Recruiting is more than a Twitter thread Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Upgrade your hiring practices By Samantha Ragland If you’re doing the hiring, here are a couple things that can make that process more transparent or accessible.   Create a diverse hiring panel, diverse in team/org representation, knowledge and skill set. Make yourself available for informational interviews, no longer than 15 minutes and where you’re the one answering questions. Bonus Tip: If you’re the person looking for the job, seek out conversations with teammates or a former position-holder as a way to learn more about the role and if you’re a good fit for it. A couple of weeks ago, the hiring panel for The Cohort editor position shared who we are and what we are looking for in a strong applicant for this contract role. To continue with this process of hiring transparency — especially because of how deep The Cohort community runs — we thought we’d share another step in our process to recruiting the best candidates for the role.  You’ve maybe heard of informational interviews, which are one of my favorite things to recommend to folks on the job hunt. They're a way to connect with the hiring manager and to ask your own questions. I’ve had several of these for this position already and have been delighted to meet so many talented journalists in such little time. For some, the call meant that they were definitely applying, and they have. For others, it meant this wasn’t the time for them to take on this role, and I’m glad to be able to offer that kind of clarity.  Making yourself available as a hiring manager or panelist can often be the difference between a talented and diverse applicant pool and, well, a talented but not diverse pool.  In addition, interviewees should reach out to other members of the team or folks who have held the position in the past. This offers another perspective on the job — perhaps a less rosy one but an important perspective nonetheless. One of my favorite parts of the women’s leadership community is how quickly someone will pop a note in the alumni Facebook or Slack to offer herself as a resource to an open position she previously held. This level of availability removes a veil on what can be a confusing process. Like the informational interviews, it is another low-stakes way of giving access to folks who may have already counted themselves out for the position.  So, in the spirit of community and access, I reached out to the three former editors of The Cohort with the goal of sharing more about the newsletter and why the position may be the right — or wrong — fit for whoever reading this may still be thinking about applying. (Answers have been edited for clarity and length.) You’ll notice pretty quickly that there’s a familiar theme. Familiar in that any niche newsletter that really puts its audience first reaps the benefits of that decision through immediate — and often public — feedback, deeper access to more resources including story ideas and experts, and selfishly, a more intimate understanding of you as both editor or curator and audience member. What was the most rewarding part of your work writing and editing The Cohort newsletter? Katie Hawkins-Gaar: Creating this newsletter was a wonderful experience for me. It helped me to find allies within Poynter — like my then-trusty editor, Kristen Hare — and to find my voice and hone my vision. Writing The Cohort gave me a great confidence boost and it empowered me to offer a similar boost to women across the industry. I loved meeting and interviewing women across journalism, inspiring folks working at a variety of news organizations and at different points in their careers, and I loved introducing those women to the Cohort audience.   My favorite thing of all, though, was hearing from readers. I went through some major life changes while I wrote The Cohort, from losing my husband, to taking some time off from work, to making the very difficult decision to leave Poynter — and Cohort readers were there through it all. Writing about those life changes through the lens of leadership reminded me that there are lessons wherever we look and that our industry is strengthened through openness and honesty, something I believe that the Cohort audience deeply understands. Seeing all of the ways that The Cohort newsletter has grown and changed since that time makes me incredibly proud, and I truly can't wait to see where it's headed next — and who will be leading the charge.  Rachel Schallom Lobdell: This is such a supportive community, and publication day was always so much fun. There was lots of feedback on social media and via email. I loved when readers told me the column exposed them to a new stellar journalist to follow or a practical tip they could implement in their own lives. Making those connections and seeing the impact made everything worth it!  Mel Grau: The most rewarding part of hosting The Cohort is helping women process, connect and power up.  One of the best examples of The Cohort community at work is around the topic of parental leave. In 2017, Katie featured Katherine Goldstein in The Cohort after she published Where Are the Mothers? in Neiman Reports. In 2018, Rachel took a different approach by doing an in-depth look at the state of fertility benefits in the journalism industry.  And then I followed up with Katherine in 2019 around Mother's Day for another edition of The Cohort. In that conversation, she encouraged me to reach out to the women at The Boston Globe who formed a committee to advocate for 16 weeks of paid parental leave. That resulted in this edition of The Cohort, which was the most viral post I oversaw during my Cohort tenure. I heard from dozens of women about how they were inspired to organize around the benefits they wanted to see in their newsroom. And I was inspired, too. I helped spearhead a new policy at Poynter — and wrote about it for The Cohort to offer another roadmap for women taking on this work.  Samantha Ragland Faculty, The Poynter Institute Director, Leadership Academy for Women in Media @sammy_ragland © All rights reserved Poynter Institute 2021 801 Third Street South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701 If you don't want to receive email updates from Poynter, we understand. You can update your subscription preferences here or unsubscribe.