Category: Blog

Can I be real with you for a moment? Over the last two weeks I’ve written hundreds of words (researched and fact-checked even!) on the importance of Superman in particular and storytelling more broadly in staying resilient through difficult times. The essay’s…fine. But I’ll probably never show it to anyone for two reasons:

1) It’s self-indulgent to the point of parody. While I started that piece quite literally just to share images of Superman punching Hitler. The image came to mind, I looked it up, and that sent me down a few rabbit holes including which superheroes have punched Hitler and other fascists, how comics and other stories complement muckraking journalism, all of which led me to consider writing something to show solidarity in a moment when the world seems to be doing more teetering on the edge than usual. While a great distraction from the news for me, every time I tried to pivot all that nerdery to something AT ALL related to career development, it felt hollow and disingenuous. Because …

2) I don’t really know what to say these days. I’m not a scholar, poet, or prophet. I’m just a guy that wants to leave the world a little better because I was in it, and I take solace in that particular brand of simplicity and try to bring that to my work. I appreciate film, literature, comics, and other media because they similarly reduce complicated ideas to an understandable scale. But with everything going on, does the world really need another LinkedIn think-piece connecting kitchen sink idea A and Thought Leader Drivel™ B in the name of Content? Not really. I’m happy with what I wrote, but that belongs on LiveJournal.

So why am I sparing you from thousands of words by sharing hundreds? Simply to share in the overall confusion about what the heck to do and say these days, both as a professional and as a person, something echoed in every client conversation I’ve had for months and taking new urgency now. Some have spent their careers at companies whose values don’t align with their own, some feel wary applying to places that have reversed policies they find important, and yet others are considering switching industries altogether to find something more compatible with their current priorities. There’s anxiety over economic uncertainty, professional uncertainty, and societal uncertainty and what all of those could mean for their life, career, and family. Big stuff, and I am in no way equipped to help with all of it (here’s your first reminder in 2025 that I remain not a therapist).

What I am equipped to do is to listen. To commiserate. To ask hard questions and easy ones. To respond. To brainstorm. To (hopefully) inspire. And generally, to help. That’s what I learned from Superman. I think those lessons can apply to you too.

(If you want to dive deep into the world of superheroes and what they mean, I highly recommend Supergods by Grant Morrison. If you want a great Superman story, I recommend the self-contained All Star Superman, also by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Frank Quitely. There’s a animated adaptation that’s fine enough, but the graphic novel is a near-perfect distillation of the Superman mythos.)

Oh, and since I already have the images and I am fine with at least *some* self-indulgence, here are some pics of superheroes battling Nazis and fascists.

I created this sub-publication to share roles that might be interesting to my coaching and workshop clients. Mostly one job a day, mostly remote, mostly hiring for other roles as well, and always interesting.

Excerpt:

Testlio is a leading quality management company. Its unique approach combines humans and machines to help digital innovators assure quality products at scale. On 600K+ real devices. In 100+ languages. With 800+ payment methods.

We are hiring a Senior Engagement Manager. As an Engagement Manager at Testlio, you will be a key player in driving strategic client success, growth, and overall testing team strategies within the Business Software, Commercial, Finance, Media and Entertainment industries.

Reporting directly to our Americas region Client Services Director, you will take ownership of a portfolio of client engagements, ensuring exceptional results and value. You will be part of our Delivery Team and will work as a key member within a fully distributed services team, collaborating with Testing Managers, Test Leads, and testers from around the world.

What would your day look like?

As an Engagement Manager, you will ensure that all relevant resources are intelligently deployed to align with key performance indicators for your clients and for Testlio. You’ll be responsible for strategic client success, client growth, testing strategy, and more.

Client success

• You will take full ownership of multiple client engagements from A to Z.

• You will learn your client’s business objectives, culture, and people—and you will make strategic recommendations to achieve expected business outcomes.

• You will actively evaluate and monitor account health and satisfaction status including organizing and leading regular status and feedback calls with your clients.

• Be accountable for a set of ongoing financial, impact, and other metrics, including partnership health, revenue served, project utilization, margin, net revenue retained, and more.

• Drive the ongoing expectations management for the service and negotiate operational adjustments, e.g. unrealistic turnover timeline expectations, scope prioritization needs, and more.

• Create and deliver executive-level and detailed status reports that properly communicate an engagement’s progress, KPIs, and financials tailored to the proper audience.

Team leadership and collaboration

• You will collaborate with Testing Managers and support Test Leads and testers from around the world to ensure exceptional testing experiences.

• You will help coach your team members to be as successful and grow within their roles.

