Using Creativity to Find Employment: Former Publisher Auctions Self On eBay

When a drastically shrinking number of advertisers forced Publisher Joe Kennedy to close down the Bellevue Business Journal newspaper in July 2009, he thought it would be easy to find work. With all his connections, he didn’t think that it would be difficult to find work.

Over three years later and Kennedy says he has not had even one real interview.  “When I first started looking for work, I did get two different telephone interviews with people recruiting for contract positions at Microsoft.  Both people said that they’d be calling when a position opened up, but never did.  I have not yet been successful in attracting a real opportunity since”.

Getting Creative to Find Work

While struggling to save his home in June, the entrepreneurial Kennedy decided to write a short blog post contemplating auctioning himself to the highest bidder on eBay.  Almost a full month later, the former publisher did what he said he was going to do – he listed himself fo rsale on an eBay auction.

When the auction ended 7 days later, Kennedy had been “won” by international glass artist Barbara Sanderson of GlassGardensNW, and her partner Craig Weindling, owner of SmileyDog, an Edmonds, Washington-based healthy pet food delivery service.  He felt very fortunate that the winning bidders were people he knew through networking events and social media – as he could have potentially been bought by anyone anywhere in the world.

“I’m very lucky to have this opportunity to work with both Barbara and Craig.  They are great people with very interesting businesses.  Both businesses face challenges familiar to small business and although their challenges are distinctly different, just like all small business owners, they can both use help in a lot of areas.” Kennedy said “many times another set of eyes and ideas can be very useful for business owners of all sizes”.

He admits that the last hours of the auction were nerve-wracking, but that after over a week into “My eBay Jobs Project”, he’s really enjoying it.  “It’s a bit of a challenge to balance the needs and priorities of both businesses – especially considering the limited time limit on the project, but I’m determined to provide HUGE value to both Smiley Dog and Glass Gardens NW.  At the end of the month, I’ll want both Craig and Barbara to be able to say that I helped their businesses, made their lives a bit better and was an incredible value and excellent ROI overall.  We’ll know in a few short weeks and I hope you’ll follow along.”

Joe Kennedy is blogging about his My eBay Jobs Project experience at TheJoeKennedy.com and is available for hire beginning September 1st – until then he is the property of Glass Gardens NW and Smiley Dog healthy pet food delivery.