A Champion for Change: Diane Linn’s Job Search Success Story

One of the best ways to find your dream job is to search for positions that focus on your passions. On this bonus episode of Find Your Dream Job, Diane Linn talks about how she used her years of experience in the political arena to create a job for herself in an area she felt passionate about – home ownership. Diane shares how she and a group of like-minded people created a PAC (political action committee) to focus on providing housing for the homeless and how she became the director of that PAC. Learn more about Diane’s career history below in this installment of our Success Stories series. 

Transcript

Find Your Dream Job, Bonus Episode 78:

A Champion for Change: Diane Linn’s Job Search Success Story

Airdate: September 3, 2024

Mac Prichard:

This is Find Your Dream Job, the podcast that helps you get hired, have the career you want, and make a difference in life.

I’m your host, Mac Prichard. I’m also the founder of Mac’s List. It’s a job board in the Pacific Northwest that helps you find a fulfilling career.

One of the best ways to get good at job hunting is to talk to people who do it well.

That’s why once a month, I interview a Mac’s List reader who found a job they love.

Our guest today is Diane Linn. She’s the director of HOME PAC. It’s a political action committee promoting candidates for city council in Portland, Oregon.

Diane Linn believes in the importance of building community at the state and local levels.

In a story you can find on the Mac’s List website, Diane talks about how creating community has been central to her career.

Why do you love your job, Diane?

Diane Linn:

I have to thank Mac’s List for helping me find the job before this as the executive director of Proud Ground. It brought me back to my hometown of Portland, Oregon, and the reason that I love my job now so much is this gives me a chance to really, I hope,  influence the outcome in a positive way of this brand new, historic city council race that we’re facing here this fall, November of 2024.

We’re going to have a new mayor, we’re going to have twelve new members of the Portland City Council; it’s a completely reformed approach to local government, and what we’re doing at the Home Pac is we’re working with the candidates. There’s over 80 that have filed for offices here.

Again, there are four new districts that have been established in Portland, and there will be three new representatives from each of those districts, and what we’re doing is we’re vetting candidates for those who really care deeply about housing affordability and the management of the homeless community in a compassionate and appropriate way, so that we all gain, the whole city wins.

This is an extraordinary place we live. We’ve got some extremely difficult challenges in housing affordability, and we need a team of people at the city of Portland that can work together, that can collaborate with other jurisdictions, and that can really invest in making Portland the diverse and wonderful place it can be, and more affordable for everyone.

Mac Prichard:

What attracted you to working for Home Pac, Diane?

Diane Linn:

Well, I had been working with a group of advocates for the last ten years here in Portland after I came back from Marin County, where I ran a homeless agency in Marin County, CA for six years, after I had left Portland, having served as Multnomah County chair commissioner prior to that, where we wrote the first ten-year plan to end homelessness and really tackled the very difficult and challenging issues from behavioral health to housing affordability to development and all of the issues that go along with those challenges.

The organization that I had been involved with is a nonprofit called “Housing Oregon,” where the nonprofit and advocacy team, statewide and locally, for Portland and the Metro area, really work on how to create public policy, change public policy, promote investments that result in more units of affordable housing across the board, and this is across the whole continuum of housing needs from people who have no money, who have landed in living rough every night.

We know who they are, and it’s a very big and challenging group, up to working-class families. People who are doing all of the right things and just trying to get by every day. Housing costs are driving their budgets out of control, and we’re trying to create opportunities for working families and middle-class families to find homes.

I’ve been very much involved in the home-ownership element, especially for the communities of color that really got left out of the market in the last many years of time.

Mac Prichard:

How did you find this job, Diane? Tell us more about your job search.

Diane Linn:

Well, this job is kind of out of a creation, and many people out there, probably since Covid and before, decided to figure out if they could actually create entities or small businesses, and the thing is, you can’t do that all by yourself. It took a lot of work to coordinate with a team of people to talk to the advocates and the nonprofit leaders who I had been working with for so long and say, “Hey, shouldn’t we consider doing a special approach and engage in this historic city council race for the first time through a separate entity called a Political Action Committee.” There are different taxations and very important distinctions between what nonprofits do and what Political Action Committees do.

