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I’ve been thinking about this dichotomy for a long time. Back at ESPN in 2010, one time I found the phone number of the bar/restaurant underneath the Sydney Opera House and called them (on Disney/ESPN’s dime, heh) to ask about job opportunities there. I just wanted the f*ck out. I’ve gotten pretty far on any number of warehouse and Amazon applications in the last five years, too. I just haven’t pulled the trigger.
A while back, I applied to be a writer at AxiosHQ. Here’s the sample I gave ’em. I actually thought I did a pretty good job. I got piped from the opportunity after about two rounds. At the same time, I had been doing some work for the 150th anniversary of TCU, i.e. Texas Christian University. I got some pushback on some of that work, with people saying “Eh, I don’t really like it…” without being able to define exactly why they didn’t like it. And, at the same time as all this, one of my engineer friends (church dude) told me, “I could never do what you do. It seems so … subjective…”
Indeed, it is. A lot of what I do is writing, and writing is inherently subjective. While there’s obviously elements like controlling for AP Style or headline case or whatever, I’d argue even some of those elements don’t necessarily impact how a reader or customer perceives the finished piece of work. If you take even this blog and give it to 10 people, I…
