How I Got Here: Beatrice Smith, Online Editor at HerCanberra
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Admit it, we’ve all been there—deep dive stalking social media and LinkedIn profiles, trying desperately to figure out how the hell someone got their dream job.
It seems impossible and yet there they are, living out your career fantasy (minus the itchy business suit). It might seem hard to believe, but once upon a time, they were also fantasising about their future career, and with some hard work, they made it.
Welcome to How I Got Here, HerCanberra’s series that reveals everything you wanted to know about the secrets of career success.
Ever wondered how Beatrice Smith came to be HerCanberra’s brilliant ball of sunshine? She shares the story of how she got here.
Existential crisis time: Who are you and what do you do?
I’m the Online Editor for HerCanberra and a Creative Content Strategist at Coordinate, Canberra’s biggest media agency.
At HerCanberra I write, edit and commission content for our website and social media channels and my role at Coordinate is similar, but instead I create content for our clients.
Since Coordinate and HerCanberra merged in 2021 it’s become the perfect workload blend. Mornings start with our HerCanberra team WIP—working out what content will be published when and why—and then by the afternoon I might be working on a blog for a Coordinate client’s website, developing a communications strategy for a brand or editing a column from a HerCanberra freelancer.
Let’s go back to when you were a kid, have you always dreamed of working in this industry?
Absolutely. I pored over magazines since childhood and have written for fun all my life. Whether it was My Chemical Romance fan-fiction in my teen years (shhhh) or for the student newspaper at university, words have always been my great love.
Specifically, editing other people’s work has always appealed to me. It’s such a privilege to have someone trust you with their precious words and to play a part in helping those words shine their brightest.
Tell us about when you were first starting out, what set a fire in your belly to get here and how did you do it?
There was a strange time in the early 2010s when ‘the media’ was seen to be ‘dying’.
It was all I heard when I expressed interest in pursuing journalism after university. So many people were sceptical about my ability to land a job, but while it was true that cadetship opportunities in traditional journalism were declining, new media such as websites, social media and podcasts were just getting started. I think sheer stubbornness propelled me through that time.
How I got here, however, is a testament to how the small actions of some can massively impact someone’s life.
As a first-year ANU student becoming involved in extra-curricular activities at my college, a second year named Yasmin encouraged me to apply for her role as Arts Representative in the upcoming leadership elections. I did end up becoming Arts Representative and then Vice President of the college. It was my first taste of community leadership and I loved it.
After a semester of university exchange in England I was ready for a new challenge. Yasmin was then an Editor at Woroni, the ANU student media organisation, and she encouraged me to apply for a sub-editorship. I became the Life and Style sub-editor and then an Editor the following year. Honestly, it’s crazy how a few earnest conversations in the college common room changed the direction of my life.
I had been studying English and History to become a teacher, but after I got a taste of editing a newspaper as the Content Editor at Woroni, I couldn’t go back. I even paid to extend my degree by a semester so I could finish the last six months of my editorship. Did it pay off? In a million ways.
As an Editor, I was able to turn my experience into an after-hours liaison role at Sky News in the Press Gallery at Parliament House (thanks to the recommendation of another editor) and internships at MamaMia, InStyle Magazine (again, through people I met at Woroni) and, finally, HerCanberra.
These weren’t grand gestures. They were just someone doing something kind for someone else that inadvertently helped them reach their dreams. Corny but true.
Recall a time when you wanted to chuck it all in; what did you tell yourself when it got too hard?
Ooft. 2020 was such a kick in the pants, wasn’t it? Having listened to a lot of global news podcasts (more on that below) I was an early COVID worry wart, but strangely enough, being able to say ‘I told you so’ didn’t make 2020 any better. Funny that.
Like so many media organisations, HerCanberra had a horrible start to 2020 and I grabbed the wheel while Amanda (HerCanberra Founder and Director) took a job in ACT Health’s COVID Comms department to allow us to keep our jobs.
Hilariously, my plan for 2020 was to take six months off to backpack around Europe, but instead I found myself with the top job, trying to keep my workplace of five years afloat from my parents’ spare room.
I think the real low point was taking a grand total of three days off in July to farewell my then-boyfriend at Sydney Airport before he flew home to his new job in Canada (yes, we were breaking up—COVID and long distance just seemed masochistic) and then drive back to Canberra to move house in the same 24 hours. I still can’t believe I did that.
