Vox's Future Perfect is hiring

By Kelsey Piper @ 2021-07-16T07:50 (+57)

I work at Vox's Future Perfect, a grant-funded effective-altruism-inspired vertical focused on high impact writing on some of the world's most important problems. Some of the stories I'm proudest of over the last few years have covered the case for catastrophic AI risk, the rise of plant-based meat, progress towards malaria vaccines, and the case for better biosafety and pandemic preparedness.

Now, we're expanding Future Perfect! We'll be hiring three full-time fellows for a one-year fellowship. You'll write for Future Perfect on any of the above topics or other topics of global importance that you want to become an expert in and bring to our audience. You don't need to have a journalism background; I think the most important qualification is a commitment to understanding and improving the world, with the EA lens that makes Future Perfect different from everything else in journalism.

In a typical week at Vox I pitch 4-5 ideas for articles to my editor, and work on the 1-2 that we're most excited about. Some of those articles are based on current events. Some have no 'hook' in current events but are on topics we think are important. I'll usually conduct 3-5 interviews for a story, and most stories are between 1000 and 3000 words. Writing fast is a skill that predicts success at journalism, in my experience, but we've transitioned to a more quality-focused, lower-volume model than when I first started at Vox, and the role could be a good fit for someone who's a slower writer but a strong researcher and thinker. 

I like my team at Future Perfect. I think I've gotten a lot better at journalism while working here.  We're hiring a lot of new people, so I can't confidently speak for the team environment in six months, but one of our priorities with the fellowship program is creating a good intellectual environment, where people are able to think about important questions and write high quality content. Part of that is hiring the right people, so I strongly encourage you to share this with anyone you know who might be a strong fit.