• You will collaborate effectively and professionally with other Testlio employees to solve problems and define new or improve existing processes.

Testlio ambassadorship

• You will proactively drive new contract period scoping activities and identify upsell opportunities or ways to increase the value of the service offered.

• Partner with sales team members to identify, win, and grow opportunities in your existing portfolio as well as with new prospects.

• With customer satisfaction as your priority, you will proactively identify upsell opportunities or ways to increase the value of Testlio’s service in partnership with the Team Lead, Testing Manager, and Account Director.

Full Job Listing

Don’t need the heads up about Job of the Day posts but want the rest? You can manage your notifications here.

I created this sub-publication to share roles that might be interesting to my coaching and workshop clients. Mostly one job a day, mostly remote, mostly hiring for other roles as well, and always interesting.

Excerpt:

Do you have experience in a fast-paced startup style environment? Do you excel when faced with product-focused challenges and care as much about building great user experiences as you do writing high quality code? point.me is looking for software engineers, and if that description resonates with you, you could be an excellent fit for our company.

Our technical team consists of dedicated engineers who share a passion for building a beautiful consumer website. They develop sophisticated algorithms and highly available systems to provide best-in-class services to our customers. You will play an integral role in creating a top-notch user experience and support the development of the backend systems that deliver our services. Your experience is needed to help scale our product for rapid growth while continuously improving our engineering practices. Most importantly, your work will impact how rewards points are maximized and help people travel better!

What You’ll Do

Collaborate with Cross-Functional Teams: Work closely with engineers, product, design, data, and the business to build high-quality, iterative, scalable solutions.

Solve Challenging Problems: Identify and resolve complex issues to provide intuitive, customer-focused experiences.

Promote Engineering Excellence: Advocate for sound engineering practices, such as automated testing, code reviews, and maintaining a “leave the code better than you found it” mentality.

Participate in Design Discussions: Engage in design discussions with key stakeholders to ensure alignment and empower engineers to focus on business goals.

Technical Leadership: Serve as a technical leader for other engineers, supporting their growth and success through mentorship and guidance.

Drive Innovation: Foster innovation through rapid prototyping and iterative development, continuously improving our product.

Full Job Listing

Don’t need the heads up about Job of the Day posts but want the rest? You can manage your notifications here.

I created this sub-publication to share roles that might be interesting to my coaching and workshop clients. Mostly one job a day, mostly remote, mostly hiring for other roles as well, and always interesting.

Excerpt:

The Senior Director of E-commerce & Full Funnel Marketing is a critical senior member of the Orvis brand experience leadership team, driving the e-commerce, awareness/acquisition/growth and retention vision, and is an innovation-leading, strategy building role and business driver for our brand. Key responsibilities include all brand building and demand-driving DTC, media, growth, performance marketing, email, SMS and retention initiatives + emerging digital channels. This leader will also fuel the profitability and growth of our retail and wholesale partners via these channels.

Responsibilities:

• Position Orvis as the leader in the outdoor industry for the adventure and wonder in nature via a world-class e-commerce experience and across our growth/retention customer ecosystem  

• Lead vision and strategy for e-commerce channel + deliver on growth goals   

• Oversee holistic e-commerce customer experience as well as larger vision as to how it fits into overarching brand ecosystem and customer journey  

• Create and lead roadmap for infrastructure and features 

• Own all digital vendor relationships and projects, from contract negotiation through launch and ongoing enhancements and partner with technology team on digital marketing & ecommerce marketing/tech vision

• Build world-class e-commerce and growth/retention team (commercial engine).  Lead, develop and mentor critical e-commerce team functions, including digital merchandising, product management and site analytics  

• Partner with in season commercial planning function to deliver against seasonal and annual budget  

• Lead team in developing global annual and seasonal awareness, acquisition, growth and retention marketing strategy to fuel Orvis’s growth and customer goals   

• Partner with customer strategy team to identify highest value customer segments and build north star for our customer journey, including strategic roadmap for significantly more personalized and segmented communications and experiences   

• Lead team that leads growth marketing strategy and execution, including media partnerships, paid media, search, paid social, display, affiliates and emerging digital channels  

• Own full-funnel media agency partnership to drive global brand awareness, new customer acquisition and conversion 

• Oversee team that leads email and SMS strategy and execution, including communications planning, personalization, A/B testing, segmentation and lifecycle marketing, linking strategy and constant improvement of demand-driving programs  

• Partner with Integrated Marketing Team to deliver strong pre-season marketing plans and optimize in season execution to deliver profitability and growth goals   