There was a team of us that created the Pac, and I got to surface as the director, given my history as both a candidate, political activist, let’s just say, a political junkie, most of my life. Not everybody loves politics. I’m someone who does, and I think it’s very important that we engage in the processes of choosing people who are going to make critical decisions for our community.

This was created through a team of people that felt as I did that we really needed to look at these races and set a better stage for a conversation with the city council going forward.

Mac Prichard:

It sounds very entrepreneurial. There was a need, and you were active in the community, in touch with people who were working on the issues that you cared about, and from those relationships and conversations came this organization, and you, as you said, created a job for yourself.

What advice would you have, Diane, for someone who would like to do that as well? Whether they’re setting up their own business or their own nonprofit or a political action committee like you’ve been involved in.

Diane Linn:

The thing that I think is important is to have a foundation, and again, I’m toward the end of my career, and many people are in different stages of their careers, and it’s not always the best thing to do to create something brand new because there’s so many things going on in the community already.

There’s so many nonprofits taking on all kinds of issues, and there are other political efforts, so first, I would say, be sure that if you want to do something, you have a passion for something, if it’s animals, children, environment, anything that really piques your interest and would make you want to jump out of bed in the morning and get to work, first of all, find out if other people are already doing those things.

I wouldn’t suggest to start something brand new, on your own, without a foundational building block of what you’re going to be trying to do first, and maybe partnering or collaborating with people who are already doing it. I think that’s an important starting point.

If you find that, in our case, there was no political action committee focused on the specific thing that we wanted to do, so we created it. I also did take on this job based on about a 40-year career of really long-standing, full-time positions in leadership jobs that helped set the stage for this. That’s definitely not necessary for everyone, but I do think that you want to go in with strong credentials, whether it’s educational training or real experience, because these things take some understanding of both what can go right and what can go wrong, and believe me, I’ve seen a range of that in the course of my career.

Mac Prichard

You’ve had a very rich and varied career. You have, as you’ve mentioned, held an elected position here in the Portland, Oregon, area, you’ve run a nonprofit, and you also started your career working in the private sector for a cable company.

What advice would you have, Diane, for somebody who would like to either change careers or change sectors- you’ve done both – and is uncertain about how to do that?

Diane Linn:

There are extraordinary transferable skills, really, in all three sectors, the private sector, and I did really cut my teeth in the cable TV business, really learning about budgets and how to achieve results that were based on the outcomes the company really needed, very good training in that area.

In the public sector, wonderful jobs at the city, at the county, at the state, metro, in university systems, where you really learn how bureaucracy works and what really drives conversation, and sometimes, you can find that that’s really where your niche is.

The other sector that I have felt very strongly about, I think, a total of 18+ years in the nonprofit sectors, and that’s where you raise money, balanced with a mission, to achieve special results, usually in a pretty targeted, focused way. I ran Oregon NARAL for Reproductive Rights for women and homeless agency in Marin and then moved to Proud Ground, which was all about providing homeownership for black and Indigenous people of color for the most part but also working with white families.

The range of experiences one can get in their career can really be transferable. For me, it was about, as your introduction suggested, it was all about really building communities; for other people, it can be an accounting acumen or running businesses, HR, it can be fundraising, which can be very lucrative, very supportive of all kinds of different efforts.

There’s communications, and then there’s a lot of program work that’s done in all three of the sectors, and I’d say a fourth is really more along the lines of foundations and philanthropic giving. That’s another way to go, and I think the media is yet another area which you’re showcasing here today.

Mac Prichard:

Diane, as you’ve made these changes between sectors and you’ve acquired these skills and they were transferable, as you say, what did you find was most persuasive when you were talking to an employer that helped you make the case that the skills that you learned in budget or management at the cable company applied to the work that you wanted to do for a nonprofit? What helped you make that case?

