companies at which you have connections. In case we’re not connected, my profile is at http://linkedin.com/in/christianoliver. An updated copy of my resume will always be available at http://about.me/bio/christianoliver.
I would greatly appreciate it if you would keep me in mind if you hear about any opportunities that meet my objectives or making any relevant introductions to grow my network.
Thanks in advance for your support and let me know if I can be of help to you too.