• Partner with Head of Creative and media agency to create industry-leading, disruptive, high performing creative expressions of our brand across channels  

• Partner closely with Head of Retail and Head of Wholesale to fuel growth and customer goals and achieve budget expectations   

• Partner closely with Head of IT on developing clear e-comm and marketing businesses cases, longer term tech roadmap and optimizing our technology stack  

• Lead teams that manage P&L/budgets for E-commerce sales channel and Digital/Media consistently to drive business strategy and goals 

• Partner with cross-functional leaders to identify process efficiencies, drive for results and lead together as a leadership group  

• Share deep industry expertise and competitive analysis  

• Articulate a strategic vision clearly and persuasively to internal and external partners 

Full Job Listing

Don’t need the heads up about Job of the Day posts but want the rest? You can manage your notifications here.

I created this sub-publication to share roles that might be interesting to my coaching and workshop clients. Mostly one job a day, mostly remote, mostly hiring for other roles as well, and always interesting.

Excerpt:

Opportunity is not evenly distributed. Shopify puts independence within reach for anyone with a dream to start a business. We propel entrepreneurs and enterprises to scale the heights of their potential. Since 2006, we’ve grown to over 8,300 employees and generated over $1 trillion in sales for millions of merchants in 175 countries.

About you

Moving at our pace brings a lot of change, complexity, and ambiguity—and a little bit of chaos. Shopifolk thrive on that and are comfortable being uncomfortable. That means Shopify is not the right place for everyone.

Before you apply, consider if you can:

• Care deeply about what you do and about making commerce better for everyone

• Excel by seeking professional and personal hypergrowth

• Keep up with an unrelenting pace (the week, not the quarter)

• Be resilient and resourceful in face of ambiguity and thrive on (rather than endure) change

• Bring critical thought and opinion

• Embrace differences and disagreement to get shit done and move forward

• Work digital-first for your daily work

About the role

UX Designers at Shopify are the architects of intuitive and delightful user experiences. They ideate and craft elegant designs that transform complex problems into accessible solutions that just work. With expertise in visual, interaction, and product design, our UX Designers work collaboratively with cross-functional teams to ensure that every touchpoint is not only usable but also a joy to interact with. They push the boundaries of design, leveraging insights and product goals to create impactful experiences that empower merchants and their buyers globally.

Why you’ll love working at Shopify

• Craft with passion and purpose. Join a team that shares your dedication and requires you to ship your best work. Our devotion isn’t just a job; it’s our unwavering passion.

• Innovate with courage. Lead with bold ideas, experimenting with cutting-edge tools and methods to deliver first-of-its-kind value.

• Collaborate and grow. Thrive in an environment that only works because of our commitment to open collaboration, feedback, and critiques, pushing each other to continuously improve and skill up.

Full Job Listing

Don’t need the heads up about Job of the Day posts but want the rest? You can manage your notifications here.

I created this sub-publication to share roles that might be interesting to my coaching and workshop clients. Mostly one job a day, mostly remote, mostly hiring for other roles as well, and always interesting.

Excerpt:

At Daysheets, we build powerful software that simplifies operations for some of the world’s largest touring musical acts, including Billie Eilish, John Legend, Shakira, Alesso, Zedd, the Jonas Brothers, and Olivia Rodrigo. Our tools streamline workflows for artists, managers, crew, and travel agents, ensuring every performance goes off without a hitch.

We are expanding our development team to create world-class mobile applications that enhance the touring experience, and we’re looking for talented Android developers to join us in building intuitive and reliable software for our clients.

Job Description

We are seeking a seasoned Android Developer with 5+ years of experience to design, develop, and maintain our Android mobile applications. This role will focus on crafting exceptional user interfaces, leveraging a shared backend system with our iOS platform. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in Android app development and a track record of delivering polished, high-performance frontend solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Frontend Development: Build and maintain the Android user interface, ensuring a seamless and intuitive experience for users.

• Collaborate with iOS Team: Work closely with iOS developers to align features, designs, and shared backend code.

• Design Integration: Implement UI/UX designs provided by our design team with precision and creativity.

• Performance Optimization: Ensure the application runs smoothly on a wide range of Android devices and operating systems.

• Code Quality: Write clean, maintainable, and testable code following best practices for Android development.

• Testing and Debugging: Identify and resolve bugs, and conduct rigorous testing to ensure application reliability.

• Collaboration: Partner with backend developers, designers, and product managers to deliver high-quality features on time.

Full Job Listing

Don’t need the heads up about Job of the Day posts but want the rest? You can manage your notifications here.

