[the bottom rung] lauren smelcher sams, cosmopolitan associate editor

Welcome to the ultimate hub for expert advice to help you get your big break (+ move up the ladder). This time, I’m hanging on The Bottom Rung with…

LAUREN SMELCHER SAMS*, 28 – Cosmopolitan magazine associate editor and Daily Life contributor

Climbing the ladder

Then: With a little writing experience up her sleeve, Lauren talked her way into contributing to CLEO’s website, which then helped her land a fulltime job as Cosmopolitan’s website editor. She was then promoted to Cosmo’s entertainment and website editor, then senior features writer. Next stop? Girlfriend’s deputy editor.

Now: Lauren’s made the ultimate comeback at Cosmopolitan, returning as their associate editor.

Here, Lauren confesses a few tips and tricks that she’s learned along the way….

Want to be a writer? Value editing, too
When I was at Cosmopolitan, I really began to understand writing – it’s not just about one word leading on to the next, it’s about crafting those words for a particular reader, at a specific moment, with as much knowledge as possible. I learned that good writing is a bit like sports – when it looks simple, it’s about as close to perfect as it can get.

Keep your job expectations realistic
During my first year at Cosmo, I was a bit full of myself. I wasn’t openly mouthy, but I had an unrealistic idea of myself (editor of The Washington Post, say) and what I should be doing (editing The Washington Post, say). I should have been far more grateful for the time and effort people in the industry were investing in me, and learned to listen to them far more quickly than I did. I wish that I’d been able to understand my shortcomings and work on them.
Also I once got an opportunity to interview Chris Hemsworth approximately five minutes before he made it big in Hollywood. I believe my words were, “The guy from Home and Away? Bahahahahahaha. No thank you, I am quite busy and important. I don’t have time to interview that nobody.” You win this round, Hemsworth.

The greatest advice I ever heard was…
A friend told me the best meetings take place in the kitchen over a cup of tea. In other words: network, people, network!

Be polite, work hard and don’t complain
When you’re interning or starting out, you don’t want to be the person who asked the editor why she named her kid Rainbow and why she chose that cover girl and how she felt about being on Media Watch in your first five minutes in the office. In short, do what you’d do if you were being paid. Be polite. Work hard. Don’t complain. Be alert – there’s always stuff to be done, and if you notice that it needs doing (and you’re the person who does it), people will remember you. Don’t expect too much (you may not get hired after five days. Just saying.) Ask if you can speak to someone on the team whose job is relevant to you (if you want to be a designer, ask if you can sit down with the art director. For a cup of tea. In the kitchen.)

A day in the life of a magazine intern…
Begins with a coffee run! And if you nail that coffee run, people will literally worship you. I don’t mean that facetiously – people will love and adore you! Post-coffee run, an internship in mags usually involves photocopying, researching story ideas, looking through past issues of the mag for relevant material, tidying up (fashion closets are notoriously messy. You have been warned). But who knows? Your work experience week might coincide with a cover shoot or a beauty sale (see Gab’s book THE INTERN for more on this wonderful, wonderful occurrence) or a big deadline that everyone needs help with. Fun times!

The crazier side of the media
This wasn’t in magazines, but in my very first job as a writer, my mad boss asked me to answer his phone and pretend he was gone for the day. His enraged mistress was on the other end, calling from outside our building. As he tried to escape via the back door, I let that phone ring and ring and ring.
Also, in the job before THAT, my boss asked me to clean her floors – as in, the ones in her home, where she lived! I’m sad to say that I did it. I was like Andie from The Devil Wears Prada, if it had been written by the Brothers Grimm.

Stay open to opportunities
Sure, internships are the most conventional way to break into the industry, but they’re not the only way – I’m living proof! I had a job writing for a very, very small publication before I started at Cosmo, so in that sense, I did have a run or two on the board. If you loathe the idea of an unpaid internship, or if it’s not realistic, then I’d suggest putting your hand up for a paid writing gig anywhere, writing about anything, and then applying to magazines. You’ll stand out because you’ll have published work.

Read and write – it’s that simple
You’d be surprised how many job interviews I’ve sat in on where the interviewee has professed to never have read the bloody mag they’re trying to get a job at! So read. Read books and newspapers and magazines and websites and blogs. Figure out whose voices you like and why you like them. Don’t try to rip them off, but understand what makes them different. Then hone your own voice, and try to figure out how you’re different. The only way you can do that is by writing. So write, and then write again, and then write some more. Write on Twitter, write your uni essays, write in a journal, write your Nana a letter, write to your local paper (do you still have one? Lucky), write on spec for your fave mags and websites. Write write write write write. Right? Right. (Lauren Smelcher Sams: winner, Lamest Pun, 2014.)

Thanks again to Lauren for sharing her advice! If you’d love to find out more, then say hello on Twitter.

*Disclaimer: For transparency’s sake, yes, Lauren was kind enough to read THE INTERN for me and provide the rather marvellous cover quote.