Yenta Sep 2023 -- jobs, friends, dating
The point of a wedding is to get your people to understand why you should be married
Hey folks! Let’s keep the matchmaking energy going.
In this issue, you can expect:
My life updates: I got married!
My work updates: We are hiring! (A key role)
Friends who are hiring
Friends who are looking for connection and projects
Behind the scenes
Some things I’m keeping an eye on
Let’s go!
I got married.
Sarah is pretty wonderful. Often, we look at each other and say “hey, never break up with me. Promise? What if you signed a contract to that effect?”. Guess what: we went for it.
Here is a link to the collaborative photo album from the event.
The night before we got married, Sarah and I stayed up late and talked about what marriage even means, to us. What does it mean? Relatedly, what is the point of a wedding?
The latter was easy — the point of a wedding is to bring your people in one place and show them why you should be married. That community-focused orientation feels deeply important but also kind of quietly … subversive? We didn’t do vows (beyond the ketuba). The space in the ceremony that would have been taken by vows, I spent talking to the crowd (the Rabbi really doesn’t like the term “audience”) about who Sarah is, why she’s great, why we fit together well. It was good.
As for getting married — now, don’t roll your eyes, but I think of it kind of like implementing an interface or an API. We’re telling the world that they can use a shorthand way to understand us and how to interact with us. There’s a certain number of actions or assumptions people can take with us (invite to dinner, remember the spouse’s name, understand that we’re a social unit) and get a predictable range of reactions to them. And, similarly, we get social permission to do things more easily (e.g. bring each other to work events, reference each other). But just as you refactor code over and over behind a stable API, so too can we change our relationship to each other in the backend.
Dating is the act of looking for someone who doesn’t just tolerate the things people might find difficult about you — instead, they positively delight in them.
Wedding planning is the exercise you take to distract you from the enormity of the step you’re about to take.
We are hiring!
As a reminder, I run the Integrity Institute:
The Integrity Institute is a nonprofit organization that is run by — and a steward of — our community of integrity professionals. We are engineers, product managers, researchers, analysts, data scientists, operations specialists, policy experts and more, with decades of combined experience across numerous platforms. We have gathered to put our experience to use for the social good: to build a social internet where individuals, societies, and democracies can thrive. It’s working really well – we are relatively new, and we are thriving.
We’re hiring a managing director. Do you know someone who would be perfect?
I’m in the process of updating and clarifying the JD, but here’s a taste of what it might look like:
The managing director will be an integral member of our leadership team – a chief administrator of our operations and programs; and as deputy, partner, and advisor to the executive director. You would ensure that we are ever-more effective as an organization and a team. This is a senior role that focuses both on upgrading the organization as a whole and on day-to-day people management, including supervising or supporting the leaders of our four key departments: Community, Operations, Research, and Bridge-To-The-World (fundraising, communications, partnerships).
In other words — we’re looking for someone to help me run the organization and help cover management and operational leadership, so that I can spend more time with overall leadership, especially thought-, community- and strategic-leadership.
Or something like that. Honestly, I always wonder if keywords like that confuse more than they help. Maybe the short way to put it is that I’d like help with the actual day-to-day running of the organization, and a COO/deputy director/managing director seems like the term for that kind of thing. Know anyone good?
(We’re also hiring for a community project manager — aka a PM for community-driven or initiated projects. And likely soon a fundraising contractor and an HR contractor).
Friends who are hiring
As a reminder, I source these mainly through Facebook posts — sahar.io/yentathread. If one these tickles your fancy, email me directly and I’ll get you in touch.
Kushaan is “hiring a ton at Grammarly in engineering and sales! https://www.grammarly.com/jobs/openings”
Leo just founded a dispensary. He’s hiring a lot. In his words:
Voltaire is a progressive retail dispensary opening in South Jersey this October. We will be donating a minimum of 2% of all profits to the Voltaire Institute, a foundation that will focus primarily on climate change, inequality, and social justice.
We are looking to fill multiple roles (budtender, reception, inventory, etc.), but the most important is GM, who will work as my right hand and essentially be in charge of all operations.
To learn more and apply, visit our website and, when completing the survey, list Sahar Masachi as your reference (and you can also reach me at leo [at] shopvoltaire.com) https://www.voltairecannabis.com/careers
Pat Garofalo points to a lot of jobs at the American Econ Liberties Project
(I helped place an intern there from Brandeis! Seems like it went really well)
Friends who are looking for connection and projects
In the latest yentathread we have people looking for:
Friends in Chicago
Friends in Seattle
Sublets in Manhattan and Tel Aviv
Housing in Boston
People to fill a sublet in Boston
Clients for freelance writing
Clients for UI/UX coaching
Jobs in epidemiology, public health, or data analytics
Jobs in tech (light coding / sysadmin)
Jobs in tech for good (SWE)
Jobs as a CPA
Jess is looking to sublet an apartment for a few days in New York:
Do you have a friend who will be out of town whose apartment we can rent? It’s my mom & bro & me for 1 overnight.
Looking for 3 bed 1 bath for 9/16 at min or 9/15-9/18 at max.
Also: (I am personally looking for friends in Brooklyn, and a coworking place in downtown brooklyn near both the G and one of the 2/3/4/5)
Any of that sound interesting? Hit me up directly and we will matchmake!
But what about dating?
I’m always on the lookout for friends to profile who either:
have a strange or offbeat career
are looking for romance
or both!
If that’s you, let me know! But also, lots of the dating matchmaking happens behind the scenes — via the romance intake form.
Reminder: behind the scenes!
Do you know about the jobs form? Do you know about the romance intake form?
Rather than have people remind me every month that they’re looking for a job or dates, it’s easier to have it all in a rolodex. Plus lots of good questions that help me do a better job linking people together. Hence — the form!
Beyond the visible stuff you see me doing, I’m also emailing or texting people who filled out these forms and matchmaking directly. It’s fun :-)
Some things I’m keeping an eye on
Sarah and I are obsessed with Frosthaven
Playing a lot of the new Zelda to relax
I’m intrigued by Baldur’s Gate 3, going to get into that too
In Boston this week for Berkman’s 25th anniversary. Then Boston again in October for Brandeis’ 75th.
Will be in Stanford for the Trust and Safety Research Conference later this month
Steve Krouse was featured in a NYTimes article about “date me docs”. Steve is a friend, some people followed that article to his directory, which links here. Hi new readers!
Failbetter Games has some of the best corporate mailing lists I’ve ever seen. (It helps that they sells games that focus on being well written and witty!)
Finally bought a subscription to John Ganz’s substack as a wedding gift to myself
Hope all is well, catch you next time.