How I Used Medium to Get 3 Job Offers
It’s simpler than you think.
Have you ever felt like your posts on Medium can be more than just stories on the internet?
I thought so, too.
When I started writing on Medium, I saw great potential in the platform. It’s perfect for beginners, has a lively audience base, and is full of great information.
More than that, I knew I could leverage it in some other way.
Not through the Medium Partner Program. We don’t have that here in my country.
Not through direct partnership deals. I’m not quite there yet.
Not through paid newsletters. I don’t have one — although I might start something soon — maybe explore the concept of career antifragility and overemployment for writers, etc.
So … if not all of those, how did I use Medium to get the three jobs I promised? There’s a short answer and a long answer.
The short answer is that I plugged my Medium presence into all my job applications. I know — pretty underwhelming, right?
But it worked.
As for why it worked — that’s what the long answer is for.
Long Answer No. 1: Medium Helped Me View Myself as a Writer
Before publishing consistently on Medium, I wasn’t really a writer.
Oh, I wrote stuff for a living. I made high-value content for B2B businesses, SaaS, hobbyist websites, and more. But in my head, that made me a “freelancer.”
There was a clear distinction, you see.
A freelance writer writes for money. A “freelancer” or a “freelance writer” is someone who:
- Knows how to read briefs,
- Can “do SEO”
- Needs gigs to survive.
But when you think of yourself as a writer, ALL of those become a given. You become someone who:
- Can think clearly, strategically, and critically.
- Is passionate about connecting with their audience.
- Wants to elevate content into an experience, rather than a living.
- Has an existing practice, a thriving audience, and isn’t desperate.
“Great!” You might say, “We all love to see subtle changes in self-perception. But did it really get you jobs?”
And the answer is — yes.
Once I started referring to myself as a writer, someone who writes and connects to their audience because they want to, recruiters began to think, “Here’s somebody whose hand I don’t have to hold.”
This allows you to speak with authority, create a good impression, and have higher-level conversations.
I remember this one job interview when the interviewer (Department Head) asked a pretty standard “Tell me about yourself.” I told her that I am already doing what they’re looking for: knowing their niche, writing their topics, and engaging an audience, on my own just because I want to.
Powerful.
Needless to say, she was pretty impressed.
Long Answer No. 2: I Got Over My Hangups About Self-Promotion
I used to hate posting anything about myself.
Strangers on the internet don’t care who I am. Worse — they might see who I am, and reject me. Because of that limiting belief, I’ve always viewed public self-promotion as unnecessary, ineffective, and annoying.
Really didn’t want to be those cringy wannabe influencers that get bashed online.
But I started to write on Medium, and I thought what’s the difference?
I was already writing stories I liked and things I thought potential employers would like to read. I was already putting out value.
Thinking about it, that’s exactly what self-promotion is: putting out something to help people, and being visible while doing it.
So I started posting and engaging on LinkedIn, thinking that being more active there would get me more eyeballs on my profile.
Now, whenever potential clients search my name on LinkedIn, they’ll find me and my work. I also repurposed some of my Medium articles and posted them on the platform. Searchers will see my writing, my values, and my communication style there.
I can’t even say if that helped my efforts directly, but I feel like it did.
After all, everything else being equal, which one would you pick? The one who:
- Has 55 connections, bad display image, unoptimized profile, and inactive LinkedIn or
- Has 500+ connections, optimized profile, and is actively sharing value about their industry just because they want to.
Pretty easy, right?
Long Answer No. 3: Medium Articles Let Me Plug Live Writing Samples That Boosted Authority
There are so many freelance writers around — the low barrier to entry ensured that. Pretty much everyone can go to the internet, make a portfolio, and become a freelancer.
Unfortunately, most of them are just not good.
Their profiles are general, their portfolio is substandard — and even if their writing samples are ok, potential employers simply don’t know how they will perform in the real world.
When you’re a writer — any kind of writer — your ability to craft words is just the tip of the iceberg.
Your ability to find your audience, resonate with them, and engage them in conversation also matters a lot. And unless you’ve specifically asked for readership stats from your previous employer, there’s simply no way to display this.
Thus, a live portfolio such as Medium is invaluable. Not only does it let you publish your best works, but you also get feedback from an engaged community. And these are things that you can show off.
During an interview, find some way to work your best Medium stats to your results.
It not necessarily individual results, either (for some time, I didn’t have anything to show off as well). It can be simple things like:
- Your writing process.
- Your cumulative views for a month.
- Your cumulative number of responses.
- An industry-specific story that you published.
- How many stories of a certain length (500, 1000, 2000 words) you can post in a week.
Of course, if you’ve begun to show remarkable results, then it pays to show them off. But it’s crucial to do so contextually — a potential client/employer in the B2B industry won’t care about the self-development article you posted about sleeping habits.
Final Thoughts
This strategy is simple, but not easy. It has a couple of really great benefits. After all, you don’t need:
- A large Medium presence.
- High-performing, top-rated stories.
- Any courses, books, or spend any money in particular.
In other words, with a little bit of dedication and mindful execution, anybody can do it.
But there’s a caveat, of course.
Having a Medium account is NOT the only thing I did to land clients.
Ultimately, having a Medium presence is another tool you can add to your arsenal. But you won’t survive on the battlefield if all you have is a single gun.
I also studied endlessly, looked for and reached out to employers, started insightful conversations, refined my interviews, and more.
But where I can, I leveraged my Medium presence. It put me a cut above the rest. It gave me the confidence to think of myself as a writer — as someone with laser-focused thoughts, conversational magic, and audience appeal.
And it worked.
