How We Work at Job Portraits
- Our team is fully remote (and has been from day one). We trust our team members to find collaborative work rhythms that work best for them.
- We understand that Job Portraits’ work is just one of many things that makes our team members’ lives meaningful. That means we encourage everyone to take regular vacations, as well as breaks during the work day to do things like exercise, visit a therapist or coach, walk their dog, or spend time with their family.
- We want work at Job Portraits to provide opportunities for personal — as well as professional — growth. We ask our team members to engage with their emotions, not just their intellects. We believe that vulnerability and radical candor — practiced within Job Portraits and with our clients — help build the connections and trust that allows us to excel at our work and grow into the best versions of ourselves.
- We pay writers by the project in most cases, although hourly rates apply in some situations.
About the Writer Role
As a writer, you’ll create content that is both honest and compelling that’s a unique blend of journalism and narrative storytelling. Our clients include tech companies, health care startups, venture capitalists, science corporations, and more, and our writers help showcase the truth of what it’s really like to work at these organizations.
We have high standards because we sincerely care about words, language, and the power of words and language—such as the power to help people find life-altering work. Clarity and brevity are our guiding lights. Experience has taught us that our most successful writers tend to think like editors, meaning you enjoy thinking critically and embrace the challenge of developing content that incorporates the needs of multiple stakeholders.
Growth mindset is important to us, so while we don’t require writers to have a specific background or skill set, our flat-rate project fees do often include feedback calls with one of our editors. That being said, writing opportunities range from Q&As and narrative essays to strategic internal guides and social media posts, so experience in journalism, technical writing, employer branding, screenwriting, or marketing will likely serve you well.
A Day In the Life of a Writer
A common day for you might include several of the following activities:
- Check Asana for critical tasks and deadlines
- Check Slack for project and team updates
- Attend an interview with a profile subject
- Spend time reviewing transcripts and other supporting materials
- Spend heads-down time writing in Google Docs (or wherever you want, but you’ll submit your work as a Google Doc)
- Have a call with the Editorial Director to receive and offer feedback on previous work
- Create or respond to a message in our #writers-room Slack channel
How You’ll Learn and Grow
- Gain a new understanding of employer branding and how compelling content can improve the candidate experience (aka make people’s lives better)
- Work with skilled creative directors and editors who respect words and language as much as you do
- Receive nuanced feedback and have opportunities to try different types of writing
- Get an inside look at the startup world and how companies thrive at early and late stages
- Contribute to delightfully nerdy conversations about grammar and language minutia (that matters!)
Competencies and Instincts We’re Looking For
- Sincere interest in capturing the essence of people and places
- Ability to perceive tone and subtext from transcripts
- Strong emotional intelligence
- Pervasive curiosity
- Desire to give and receive feedback
- Fluency in Google Docs
- Penchant for critical thinking
- Feels annoyed by even minor grammatical mistakes
- Appreciates a finely crafted sentence
- Familiarity with AP style a plus
- Copy editing experience a plus
- Proofreading experience a plus
Core Tasks and Relationships
- Communicate via Slack and Asana with Project Managers, Creative Directors, and Editorial Director (as needed) to clarify scope of work and deadlines
- Engage in regular feedback calls with the Editorial Director
- Attend relevant client calls and interviews when possible
- Review recordings, transcripts, and the Creative Brief prior to drafting copy
- Create (or at least deliver) client work in Google Docs
- Optional attendance at twice-monthly team meetings
Compensation
Job Portraits pays writers on a project basis. There is a range of project types and a range of project rates. We evaluate our project rates frequently to make sure they are fair and competitive.
If you’re an established full-time contractor—or a part-time contractor looking for an anchor client—and you like what you’ve read so far, we’d love for you to apply. If we think we might be a fit, we’ll likely offer you a paid test assignment, and if that goes well, you’ll be offered work soon thereafter. We’ve found it usually takes 3–6 months for someone to acclimate to our unique standards and style of writing, so please only consider us if you plan to be around for a while.
Interested? We welcome everyone who is passionate about our mission and feels they can contribute to our work, and we especially encourage candidates from historically excluded and marginalized groups to apply.
