Is a $60k writer salary a “f**king joke”?
"It’s a job for someone in their mid-20s who lives with roommates."
Hello everyone. I’m going to be in Nashville later this week and Los Angeles for most of next week. If there’s anyone I should be meeting for a quick coffee, a quicker Negroni, or a story you think I should be looking into, hit me.
Today’s letter includes: More Maru coffee news for New Yorkers, how to publicly announce that you’re looking for a new job, a debate over whether a $60k writer salary at n+1 is a “fucking joke,” and I’m curious who you all think should apply for the open reporter job at Styles.
This week on Feed Me’s Job Board: Social Media Coordinator at Martha Stewart’s Elm Biosciences, Public Relations Account Director of Beauty & Lifestyle at Derris, and more.
For our next Guest Lecture, we’re interviewing Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times financial reporter, host of CNBC’s Squawk Box, and author of 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in History—And How It Shattered a Nation (out tomorrow)
Guest Lecture: Kristina O’Neill and Laura Brown
Guest Lecture is a Feed Me series that captures the spirit of that (sometimes unhinged) guest lecturer who would come into your class on a Friday, drop more knowledge than you’ve heard all year, and then leave forever. Past guests include rhode’s co-founder Lauren Ratner, , and Audrey Hobert.
Today, Kristina O’Neill (former editor-in-chief of WSJ. Magazine) and Laura Brown (former editor-in-chief of InStyle) talk about the lived experiences that inspired their new book, All the Cool Girls Get Fired.
“I wonder if they were surprised by any of their friends’ responses to the news. (I mean, I didn’t take it well, ha!)” –
“We were both reassured by our friends’ reactions, actually. Friends are allowed to be angrier on your behalf: to say all the things in the moment that your worst self feels. It’s like a breakup: eff that guy, we never liked him, come meet us at a bar. That’s why they’re your friends!”
“How did you each deal with having so much more free time to yourselves post-firing? When I’ve been between jobs, it’s always felt challenging to enjoy the luxury of an empty schedule without the guilt of not being technically productive creeping in.” – Gabrielle
LB: “I was getting married two months after getting canned, which was a nice distraction, but also like, shit, where is the money coming after that? We traveled a lot, because we had the time, but I would pick up little gigs here and there to keep the pilot light on. I knew the time “off” was finite, but I tried to enjoy it given that I’d worked nonstop for 28 years.”
KO: “Oh, how I loved that in-between time! I really leaned into it. I left WSJ. in June and had my first summer off since 1994, when I graduated from high school. I was present for kid and family stuff in a way I’d never been before. That said, I still got up most mornings, checked emails, did a few calls—just to give the days a bit of scaffolding. (And some days, I opened the rosé at 4 p.m.)
Keeping your oar in the water helps in that gap time: having lunch with someone in your business, keeping up with your industry, and listening to yourself. You have to get your sea legs back before you plunge back into the job market.”
“How do you think differently about the different categories of having your job end on others’ terms (fired vs downsized vs laid off etc.) and do you think there’s one that is a most compelling bounce-back opportunity?” – ATE
“It’s all blending together these days: there are so many bigger forces affecting us that we can’t control (AI, the current administration). It’s like billionaires playing checkers. What we can say is just be straightforward and honest about what happened to you: sadly, you don’t have the exclusive on losing your job, and you’re not alone. The bounce-back, more than anything, is mental. Don’t give the circumstances of your layoff power over you.”
“Any advice for fresh grads looking to start their career? It’s brutal out here.” –Julia.
NOTE: Another reader commented about the Feed Me Job Board in response to this, if you’re interested in looking at it.
“It really is, and we feel for you. It’s so hard to navigate, these days you’re also up against older professionals who’ve been laid off, and it feels like everything’s an algorithm. But sometimes the “old fashioned” ideas are the best: show up, follow up, network, intern. Send hand-written thank you notes. Engage in LinkedIn or social media. Show that the role you want is in your DNA. People hire… people in the end, not someone with the most appropriate keywords on a resume.”
“Which legacy magazines do you think are adapting well to contemporary issues facing the media industry today? What do you think other legacy media institutions are getting wrong?”
“To really thrive in this market, magazines need to be constantly reflecting the culture and have a real sense of occasion. In the fashion space, we think W does that really well, with their themed issues and the whole event program that goes with that. It’s a lot of work to be the coolest party in town, but they do a great job. As for getting it wrong, when you can tell that a magazine is giving it all up to advertisers for survival: that’s so bleak. While you have this platform, shoot your shot! Use everything you got. You’ll regret it if you don’t.”
“How do you rebuild yourself after being fired from your absolute dream job? Do you take it as a sign it’s not meant to be or carve your own path?” – Liz
“We spoke to a lot of experts for All the Cool Girls Get Fired, and a brilliant thing one of them told us is that the job—dream job or otherwise—borrows you, like a library book. They don’t own you, and it’s dangerous to place all your value in that job. We had what could be seen from the outside as “dream jobs” but there was a lot of difficulty too. It’s a matter of constantly editing what that dream is, grounding it in your experience, and honestly, in what makes you feel good. Was that dream job a dream… really? Perhaps not.”