Paying it forward

If you’ve been here for long enough, you remember the dark days of the beginning of 2020, even before the pandemic, when I was struggling to get my footing freelancing and was also trying to apply to a million jobs outside of journalism.

I had just wrapped up my contract at the Times — honestly, my favorite journalism job I ever had, a dynamic newsroom role that had me working closely with editors from different desks in addition to the product and design teams — and had inadvertently launched myself into a media market with a ton of layoffs. I was now competing for jobs against a lot of really excellent people who had just lost their jobs, and I was not doing well. One trillion-dollar tech company with a well-built-out news apparatus sent me through the ringer of 7 rounds of interviews and a three-hour edit test (unpaid! Honestly this was the most offensive thing to me. I hope this trillion dollar tech company pays people for edit tests now.) before deciding that my being a public-facing figure who tweeted was going to be a problem for them. Another now-defunct newsroom ghosted me for two months, only to reemerge apologetically the night before they announced the hire they made for the role I’d interviewed for. I would be in the final two applicants for a job and get passed up for the role. I felt so demoralized and started applying to jobs outside of journalism. I didn’t really know what I was doing, just that if I were ever going to be pragmatic and apply my skills elsewhere, February 2020 was probably a good time to do it. I went on a lot of job interviews somewhat blindly, fumbling through explanations for why my background in journalism made me a good fit for a product marketing manager for a tech company or a social media manager for the NYC ferry (an a longtime NYC ferry evangelist, I was most bummed this one didn’t work out). I felt very stupid and incapable. I met with Danny, who had made the transition out of journalism long before I had, and he gave me good advice. I went on some better interviews. Eventually I did find a job—I worked at a marketing agency, and then a startup, and now a VC firm—somehow all without having to sacrifice too much of the flexibility I continue to enjoy as an occasional freelancer.

I tell this story a couple times a week now to journalists who have reached their limit in journalism—either because the pay isn’t sustainable, or they’re overworked, or they’re having a hard time finding a full-time newsroom job, or they’re burned out—and want to learn how to apply their skills elsewhere. I started doing this for friends in 2020, as I’d newly transitioned into a different career and amid the continued uncertainty of Everything Around Us others seemed to want to do the same, and not that I would ever recommend anyone do anything the way I did it, but maybe my story could help other people figure out their own trajectories. I make the offer on Twitter a few times a year now because I want to pay it forward the same way Danny and others showed me kindness and shared with me their expertise when I left journalism and was scared and confused and overwhelmed and felt like I was bad at everything.

I can’t offer much, but what I can offer is a free 30-minute consultation, either a phone call or a Google Hangout. You can tell me where you’re at and what your background is, I’ll walk you through how I approached the career transition, and we can talk about resources for finding jobs, how to market your skills beyond “I write articles,” sectors that are hiring people with comms backgrounds, and how to do things like write your resume or optimize your LinkedIn to search for jobs you’re actually qualified for. I hope people find it helpful. My goal is not to pull people out of journalism who are doing important work or to detract from the work being done by newsrooms, but to offer an alternative to people who are barely scraping by or realizing this industry is not working for them, and show them that there’s potential to use your existing skillset in different career paths you might not have considered. Mostly I have found from having ~60 of these conversations that people just want someone to talk to who can relate to them and I’m happy to be that person. It sucks leaving a career, even an unstable one where you make shit pay and people yell at you online, and finding a new one. Over the past 2.5 years of doing this, only one person has gotten mad at me for offering my time to famously underpaid journalists for free, and only one person has truly taken advantage of my time, and most of the feedback I get is positive, so I want to keep this going.

The demand for these conversations has become so great that I am running out of time to devote to it in a 1:1 capacity. I’m thinking of forming some sort of community connecting former journalists/publisher side people and people seeking to leave the industry. I get so many interesting jobs for journalists passed to me and don’t always know where to put them so people who are qualified can find them, and I think it would be helpful to scale this up so a lot more journalists can hear from a lot of different POVs from people who have left the industry and learn how to do it. I don’t really know how I’m going to go about this, nor do I want to commit myself to doing a lot of unpaid work on top of my day job, my freelance clients, my unpaid work tending to my local community fridge, sleeping/having a social life/etc, but if you have any ideas, or if you’d like to help out somehow, my inbox is open. I’m scheming for 2023!!!

A letter of recommendation

Finding a Just Good Enough restaurant. I am getting very tired of reservation culture — I know this will strike some of you as ironic, given my role as Chief Planner Of Social Outings For Friends and my secondary role as Person Who Will Book A Table And Send a Google Calendar Invite — but I think it’s taking the joy and spontaneity out of eating at a restaurant, which I’ve come to appreciate as part of the fun of going out in general (do not get me started on BARS with Resy reservations. What are we doing here???). Additionally, and I don’t know if this is the fault of TikTok or the insatiable content mines or something else, but there is such a demand for people to find the best of anything—the best restaurants, the best Italian seaside towns for vacation, whatever. I want so badly to move away from this superlative culture—I think it creates bad incentives and unrealistic standards and from a consumer perspective, always sets you up for disappointment. Anyway, instead of lurking around Canal Street waiting to see if I can find a last-minute bar seat at Cervo’s or settling for a 10:30 pm reservation at some overhyped restaurant that will underwhelm me, I am taking pleasure in simply going to a normal restaurant that’s Just Fine. My current Just Fine restaurant is a French place in Boerum Hill that feels pretty outdated but serves decent wine and escargots and French onion soup and moules frites and honestly, what more could you want? I went tonight and had wine, an appetizer, a steak entree and a dessert and the bill was less than $60. What inflation? There are no TikToks being made about this restaurant, there is no line down the block, it’s not even on Resy. Just a nice normal neighborhood spot with a very kind hostess and good enough food. God, am I washed? 

A lifting update

Thankfully, I healed up from my mild bout of COVID last week and was able to compete in my gym’s mock powerlifting meet. I set new PRs for myself across deadlifts, bench and squat. And when I went back to my trainer on Wednesday and she was like “so? What are you thinking about doing next? How do you feel?” I found myself saying “I think I want to train for a real powerlifting competition?” I have never seen her look happier. So prepare for me to become even more obnoxious about lifting weights in the new year too.