Wirecutter seeks a staff writer to cover personal computing

Wirecutter is seeking a staff writer to join the personal computing (PC) & networking team.

As a staff writer on the PC team, you’ll be responsible for reviewing a variety of tech products and keeping our guides up to date, from ultrawide monitors and SSDs to pro tablets and laptops. But Wirecutter isn’t about highlighting all of the latest tech news, and you won’t churn out short drafts every day. Instead, you’ll be responsible for researching and testing products to recommend things that strike the perfect balance of value and quality, often working on assignments that stretch and overlap for weeks or months. To be a writer here, you should also be excited to consider more than just a specs sheet or benchmarking test—a great Wirecutter review can value small but meaningful usability design choices, present sustainable and ethical concerns, and include diverse perspectives and needs.

You’ll report to a senior editor and work on a distributed team with a handful of other technology writers and editors in the section who communicate and collaborate regularly on Zoom and Slack. But you’ll spend much of your time working independently on research, testing, writing, and responding to edits. A successful staff writer on the team will need to be comfortable taking initiative, good with time management, and quick to communicate. This role has the potential to be remote.

Responsibilities

• Research, report, and write long form guides and short form posts on a particular beat; think creatively about sources, identify experts, and plan and conduct meaningful short- and long-term tests

• Request product samples and process their return

• Call experts and review academic journal articles and other scientific data; methodically scan user reviews and forums to find what truly matters to readers

• Collaborate with editors to conceive new content and formats and move ideas from pitch to publish     

• Collaborate with photo, video and illustration departments to produce visuals to support guides and blog posts

• Work with our community team to respond to reader feedback and questions; work with our affiliate team to resolve stock issues on recommendations; work with our operations team on product orders and testing plans.

• May be required to attend trade shows and product news events as needed to build contacts and expertise in relevant topic areas

• Perform related work as assigned

Qualifications

• Minimum 2 years of professional writing experience related to consumer technology

• Preference will be given to candidates with demonstrable knowledge in any of the following areas: monitors and display technology, tablets and smartphones, desktop and laptop computers, CPU and GPU performance

• Excellent communication and task management skills in a remote work environment; patience to work through multiple rounds of edits and balance multiple reporting projects and deadlines simultaneously

• Experience doing original reporting and research for features, review, or how-to guides is preferred; experience covering products or services, especially involving hands-on or lab testing, is also valuable.

• Ability to explain complex topics to a non-technical audience, and empathy for the frustrated or confused reader. We are not writing only for the experienced enthusiast, but for a mainstream audience who cares about spending their money wisely and buying the right thing the first time

• Adept at finding ways to get in touch with product managers, designers, engineers, and other experts to act as sources within guides

• Comfort gathering large amounts of data, organizing it in spreadsheets, and probing the work for missing information and inaccuracies. Familiarity with Google Sheets and Airtable is also a plus

To apply, go here.