Several of my friends have marveled recently at how lucky I am to have gotten so many jobs in a recession time. And not just any crap jobs, but really interesting ones that also allow me the flexibility I need.

I’ve been marveling at it everyday myself.

It occurred to me though that given my background and experience as a fundraiser, it kind of makes sense that I was able to hustle income for myself so readily. I realize that the same basic premises and approach applies to both job searching and grassroots fundraising.

Me collecting money from people while Papo makes a pitch when I was Development Manger at Bread & Roses Community Fund.

I think getting a job is some percentage based on your skill and experience, but also based on who you know and pure luck of good timing. I’m not sure what exactly I think the split is, but I think your skill is actually by farthest the least. Significantly.

Almost every job I’ve had in my life has drawn on social capital. The only exception is when I was “Bottom Bun Girl” (yes, that was my official station title) at Checkers pushing meat patties with one circle of mustard and two circles of ketchup up the counter to “Top Bun” for $4.25/hr.

Your social capital is by far the most important resource you have and will always lead to your financial capital.

And it doesn’t have to be friends or classmates or colleagues.

Of course, if you’re hanging out with people who have more financial resources your chances increase. That’s how class operates to keep people stuck in this country. So I recognize that what I’m saying here assumes at least a middle class context.

When I was 19 I was office manager at a women’s health clinic because I had done a condom distribution at my high school and gotten in trouble for it and called in the help of the local chapter of NOW and met all sorts of women’s health folks in the area. And, my mom knew the RN’s husband. That was a huge upgrade from Bottom Bun.

Once, in my more transient days, I moved to Colorado for 5 months. I ran into this guy who I recognized from the small southern town I grew up in–Biker Dave. He used to cook at a restaurant I often went to with my mom. I said hi to him and chatted and told him I had just come to town and was looking for a job. A couple of weeks later I was liquifying hundreds of pounds of chickpeas in an industrial kitchen with him while he blasted Michael Franti and we made thousands of containers of hummus.

Another time, I got a job at a daycare center because I had gone there as a kid.

And even now, one of my current part time jobs I got because I was doing petcare for someone in my neighborhood who I had met originally at dinner parties at my ex’s house and it turned out his company was hiring. My other two jobs are because I sent an email to any person involved in film and media making in the Philadelphia area that I’d ever met and said I was looking for a job in the field.

As a grassroots fundraiser, you are always strategizing ways to bring people in as a donor at whatever level you can and then draw on their social networks to expand your reach. As social change fundraising guru Kim Klein says, you already know everyone you need to know to raise the money you need.

Kim Klein, grassroots fundraising guru

This summer I took every childcare and petcare gig that came my way. In past transition periods I’ve done the same. Hustled in whatever way I can and then trusted that it was increasing my reach and would eventually pay off more.

And, I market myself. Like here, right now.

People have to know you exist and that you’re up to good things. Promoting yourself can feel scary, uncomfortable, maybe even selfish and gross to some. But at some point I realized that being broke and alone was even scarier. And being chained to a desk all day was potentially frightening for me too.

Like my “guru” says to grassroots fundraisers in her trainings: the fear of your community organizing work not happening has to be greater than your fear of asking people for money. Which is scarier to you?

The rest was all pure luck and good timing.

Here’s to wishing the best of luck for the rest of you in your job search! Go hustle!