Melissa Hobson is one of the most published ocean writers around, with bylines in National Geographic, BBC Wildlife, Scientific American, The New York Times, and The Guardian. After she was peer-pressured into learning to scuba dive on the Great Barrier Reef, she slowly transitioned her career from PR to writing about the oceans.
There are so many options for building a marine career that isn't "scientist," and Melissa shows us just how incredible a career in ocean writing can be.
We talk about the portfolio-less cold email that landed her the cover of a dive magazine, the one question every good pitch has to answer (it works for job applications too), and how ocean stories break days before the rest of the world hears about them.
She also talks about her "conservation Trojan horse" trick for slipping the important stuff into a fun animal story, where she really lands on AI as someone who writes for a living, and the citizen science projects that let you help the ocean from your laptop, even if you're hundreds of miles inland.
If you've ever wanted to work in the ocean space but not as a scientist, this one's for you.
Connect with Melissa!
Looking to break into the world of marine conservation, but don’t know where to start? I’ve got you! Download my free resource, the Aspiring Marine Conservationist’s toolkit at caseysnook.com/toolkit and start making waves in your career today 🌊
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