I’m graduating from Wheaton next May and trying to find that first role that aligns with my faith and strengths in comms or student discipleship. Where have you made connections that led to offers — alumni groups, conferences, Sunday conversations, LinkedIn? I’m based near Chicago but open to remote, and I’d appreciate any intros or practical networking tips to figure out a good fit.
Message 3 Wheaton comms alums on LinkedIn for ‘informational interviews’; conferences help, but start in Chicago.
Are you leaning more toward comms or discipleship so I can point you to a couple ministries in your part of the city? Piggybacking on @wilson75, pick one Chicago church or campus ministry you respect and ask to shadow a leader for a month, then offer to run a tiny comms project (one email + social posts) so you leave with a concrete sample and 2–3 warm intros — a micro-internship.
Check ecfa.org/jobs; solid faith-aligned comms openings. Prefer ‘remote’ or Chicago-first.
And ask for two ‘warm intros’ via Wheaton profs to Chicago ministries. If remote, propose a one-week trial project.
Quick win: filter Chicago faith-based orgs on https://joinhandshake.com and DM Wheaton alumni about “comms” vs “discipleship” roles.
And make a list of 5 Chicago ministries you follow and send the comms lead a two‑paragraph note offering a one‑week “micro‑project” to show your strengths — think a mini content calendar or email rewrite. Conferences helped me meet people, but smaller meetups like FaithTech Chicago moved faster; also skim https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/careers for faith‑aligned comms roles. It’s a bit like internship training wheels, but those trials turned into offers for me.
Make a 5‑line ‘value pitch’ and ask for 15‑min chats via https://ministryhub.org; want mine?