We’re so giddy with good news this week we don’t even know where to start. United is handing out pay raises to pilots and flight attendants in an effort to stay fully staffed, The Art Institute has officially formed a union, and now Loop employees of Starbucks are looking to do the same.
Then there’s the promise of jobs to come. Favorite yuppie grocer Foxtrot just raised $100 million — money it plans to spend opening more stores and making more of its own whitelabeled products. The expansion means staffing people in each new store, and potentially another 50 jobs at headquarters.
That’s nothing compared with the $240 million raised by logistics firm Project44. The broken supply chain has been good for business, and Project44 plans to spend the money on acquisitions and international hires to help it keep growing.
Edtech company ESpark is also benefiting from the pandemme. It just raised $25 million to expand its software, which provides personalized, online math and reading classes. Seems useful.
More adventurous money went to Zero Hash, which raised $105 million for its cryptocurrency-as-a-service platform, words that mean even less together than they do apart. Maybe go for one of the 80 jobs it’s planning to fill this year, just to see what it is they do there.
Your mom’s favorite girls’ night spot Cooper’s Hawk is also seeking the cash to keep growing. The suburban restaurant chain and wine club is looking to IPO this year at a valuation of $1 billion. Is it a cry for help or a business opportunity? Who’s to say?!
If you’ve been dying for a chance to work at Amazon (lol, who?!), the tech behemoth is planning to hire 450 for tech and corporate roles in Chicago over the next few years. It claims to have 250 of those jobs open today, so if you’re interested, get going.
If you don’t want to work at Amazon, perhaps consider quantum computer maker EeroQ, which is bringing its headquarters and 15 jobs to a new office building project in Humboldt Park, the first of hopefully many tenants in a part of the city looking to be the next Fulton Market.
Jobs, Glorious Jobs
Digital Communications Manager at Chicago Coalition for the Homeless
Fellow hustler and author Lindsay Welbers sold this job to us as “a pretty neat gig for a communicator who likes creating work that benefits people directly,” with pay “that could be worse.” Honestly, we can’t say it better.
Assistant Editor at Law Bulletin Media
Solid opportunity for a journalist to use print and digital editing skills from home for the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin and Chicago Lawyer magazine. Law, get into it?
Digital Director and other roles with Lauren Underwood for Congress
Speaking of doing good, there are many opportunities to help Rep. Lauren Underwood earn another term in this year’s election. Something to think about, when you’ve exhausted your ability to smash the donate button.
Inspiration of the week
“An email that simultaneously offers platitudes about how bad things are but concludes with a demand to return to the office in a month is not corporate care — it’s blackmail.”
—From the aptly titled “Omicron Means Parents Are Doing It All Again, Except This Time Dead Inside.” Writer Amil Niazi is capturing our own tendency toward “that special, unhinged kind of laughter reserved only for the Joker and women in Lifetime movies right before they’re committed” as we enter calendar year three of the pandemic, and reminding us that anyone saying any version of “buck up” can go directly to hell. If you need a way to tell whether someone is on your side, understands what you’re going through and has a clear view of the present situation, listen to them laugh. If it’s not unhinged, animalistic or shattered, head the other direction.
Forward this email to anyone who’s in love and afraid. They can sign up here to get twice-monthly reminders to focus on the first more than the second.
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