Write yourself into the job you actually want

The above photo is from 2018. I had a shiny new pre-med degree and zero knowledge of journalism.

I dreamed of “making it” as a writer, but had no idea what that meant. At the time I barely even followed the news, nor did I realize that most writers in the modern era were journalists.

Without a clue of what industry to aim for, let alone how to break into one, I did what felt most obvious: I wrote as much as possible.

I had a solid writing habit, but nearly everything I wrote was a self-aggrandizing, rudderless musing. My work — travel blogs about living overseas — was unfocused and scattered.

But the reps piled up. I learned through doing.

Eventually, I wrote myself into my first job at a newspaper. 

My writing wasn’t polished, but the volume provided a proxy for enthusiasm. For most managers, that’s usually evidence enough to take a chance on someone.

I realize now that writing online — across my blog and socials  — has opened countless doors that would not have otherwise existed. 

My friend Jack Raines described this well in a recent essay. He said the internet flattened social hierarchies, negated the cost of distribution, and minimized the need for credentials.

Here’s Jack:

We live in a world where hedge fund managers scour the internet for free alpha from behind anonymous Twitter accounts, programmers build new tools and share them online for free, and writers publish as they wish on platforms that they own. Credentialism is still valuable, of course, but it no longer has a monopoly on viable methods for candidate evaluation.

This suggests, too, it’s never been easier to get around legacy gatekeepers. 

You don’t need your name in The New York Times to convince someone you’re a writer, so long as you have the portfolio to back it up. 

Good work floats to the top of the internet. Social platforms aren’t perfect, but they do resemble something close to a meritocracy of ideas. 

And with enough reps, improvement is inevitable.

It’s how I was able to write myself into my first job, and why others are increasingly adopting the same path. Securing a dream job takes time for anyone, but the internet makes it more attainable than any other time in history.

Jack again:

The internet, used correctly, is simply a call option for future employment opportunities, and you shift the odds in your favor as the rest of the world becomes more familiar with you and your work.

I quit my job at Business Insider to launch a new media outlet. Subscribe to Opening Bell Daily to help make this risky career move a success.