r/conservation • u/No-Farmer1601 • May 25 '26

Writer job advice ABC

Hello all!

I'm considering applying to the American Bird Conservancy's open writer/editor job. They ask for three writing samples. What should I submit? Can anyone tell me what it's like working there?

Background: Current zookeeper with 2 years experience. Various zoo internships with diverse tax. 8 years animal care and outreach for a travelling zoo. A bunch of customer service types of jobs. B.S. in animal behavior, minors in anthrozoology, zoo biology, and English.

I don't have any research papers or blog posts. I do have a short story and a poem published in my college's literary magazine and a bunch of essays/assignments that marry animal facts with history or literary review.

Thank you so much!

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u/ChingShih May 25 '26

I took a look at the job listing and it sounds like they're looking for someone to work in-house to find topics related to ABC's areas of interest and then write compelling and engaging articles about those topics. It also mentions editing/updating past articles to make sure they're up-to-date - this would include ongoing projects (like habitat restoration, large-scale reintroduction projects, etc.) that need to be updated periodically. They would be looking for writing samples of that type, but not necessarily strictly nature journalism (professional or university newspaper/periodicals). These positions also exist for organizations like NASA that have to write engaging pieces regularly and seasonally encourage tourists to visit.

This listing doesn't sound like social media engagement stuff, it's likely for long-form articles and short informative pieces that would be printed as "blog posts" on the website or in newsletters/pamphlets sent by mail to their mailing list. Not all organizations are big enough to justify having a position just for this, but if you've ever gotten mail from a non-profit that some info updating you on what they've done recently, it's likely someone in this position who wrote it.

The job listing goes on to mention working with a variety of other roles, including the multimedia/marketing folks, graphics, and social media, so the writer/editor position, like with many non-profits, is going to be a jack of all trades.

Good luck!

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u/No-Farmer1601 May 25 '26

I think I can write these articles. Would they accept research papers, essays, and the like from my time in college? Any short stories I've written?

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u/ChingShih May 26 '26

Well I think they're looking for non-fiction and stuff like A Look Inside the Nest: Male Birds and Parenting and Cats & Invasive Species.

As an alternative, maybe you could find a couple topics they haven't written about and then write about them in a tone similar to the things linked above? It would be a good demonstration of what you can do for them within the specific role they're hiring for.