I created this sub-publication to share roles that might be interesting to my coaching and workshop clients. Mostly one job a day, mostly remote, mostly hiring for other roles as well, and always interesting.

Excerpt:

StriveTogether, in partnership with the Walton Family Foundation and the Gates Foundation, is incubating the Pathways Impact Fund, which will seek to increase the number of students successfully seeing and seizing opportunities to get on promising pathways before they graduate high school.

Relationship between StriveTogether and the Pathways Impact Fund

The Pathway Impact Fund aligns seamlessly with StriveTogether’s existing national movement and purpose: helping every child succeed in school and in life from cradle to career, regardless of race, ethnicity, zip code or circumstance. We work to break down barriers, change systems and improve outcomes with the Cradle to Career Network, made up of nearly 70 communities across the country. StriveTogether provides resources, best practices and processes to give every child every chance for success. As an organization with experience incubating new initiatives and an extensive, diverse network of education and community organizations, we will be recruiting a leader to launch this initiative.

About the position

The Executive Director, Pathways Impact Fund (PIF) will lead a transformative initiative poised to accelerate promising education and career opportunities. As the founding leader, you will launch and drive a bold vision that empowers young people across the country to access and thrive in high-quality pathways toward successful futures.

This role places you at the forefront of an emerging national effort, where you will lead the Pathways Impact Fund towards:

• Articulating the key experiences that build the evidence base of high-quality pathways for high school students, leveraging research and advocacy to develop consistent frameworks and guiding principles.

• Facilitating the flow of critical funding to communities advancing coordination across the education, workforce, and government sectors to scale high-quality career pathways. Manage and attract ongoing investments to sustain this multi-million-dollar fund.

• Enabling the implementation of pathways at scale by serving as a “learning hub,” enabling technical assistance, connecting stakeholders to essential resources, and aggregating public goods that enhance pathway quality.

• Tracking and communicating field-level impact by measuring outcomes, cataloging evidence-based practices, and elevating success stories to inspire and inform future efforts

The Pathways Impact Fund will launch as an incubated initiative within StriveTogether, providing you with the credibility, expertise, and infrastructure to focus on strategic priorities and build the foundation for long-term success. This collaborative model ensures that you can lead with confidence, supported by a network of experienced partners and stakeholders deeply committed to your success.

The Executive Director, PIF will report to the Chief Executive Officer at StriveTogether and a steering committee composed of key partners and funders.

Responsibilities and Duties

Launch the vision & direction for the Pathways Impact Fund

• Build alignment toward a shared perspective on the set of key experiences that help students get and stay on promising pathways, leveraging insights from the field to guide action.

• Create a blueprint to inform and mobilize learning, strategy, and decision-making at local and national levels.

• Establish strategic priorities for fundraising, funding distribution, programmatic focus, impact measures, and partnership engagement.

• Position the Pathways Impact Fund as a central facilitator and connector within the pathways ecosystem, driving alignment across grassroots and grasstops stakeholders.

• Anticipate and respond to opportunities and challenges with agility, ensuring sustained focus on shared goals.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Collaborate with diverse partners to align proposals, ideas, and priorities, driving collective impact through informed and inclusive communication strategies.

• Navigate complex stakeholder dynamics, making and delivering on critical decisions, even in contentious circumstances.

Establish and manage the operating framework

• Determine operational capabilities, creating accountability structures to achieve measurable outcomes. Including, but not limited to:

  • Hiring and staff development

  • Determining impact metrics and the methods to evaluate and report to stakeholders

  • The process and strategy for funding distribution

  • Establishing an annual budget and creating long-term sustainability

Demonstrate authentic leadership values aligned with StriveTogether values and foster a strong culture that prioritizes anti-racism, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

Qualifications

• Nonprofit and Pathways Experience

1. Deep familiarity with the integral sectors of pathways work such as intermediaries, employers, policy, research, K12, and postsecondary. Maintains a well-established network of key partners regionally and nationally.

2. A minimum of 7 years of progressively responsible leadership roles, including experience in senior management. Experience leading in regional and national capacities is beneficial.

3. Demonstrated ability to lead organizations or significant teams effectively.

4. Experience and success with fundraising, grant management, and donor relations.

• Stakeholder Engagement:

1. Skilled in building rapport and establishing shared goals with diverse groups, including staff, board members, community leaders, and funders.

2. Experience in building partnerships and aligning coalitions focused on a common goal across various sectors or regions.

3. Ability to work effectively within complex governing structures, providing stakeholders with information and guidance needed for informed decision-making.

