Editorial Intern

~ BuildingGreen, located in the progressive New England town of Brattleboro, VT, publishes authoritative information on sustainable building design and construction for building professionals throughout North America. ~ 

BuildingGreen has a staff of 15 knowledgeable, dedicated employees whose work advances the cutting edge of sustainable building design and construction. The office environment is casual, yet professional. Visit our website to learn more. And click here to learn more about LEED products.

Position Overview

Do you want to enter a fast-paced, innovative environment producing and editing content for the world’s most trusted green building publisher?

BuildingGreen, Inc. is hiring an entry-level editor.

This person would be an essential team member for all things we do related to content and for reaching both our loyal readers and the ones who haven’t heard about us yet.

Responsibilities  

Are you excited to:  

• Digest a 100-page technical standard into a two-page summary of key points?

• Find the essential 140-character version of a 500-word description of green product criteria?

• Spend hours churning through our website traffic analytics tool (Woopra) to find out what our readers are really reading—and being able to suggest why, based on headlines and referral data?

• Write a quick blog post on a news item in the building industry and tying it skillfully back to our deeper content?

• Moderate an active user forum—weeding out spam, handling the low-hanging fruit, and knowing whom to reach out to for the stumpers?

• Publish articles via an online content management system? (We’re not going to try to make this sound exciting … and you will be doing a lot of it.)

• Verify green product characteristics and whether they comply with our criteria? (Again, we won’t try to make this sound exciting. It’s great for learning a lot, but you will master the mechanics quickly, we trust.)

• Pen compelling emails with must-read content for our readers?

Note: There is no job too big or too small that we might throw at you. We’ll work with you to get it right and to get you up the learning curve, but we’ll expect dedication, a strong work ethic, and fresh ideas. 

Qualifications  

Relevant skills and background:  

• Clear written and verbal communication is a must.

• You need to have research abilities, including comfort with numbers and spreadsheets.

• We need discernment and critical thinking: can you pick out the real McCoy from the pretenders? Can you use a press release as a single point in research—not a list of talking points for your own article?

• Background in sustainability and the green building industry, and specifically a LEED credential, is a plus, though not essential.

• Your approach: are you an autodidact, self-motivated, able to work independently without getting distracted? Able and motivated to quickly learn new skills? Can you work hard but also recharge at the end of the day with some running, skiing, weaving, or you-name-it?

• Teamwork: we count on each other to work at a high level and follow through on commitments. Deadlines matter to us a lot. We also push deadlines back when a project demands extra time. Either way, we communicate well and are responsive to each other—and, most importantly, to our readers.

Here’s what we’re up to: 

• Publishing blog posts and deep investigative articles at BuildingGreen.com.

• Product research and screening at GreenSpec.com.

• Credit-by-credit help for LEED project teams at LEEDuser.com.

• This was one of our big investigative projects in 2014. Here’s one we just wrapped up for March 2015 (as of this posting, it is not live yet).

• We did this just for fun.

• Here’s one of our weekly emails to readers.

More details: 

• Full time (40 hours) work; typically 9 to 5 but with some flexibility if needed.

• Salary and benefits will be commensurate with what you bring to the team. We are looking to work with an intern-level individual at $12/hour plus holidays, plus master's level continuing education opportunities, with no health benefits. If you’re perfect for this position and have specific requirements, please be upfront about that in your email. There is room for advancement.

• Scheduled start is June 1, but we’ll adjust that as needed when we find the right candidate. Twelve-month commitment.

• Location: our office is in the outdoorsy, college-y, worldly, farmers’ market-y, literary mid-sized town of Brattleboro, Vermont. We wouldn’t rule out a remote work arrangement, but we strongly prefer onsite collaboration.

• Atmosphere: Our office is professional yet casual. We’ve hosted meetings with congressmen and major NGOs, but you’ll also see bare feet and dogs.

• Team: We have about 15 full-time staff, including three core editorial team members plus several others with content expertise and responsibilities. 

To Apply 

Please click below: "Apply Now Online!" to email the following: 

• Indicate "Editorial position: Your Name" in the subject line.
• Be sure to cover in the body of your email why you want to work here and why you're qualified. No attachments, please - note that we are not currently requesting a resume, thank you.
• Include links to work you've done online that shows us who you are and what you can do. Examples may include articles you've written, your best blog posts, your Twitter feed, videos you've produced, etc. Sky's the limit.
• Let us know where you found this posting! 

Note: Top candidates will be interviewed and receive a short work assignment to demonstrate facility with what we do. We may offer a longer, paid audition-style assignment to further test the relationship. 

Thanks for your interest!