Q&A: Paulina Glass, Editorial fellow @ Defense One

Each year, Atlantic Media hires around 40 recent graduates for its fellowship program. Fellows are placed in editorial or business positions across Atlantic Media’s four brands: The Atlantic, National Journal, Government Executive, and Quartz.

Can you tell us about your role and what you do?

I am an editorial fellow for Defense One, which is part of Government Executive, which is part of Atlantic Media. We are a national security publication focused on the future of defense. So I’ve been doing a lot of different things — I’ve been helping with production, with growth and social media, but I’ve also been able to write and do research and help people out with their stories. So that’s been really cool for me.

What were you working on right before you came up here?

I’m actually writing a story right now. No spoilers, but it’s about Russia and space. It’s been really fun to work on that, and hopefully that comes out soon.

What has been the coolest thing you’ve gotten to do during the fellowship?

First of all, it’s been really fun to run around DC as a journalist and shadow people and try to track down stories. I’ve been able to go to a couple Army conferences and an Air Force conference, and just being in that zone where the inklings of national security and defense policy start is really interesting — just seeing that sphere, which I had no experience with before.

So going to those events has been really cool and also, just from a writing perspective, being assigned articles on things that I have no idea what they are — I like that I always have to learn something new, because you have to learn about it to write about it. Being assigned an article on quantum computing, for example, I had to learn how quantum computing (kind of) works, so that I could (kind of) explain what this new research is about.

So having to learn something new every day, and being able to go and see things completely outside of what I’m used to has been pretty great.

Were you always interested in defense?

I’ve always been interested in national security. I studied the U.S.-China relationship in college and worked at the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou over a summer, so I’ve always been interested in foreign policy — how do we protect America’s sovereignty and interests abroad, how can we be smart about policy.

My big blind spot was actually defense. I didn’t really know how the military works, I hadn’t really seen that kind of policy before — I was definitely focused on more state department, more diplomacy, more high level strategy.

This has really helped me figure out what the bureaucracies in place are that make us a military force abroad — how do we use that, how do we throw our muscle around in that realm. This has really helped me learn a lot about a different element of foreign policy.

How did you find out about the fellowship?

Just my college career page.

What’s your dream job?

I really want to write something or research something that actually leads to some kind of policy impact. Right now I’m young and I don’t know anything, but I would eventually like to know something and influence policy to help make a safer, more productive world.

What’s something that you’ve learned earlier in life or in a non-media job that’s applicable to what you do?

I’ve always had the advice to be curious, always try to be learning about something, always be trying to expand your portfolio. Go deep into the things you really care about, but also, it’s a good idea to be at least conversational in a wide variety of topics.

Not being afraid to leave your comfort zone and learn about different topics has been something that I’ve tried to carry into this job.

Do you have any advice for undergrads, recent grads, or people looking for entry level jobs in media or in the international relations sphere?

My advice would actually be to consider media, because a lot of people don’t, especially in national security. I think a lot of people think I’ll either work in a think tank or that’s it, or, I must work in this government job or that’s it.

I think it’s really important to consider that media is an avenue for starting these conversations, for keeping the government in check. My advice would probably be to consider media as a viable option or a viable start, or a life long career.