Lookout Landing is hiring - updated!

New deadline date: 2/15/22

Last week, LL announced a hiring call for new writers. We had no idea what that clarion call would bring to the humble LL inbox: everything from term papers to novel treatments to YouTube videos to poetry to podcast scripts to memes. We are positively aswim in applications, and while we’re delighted to have so many new and exciting voices to consider, it does mean we have to update our application deadline.

The new, firm deadline for application submission is February 15th, 2022.

We’re sorry for the mixed messaging, but we’ve found we simply have to put a hard cap on applications so that we can evaluate them and move forward to have a new team in place by (fingers crossed so hard) the start of Spring Training.

As for that evaluation, I wanted to give you a little peek into our process.

When you send your application off (using, of course, the proper “LL application submission 2022” subject to trigger the Google gremlins to auto-respond a receipt of your application), the application materials are scraped out of the e-mail by me and anonymized, with all names and pertinent biographical details removed, before being placed into a shared drive for our hiring committee to review.

Each application is entered into our applicant database and then the application materials are blind-reviewed by a trio of staffers who grade each application on a scoring rubric.

The rubric is based on the 20-80 scouting scale, because we’re baseball writers, and covers the following categories:

• Voice: Is the voice throughout the application materials strong, compelling, clear, fresh? Is it something our readers would expect to see on Lookout Landing?;
• Relevant Experience: Do the application materials show a familiarity with writing, baseball, the Mariners, or ideally, all three?;
• Quality of ideas: Are the ideas presented fresh, abundant, informed? What new things will this applicant contribute to our understanding of the Mariners, past or present, and/or of baseball as a whole?
• Organization and professionalism: Is the application complete and free of errors, both forced and unforced? Is there effort evident in the submission of materials? Were directions from the hiring post followed?
• Shared vision: Do the application materials convey a sense of reliability and commitment to the sport and the site in ways that reflect our shared values as a community and as a site?

As you can tell, the process is exhaustive, and we feel fortunate to have so many strong applications already to sort through. We want to leave time, as well, to offer feedback for everyone who made a strong effort in submitting, as we recognize there are more people we’d like to hire than we realistically have room for on the masthead. This is the reasoning behind our due date change. However, we are willing to be flexible; since we’re changing the game, it only seems fair. If you’re in the process of pulling together an application but are concerned you won’t be able to have it done by the due date of 2/15, please drop an email to LookoutLanding3.0@gmail.com and explain the extenuating circumstances.

That updated deadline also means we’ll be sending our our first round of responses shortly after the application window closes; we’ll then narrow down the applicant pool further. During this time you might be contacted by one of the members of the LL team if we are strongly considering your application but feel like we need to see something more (usually, this will be something concrete like a recap or a set of pitches for a feature). Our goal is to have the new team in place by the beginning of March (and, hope against hope, the beginning of spring training).

If you have any further questions feel free to shout out one of us via e-mail or on social media; most of the staff is involved in the hiring process and should be able to answer your specific question.

Here’s a link to the hiring post one more time, in case you need that to refer back to while pulling together your application. Also, if you’ve read this far, you deserve some pieces of advice, so here they are:

• We have gotten a boatload of applications for the features position, probably because that’s the most open-ended, but the tricky part of that is that a lot of those applications lack a specific direction or vision for what the applicant hopes to bring to the site. Specific pitches are appreciated; Mariners-specific pitches, even more so.
• While we’re trying to cast the net wide to bring in as wide a variety of voices as possible, there is a definite advantage gained by writing about baseball, specifically, and the Mariners, even more specifically, in a way beyond professing fandom in the cover letter.
• Speaking of professing fandom, it’s always helpful to remember the old saw of writing advice: show don’t tell. That also applies to professing humor.
• If you’re applying for the recap writer position, write the sample recap as instructed in the original hiring post. This one should be obvious, but you’d be surprised.
• Familiarity with the site and the general tone of LL is a huge bonus. If you’ve read the site, you know that our style isn’t dry gamers or AP-style newsers. There’s plenty of places to get that info elsewhere. Voice is huge and the first thing on the rubric for a reason.
• If you really really really want to be part of LL, consider applying for the minors position, by far the least-applied-for position of the trio. Don’t freak out if you don’t know anything about the minors; if you’re willing to learn, and also subject yourself to hours of grainy MiLB footage, you have what it takes to be a minor-league grinder.

Remember, we are looking for people who fit with us, who will energize us through another long year of writing about this often-frustrating team (and let’s be honest, the capital-T Team) with new ideas and enthusiasm, so make it easy for us to see how you fit with the site by providing materials that make us eager to hear more from you. Thanks to those of you who have already submitted; your effort and your excitement about what we do here are much-appreciated. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out.