I think pure disbelief kept me going through those times. Perhaps the fact that the world was so upside down meant that my personal lows seemed small in comparison?
What was your biggest break?
Definitely in 2015 when Amanda agreed to meet me for coffee to discuss a potential internship at HerCanberra. She hired me six months later as an Editorial Coordinator and seven years later we’re still knocking about together. I’m so grateful she took a chance on me.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
When I was tossing up between studying Communications at UC (which seemed to hold the promise of many steady jobs) and a Bachelor of Arts at ANU (which people used to joke was a ‘bachelor of unemployment’. Yes, really), my late grandfather surprised me by stating that “We don’t go to university to get a job, we go to university to broaden our horizons”.
This was something of a surprise as Grandad was fond of telling us about the many winters he spent sandwiched between heaters in a freezing library in pursuit of his law degree, but a welcome bit of advice nonetheless.
I chose ANU and, as you’ve already heard, everything seemed to fall into place from there.
What is it about your industry that you love and what makes you want to pull your hair out?
I love everything about our industry—except when people expect you to write about something that will make them money, for free.
Tell us how you ‘stay in the know’, what media do you consume?
Everything, all the time. That being said—how good is the new iPhone update that stops news notifications from popping up on your screen during the night?
It’s probably the best intentional life hack I’ve come across. I’m so glad I no longer roll over and spend the first minute of the day doom-scrolling all the awful things that happened while I was asleep.
NEWS
- HerCanberra: (Duh) Just like our readers, I love a new restaurant scoop and no one does them like our Emma Macdonald.
- The Canberra Times: Local is everything and this is a resource that deserves protection.
- The Guardian Australia: Their app is my go-to for rolling Australian news coverage
- The New York Times: My go-to for international coverage
- Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Weekend: A staple of my childhood. Even if I don’t read the full SMH cover to cover I always delight in The Quiz.
- The Saturday Paper + The Monthly: Brilliant journalism.
- BroadAgenda: Gender-focused journalism with an academic bent.
PODCASTS
As a podcast fanatic, I’ll stick to news and current events for this list. You can read my other podcast recommendations here.
- Coronacast: This podcast has sustained me like a latte every morning since 2020. My future dog will be called Dog-ter Norman Swan. I’m not joking.
- 7am: Schwartz Media (The Monthly, The Saturday Paper) journalists unpack one news item per podcast. Brilliant for when there’s so much going on in the world.
- The Squiz: My colleague Emma got me onto The Squiz and I haven’t looked back. All the day’s headlines in a digestible format. I get the daily newsletter too.
- BBC’s Coronavirus Global Update: Often a difficult listen but brilliant if you want to keep a global perspective on COVID.
- BBC Global News Podcast: Headlines and in-person reporting from The BBC’s global network of journalists. A must-listen.
- The Daily: The New York Times’ quick headline-unpack podcast that also contains interviews with journalists. This was especially helpful as we tried to make sense of COVID in 2020.
- Trash Alley: A hilarious and light take on pop culture news hosted by two brilliant Australian comedians, Alright Hey and Tim Abbott.
LIFESTYLE + POP CULTURE NEWS
- Junkee + Pedestrian: Youth journalism for the reading set. Thank god these websites exist.
- Into The Gloss: ITG is arguably the biggest beauty news website in the world, but I remember reading it at uni when it was just Emily Weiss in her living room with a digital camera and a dream. Oh, memories.
- British VOGUE: Magazines—remember them? I buy this (because: Edward Enninful), ELLE UK, ELLE Australia and VOGUE Australia whenever I can because IF WE DON’T BUY THEM THEY REALLY WILL DIE.
- Go Fug Yourself: Hilarious fashion satire and brilliant article recommendations.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Writing another one of these for HerCanberra. No, really.
Why should people follow in your footsteps?
Because the world needs more female journalists and voices in media.
What advice would you give your past self?
If you know you want to do it—do it now. I’m a decisive person but sometimes not as spontaneous as I would like (see: deciding to get alllll of my ducks in a row before taking six months off. Nek minit: pandemic).
If these last few years have taught me anything, it’s that normal can change overnight.
Do what you want to do and do it now.
