‘Mildly rebellious, highly curious’: Breaking from the traditional career path
5 questions with Canopy’s Sonam Vashi on collaboration and transformative work
In PRESS AHEAD’s 5 Questions series, journalists share practical advice about journalism jobs and newsroom careers.
Sonam Vashi’s break with a traditional journalist career path illustrates how the industry itself is transforming and the need to be flexible when thinking about the future.
While she’s written for traditional outlets such as the New York Times, National Geographic and others, she shifted her career two years ago to co-found Canopy Atlanta. The community journalism nonprofit trains and reports in collaboration with metro Atlantans. As co-director, she is reporter, organizer, trainer, fundraiser, cat herder and more.
Self-described “mildly rebellious and highly curious,” Sonam talks about collaboration as key to truly transformative work, the role of values and luck, the importance of being open to what shape your career could take and more (plus a job opening!)
Why journalism as a career for you?
I never planned on becoming a journalist. I grew up in a fairly traditional Indian immigrant family, and, especially after the 2008 recession, I entered college with the expectation that I would find a better paying, more stable field: medicine, law, engineering, maybe business — definitely not the arts or civic worlds.
But I've always been mildly rebellious and highly curious: When I took some journalism classes in college, I fell in love with the idea of being a lifelong learner, of the ability to talk to anyone and often have them give you so much of their time and self. My values, flexibility and much luck are what has turned it into a career for me — at least so far. After some years of hand-wringing, my family even got on board. It helped that I later found out that my great-grandfather was a journalist, too: He reported on British oppression during the Indian independence movement, corresponded with Mohandas Gandhi and was even imprisoned for his reporting. So, maybe journalism is part of my heritage anyway.
What was your first job and how did you get it?
In college, I held many jobs — library book shelver, barista, editor — before I graduated, which were experiences that became both immensely helpful later in life and were very stressful at the time.
One of my internships was with the local alt-weekly, Creative Loafing, which showed me an environment that felt right for me (informal, passionate, nerdy) and gave me opportunities to freelance (mostly reporting on the local music scene) after my internship ended.
As graduation approached, I had unsuccessfully applied to several journalism jobs, and I didn't really have a plan, other than continuing to freelance. But at the 11th hour, one of my applications came through: working on a fact-check desk at CNN. One of my professors knew a CNN journalist and helped get my application at least noticed. That type of networking still feels unfair to me but is effective, as both someone who's been an applicant and also now hires journalists.
What specific advice do you have for someone breaking into journalism?
I think "journalism" as an industry is and has been transforming so much, in really exciting but unstable ways. When I was in college, my vision of a journalist was being a traditional beat reporter. But now, it's opened to encompass so much more: community organizers and fundraisers and data analysts and librarians and regular people.
And so the best advice I can give is to be open and flexible on what shape your career could take — but also to be driven by strong values and what you want your life and work to look like. Who do you want to serve? Are you looking for a job, or a calling? (My answer has shifted depending on where I'm at!) For me, I've always tried to figure out where I can be most helpful in the movement toward liberation — racial and socioeconomic equity, community health and strength. Sometimes, that has looked like reporting on undercovered issues. Other times, like now, it looks like fundraising and building organizations to help community members tell stories and report on their communities. Who knows what it'll be in the future?
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever gotten/lessons learned?
There are many, but one I've been thinking on is how this work — especially equity- and community-centered work — can't be done alone. Individual journalists do so much great reporting alone every day. But the truly transformative work, that resists established power structures and is sustainable? That work requires bringing others in and being collaborative.
And so while it's important to learn and excel at skills like research and reporting, equally important is learning how to work with, empower and equip others. Those might sound like common-sense skills, but I think they take a lifetime to master (at least for me!).
Anything else you’d want to tell student journalists/early career journalists?
This is such an exciting time to be a journalist or interested in the field. I'm so excited by the work of folks like City Bureau, Outlier Media, Scalawag, Documented, Enlace Latino and so many more. Plus: Canopy Atlanta is hiring a part-time job right now! If you're interested and in Atlanta, please take a look.
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Thank you for sharing your experience and specific advice, Sonam!
— Amy
Here’s a cat gif for further inspiration and as thanks for reading. And if you want to learn more about finding jobs and navigating newsrooms, sign up to get future posts in your inbox. It’s more fun than a cat backflipping on the street.
👇 More good stuff after the cat 🐱👇
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Good stuff links!
Why newsrooms are collaborating to take on ambitious reporting projects (Nieman Report)
A Green Bay Packers-style approach to rescue a Colorado newspaper (Seattle Times)
Tampa Bay Times reporters on what made their recycling factory-lead levels investigation so successful (The Journalist’s Resource) — “Five of the biggest reasons” section that begins halfway through is particularly worth reading
Career Kit!
The PRESS AHEAD Career Kit is for paid subscribers and includes:
Journalism-specific portfolio advice and sample/template portfolios
10 common job interview questions + Journalism-specific interview questions if you’re a hiring manager
💡Behind the scenes about why I created it | And if you need specific, personalized help, reach out!
In case you missed it!
A sampling of previous PRESS AHEAD newsletter editions:
Satisfied, proud of your work? See how you compare to U.S. journalists surveyed. How to tell the world you’re looking for a job. 4 questions to ask job candidates (and be prepared to answer if you’re the candidate). Ignore the job description (sometimes). On finding audiences, finding jobs and finding purpose. How do I get experience when I have no experience? 3 grad speeches to recharge your journalism spirit. Have you considered a product-editor role? What if we approached our career development like a reporter? What’s more important in a first job? How did this newsletter begin? Who’s behind it? How can you benefit and WHY SO MANY QUESTIONS?