What I learned from losing my dream job
This is from the archives, originally published on Patreon in April 2022
I’ve a fun series of pieces coming soon called 'Guiltless Pleasures’, where I interview people about the things they might, in times gone by, have felt embarrassed to be obsessed with but are now proudly enjoying. My first interviewee is the wonderful Hilary from @NewsbyHil, an Irish journalist based in the US who is doing amazing work in bringing unbiased news to Instagram. Until then, here’s one from the archive.
It’s almost six years since I found out – via the Irish Mail on Sunday – that I was about to lose my dream job.
I can’t be certain, but I think it was April O’Neil in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that I first saw as journalistic inspiration. There are videos of me at age two ‘reading’ magazines and commenting on who I do and don’t like the look of (I was obviously a contrary and very judgemental toddler, I’ve since grown up. A bit.) A few years later, somewhere between Lois Lane, Carrie Bradshaw, Christiane Amanpour and Anna Wintour, I decided I wanted to be the editor of a magazine.
I did journalism in university. I interned at magazines. I started blogging way back in 2007 (a music blog originally, that grew into an all-things website called Think What You Like). It was what I wanted and I was unrelenting in my pursuit. I worked my way from junior to senior, from intern to editor, and when I got there I was 28, about to turn 29. I had said ‘editor by 30’ to anyone who’d listen and now I was there.
And then I saw this in the Irish Mail on Sunday.