• Strategic Planning and Implementation:

1. Proven ability to establish clear direction and strategic plan, achieve buy-in, and realize results.

2. Experience with data analysis and impact measures with the ability to effectively evaluate, synthesize, and communicate outcomes and key learnings.

• Operational and Financial Management:

1. Experience hiring and managing teams, overseeing operational systems, and achieving organizational goals in a start-up environment. Ability to leverage central, shared services is highly valued.

2. Experience with nonprofit finances, including budgeting, fundraising, grantmaking, financial reporting, and resource optimization.

Full Job Listing

Don’t need the heads up about Job of the Day posts but want the rest? You can manage your notifications here.

Hey!

In today’s edition of Grow Your Newsletter I wanted to speak a little about how you can use the Substack chat to effectively engage with your audience. Substack is a fantastic place for collaboration, so why not make the most of it?

How does it work?

You can join the Substack chat on a desktop or via the app. You have the option to message people privately, join chats of publications you subscribe to or begin a chat for your own newsletter. If you’ve never used it before, hit the button below and you can have a look through the Freelance Writing Network chat.

You have a few different customisation options for each chat, too. You can paywall the entire thing if you want, paywall specific posts or even just paywall the replies and nothing else.

You can also notify subscribers of your chat via email (which I do occasionally). Usually I do this for the extra opportunities that I share throughout the week, so paid subscribers get a notification of when these are updated.

If you’re new to the chat function, have a little play around and look at what others are doing. I’m going to share a few ways that you can use the chat to help you grow and engage with your audience.

Get to know your community

Not everything on Substack has to be about paywalls and making money. You might make money from a newsletter, you might not. Even if you do, it might just be pocket money. Writing a newsletter should be about more than just trying to make cash.

Lately I have loved getting to know the FWN community using this tool. If you look at the FWN chat, I’ve asked various questions in the last few weeks with totally open ended replies – literally anyone who subscribes to the newsletter can reply and engage.

I love this because it helps me get to know the writers who read the Freelance Writing Network. There are well over 9000 of you subscribed to this newsletter now, and I absolutely love seeing what you are working on or getting to know you a little. I read all of the replies people send and try to take the time to reply to as many as I can.

Read more

Hello writers!

Today I have 70 (yes, 70!) fantastic opportunities for you to check out today including 25 pitch calls from editors and 45 different freelance or remote job opportunities!

If you’re a free subscriber reading this, you’ll get access to this post in full in 24 hours time.

Your Ad Here!

Are you looking to share your business, product, course or something else in front of 9000+ freelancers and writers?

The Freelance Writing Network has sponsorship opportunities available in the next few months. Reasonable rates & a great track record of success with previous partnerships!

Please get in touch via the link below or you can email me at thefreelancewritingnetwork@gmail.com to discuss more details.

Take me there

Pitch Calls

• Companion Magazine is a new print pub from GAIL’s Bakery in the UK. “We’re seeking pitches & submissions for our ‘community’ issue until 17th Feb. We pay up to £500 for creative pieces & £1.30/word for reported features.” Full details here.

• Maybelle is looking for anyone uk-based who has amassed large savings in their 30s and managed to do it with lifestyle/other money saving hacks – email maybelle.morgan@theipaper.com. This publication pays £250 for 1000 word features, according to a previous writer.

• MIT Technology Review is seeking pitches for an upcoming print issue. The theme is Power. The pitch deadline is Friday February 14th. “What are we looking for? Pitches for long pieces and big swings. That includes narrative features, compelling investigations, essential profiles, and super-sharp essays. As always, the theme is a general prompt.” Pitch guide here. Pays $1-2/word.

• Pitch Callout for Business Insider: “Looking for people who moved across the country/to another country for LOVE. Let me know: Why, when, from where to where, if it worked out. Rates start at $240 for 600~ words. DM me pitches!”

• Conz is looking for personal essay pitches for Business Insider. “Specifically looking for: Feel good stories, Comparing US vs other countries (did you move and realized parenting was easier?), Having kids later in life/not having grandchildren, Parenting teens (we don’t hear enough about this!).” Email cpreti@insider.com. Rates around $240.

• Also for Business Insider, Jess is looking to publish a few personal essays about home mortgages. “Are you aiming to pay, or have paid, your mortgage off early? If yes, why, and has it been beneficial? Or, do you refuse to pay off your mortgage early and are using those extra funds for other endeavors? Send your pitch to jorwig@businessinsider.com.”

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For paid subscribers: I have just shared a new thread on the Substack chat with a load of extra pitch calls, freelance & remote writing opportunities from the latter half of this week.

Read more