Diane Linn:

If you can be in a leadership position, work your way up, and that involves supervising people, it involves strategic planning, it involves raising money or managing money, it involves some elements of all of the sectors. Those are, when I applied for the job at Oregon NARAL after coming out of the cable business, and I had, by the way, already volunteered and been engaged in the organization. That’s a huge element, too. If you’re passionate about something, get involved, spend some time, and get to know people.

Mac, let me just emphasize this: this is all about working with and for people, and I would tell the younger person I know, I would tell my former self at age 25, it’s who you work with, and for that makes all the difference in the quality of the jobs that you have, in my opinion.

You can have a job title that sounds spectacular, but if you’re not happy with who you’re working with and for, it’s going to be a miserable experience. Be conscious of how you connect with the person that you’re interviewing with and how they connect with you. Do they see you? Do they hear you? Are they going to respect what you have to offer, and can you really be a huge asset to them as a hiring agent and as someone who’s going to be supervising you?

Those relationships are just crucial.

Mac Prichard:

One of the points that you made in your article for us on the Mac’s List website is the importance of the four agreements outlined by Don Miguel Ruiz and how you used those agreements throughout your career.

Tell us quickly, Diane, what are those agreements, and what difference have they made, both in your career and when you’ve looked for work?

Diane Linn:

Well, I think the four agreements are very simple. I know there’s a thousand different ways people can consider decisions and the way that they operate in life. Being impeccable with your word is very important; people do not want to hear back-biting or rumor-based information in a professional setting; they want to know that what you say is what you mean and what you mean is what you say, and that you use your words in positive ways.

The second thing is, don’t take things personally. If a job is out there and you’re not hearing back from them, it’s usually not about you at all. It’s about what else is going on for that person who’s trying to figure out who to hire. Don’t take things personally. It’s really hard to do and very important.

Then,  don’t make assumptions. If you make assumptions, “Well, I think they’re going to want me to do this,” or “I think I should do this,” or I’m going to create this whole narrative that may or may not be the case at all, you can really sidetrack yourself, and that can cause serious problems. Don’t make assumptions. If you have a question about something, ask the person that knows directly. Don’t hesitate, ask.

The fourth is just to do your very best. Do your best. You can’t expect to be perfect. I have made the most spectacular mistakes you can imagine in the course of my career a few times and learned the most from those experiences. Let yourself make mistakes, but do your best. Don’t just get by in a job. If you’re just getting by and just making the money, that’s not going to work for your next job or what you really want to do. So, do your very best.

Those agreements have both worked in my career and in life.

Mac Prichard:

Finally, Diane, what’s your number one job-hunting tip?

Diane Linn:

I’m going to reemphasize the point that you want to find people that you really work well together with. Through networking, through your community of friends and family, and the people that you meet in your neighborhoods and the people that you talk to at a bar, anyone.

This is your interest, this is what you want to do, and how people network informally and formally, and there are also amazing groups out there that will bring people together in the field that you’re interested in. Talk to people. Get out and be visible, and share with people what you’re passionate about.

You’re going to connect with someone else out there that wants to help you do what you want to do, and you’re going to help them do it. It’s synergetic relationships.

By the way, for introverts, that’s difficult, and I recognize that in that networking element. You have to figure out other ways, maybe through social media or other ways, to connect, but it is about human connection in the end and, again, building those relationships will not only get you your dream job but get you a job that lets you live your dream, that you really want to do the job every day because you want to work with the people that are there too.

Mac Prichard:

Well, thank you for sharing your story, Diane. To learn more about Diane Linn’s job search, visit macslist.org/stories.

And check out the Mac’s List website for dozens of other success stories.

On the second Friday of every month, we add a new interview with a Mac’s List reader who has found a dream job.  Go to macslist.org/stories.

In the meantime, thank you for listening to today’s bonus episode of Find Your Dream Job.

This show is produced by Mac’s List.

Susan Thornton-Hough schedules our guests and writes our newsletter. Lisa Kislingbury Anderson manages our social media.

Our sound engineer and editor is  Matt Fiorillo. Dawn Mole creates our transcripts. And our music is by Freddy Trujillo.

This is Mac Prichard. See you next week.