I got a new job!

Dear Informational Interviewers, 

Whew, it’s been a minute. I apologize for that. I was on such a roll publishing this newsletter weekly, and then I found myself navigating a career transition and I had to give that my full attention. 

The happy personal news is that I have a new job!  I am now managing a fellowship program for progress intellectuals at The Roots of Progress Institute. I couldn’t be more thrilled about this role. I know people say that kind of thing all the time (especially on LinkedIn), but in this case it really is true. It combines the things I am most interested in: writing, professional development and, you know, the fate of humanity!

The Roots of Progress Institute is part of the budding progress studies movement. If you aren’t yet familiar with progress studies, you can start by reading Patrick Collison and Tyler Cowen’s 2019 article in The Atlantic, “We Need a New Philosophy of Progress;” Derek Thompson’s writing on the “abundance agenda;” and Roots of Progress Institute founder, Jason Crawford’s writing on progress studies as a moral imperative.

At The Roots of Progress Institute, we consider ourselves the “talent development” arm of the progress studies movement. To that end, our fellowship program is designed to help progress studies thinkers improve their writing and grow their audience. We hope they’ll lead the way, turning progress studies into a movement as legible and impactful as the environmental movement.

I may share more about all this later, but because it is relevant for this audience, I’d like to take a moment to share how I got this job.

You will be unsurprised to learn that it was the result of informational interviewing.

I reached out to the founder of a progress studies think tank about two years ago because I had a sense that the progress studies milieu was the right space for me, but I wasn’t quite sure where I would fit in. During that informational interview I felt a little uncomfortable and like I was wasting my interlocutor’s time. It was clear he didn’t have any need for a person like me and I wasn’t a fit for his organization. But he answered all my questions, helped me understand what kinds of organizations existed in the progress studies space, and pointed me in the direction of the Roots of Progress.

I then reached out to my current boss, who had just just been hired, asking if she would be willing to speak with me. She responded saying she didn’t have time but to check back in six months. Six months later I did just that. I could tell from our correspondence that she wasn’t quite sure what I wanted. Eventually her schedule became less intense and she was able to make time to talk with me. She asked me to answer a few questions via email before we talked and I wrote a 1500 word explanation of who I was, my skills, and why I wanted to talk with her. All told we ended up corresponding and conversing for about another year. During that time she got to know me, and the needs of the Roots of Progress Institute became more clear.

You already know how the story ends. The Roots of Progress Institute offered me my current job, and as I said, I couldn’t be more thrilled. It feels like a preternatural fit and for the first time ever I’m not thinking about what my next role will be.

I know not all informational interviewing excursions go this well. And trust me, I’ve face planted professionally many times during the first quartile of my career. But the informational interviewing practice does work. And it is still the only way I know of finding your people and finding your place. 

If you are on the right track, and exploring in the right part of the professional ecosystem, I believe you are only ever two degrees of separation away from the person who will open the door. Or, as Paul Rudd put it in the iconic 2010 romcom, How Do You Know, “We are all just one small adjustment away from making our lives work.” And sometimes, one (or two) conversations is all it takes.

I hope you all have been well, and that you are finding your way in the world. I hope you’ve identified inspiring people to work with and are making good use of your talents. I may write a few more posts for this newsletter, but I’m not sure how much more I have to say on the topic of informational interviewing. After all, it’s not rocket science. If you do the work, the results will come. That’s all there is to it.

Please do reach out to me if you feel so inclined. There is nothing more exciting to me than hearing about what other people are striving for. 

All my best,

Emma