Jon was born and grew up in the Los Angeles, California area. He attended BYU for both his undergraduate degree in Sociology and his Master of Organizational Behavior degree from the Marriott School of Management.
   
   Jon worked as a career consultant with the Murdock Group in Salt Lake City, and then worked as the Associate Director of the Career Resource Center at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, where he provided career assessment for students and alumni, and utilized current career development theory to conduct formal and informal assessments and evaluated new career assessment methods for use in the Career Center. He also advised and coached students individually and through class presentations regarding job search strategy, preparing resumes, and interviewing, and administered the internship program for the Westminster School of Arts and Sciences.
   
   While at Westminster College, he was also an adjunct instructor with the Bill and Vieve Gore School of Business, where he taught the Professional Portfolio class for undergraduate and graduate students to help them develop individualized career portfolios to document what the students could offer an organization in terms of employment.
   
   His most recent work role before coming to the University of Utah was with CareerStep in Lehi, where he advised and coached students and graduates on a one-on-one basis regarding job search strategy, preparing resumes, and interviewing, and co-directed the development of Passport to Success, a prototype course designed to assist CareerStep students in developing effective job search skills.