Deez Interviews: Meet the WSJ personal finance writer who’s got amazing Day 1 job advice and is generally changing the entire landscape for women in work nbd!!

Happy Friday, Deezers! Today’s interview is with someone we’ve admired in that ~how the heck does she do it all~ way for so long: Julia Carpenter, an award-winning writer and general force of nature when it comes to advocating for and supporting women in the workplace, both through her reporting and also with like every other fiber of her being. Think of this Q&A as your personal career coaching/inspiration sesh w/Julia and enjoy!!

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The interviewee: Julia Carpenter (follow her @juliaccarpenter!)

The gig: Personal finance writer @ The Wall Street Journal

Okay, so you write about money for WSJ, mentor for Girls Write Now, write a daily newsletter about women in history, are working on a novel AND are generally super active on Twitter (especially w/shouting out other women’s work!). What on earth does a normal day look like for you??

Now that I’ve started the new job, I’m usually at work either reporting out a story or closing it after a few rounds of edits. Then after I leave the office, I’m rushing to meet with my writing workshop or finding some time to catch up with my Girls Write Now mentee (I adore her).

I also have a standing breakfast date with some dear friends on Wednesday mornings, so that day tends to run a little long for me. Thank God my writing group loves pizza, because after a busy Wednesday, I’m in dire need of it come 8 p.m.

I typically have a variety of stories I’m juggling at any one time — usually a mix of long-term projects and shorter-term things. In this new role, I’m excited to be working a lot on features, which means my idea notebook is pretty much chock-full all the time.

Then on the other days of the week, I’m basically just on the hunt for stolen minutes I can put toward my personal writing. I’m not really good at budgeting all my self-care and off-time — I need to be better about it! Sometimes Friday rolls around and I’m on the couch watching “Bob’s Burgers” and I’m like, “Oh yeah, exercise” or “Oh yeah, the newsletter.” I’m in awe of all those people in The Cut series who are just like “Every morning I wake up at 5 a.m. and tackle these important personal projects.” My goal is to become one of those women.

I first came across your work at the Washington Post, where you co-founded the Pay Up Slack community, and thought it was so cool when you moved to officially report on women & work at CNN. Was that a sort of niche you sought out, or did it happen more organically?

I remember back when we created Pay Up, my then-colleague/always-friend Alex Laughlin and I specifically wanted to do something about how the wage gap affects women’s lives — and it’s still a topic that is endlessly compelling to me, maybe because I’m just always talking about it with my peers and colleagues, both those in media and out of media.

At the time we founded Pay Up, Alex and I were two years out from Lean In, both still figuring out our salary stories and also constantly chatting with other women who were doing the same. We weren’t the only ones feeling that there was some vital knowledge we missed in those first few rounds of job interviews and career planning — no one told us to negotiate, we didn’t know how to ask for raises, we were at a loss for what to do in terms of retirement saving and plotting our careers …  

Then when I was interviewing at CNN, my fantastic editors there had taken notice of that reporting focus, and (big thank you to them!) they gave me the space to take all those ideas that had come out of it, to blow them up into an entire coverage area. I’m forever grateful to them for giving me that opportunity and the space to do it — they really took a chance on me, and I know my work is so, so, so much better for it.

You've worked for five different national outlets in the past six years — Esquire, ELLE, CNN, WaPo, and now the WSJ. You must be a total master at navigating those first few months of "newbiness" on the job. Any tips on how to fully jump in and get a feel for company culture from Day 1?

You know that lunch you always have on the first day? The one with your immediate boss/supervisor/editor? I always ask them one question: “Who should I ask out to coffee?” Then I make a list and start the chain, asking everyone else the same question. You end up meeting people on other teams, other beats, other areas of the room.

Personal finance has become this topic that us millennials are either begrudgingly intimidated by or consuming via Money Diaries. What's your vision for covering it?

So many of my ideas come from emails, DMs or conversations I’m always having with my peers. (PS I love Money Diaries and my now-editor Bourree Lam managed the series at R29!)

There’s so much super-condescending, not-too-helpful personal finance advice out there for young people and I’m so over it. If I read another how-to guide comparing your budget to a beach body, I’ll scream. My colleague Janet Adamy recently wrote this incredible feature looking at millennials’ financial futures. I’m so inspired by her work, and there’s so much space out there for thoughtful, helpful, imaginative coverage like that. So many people on the beat are already killing it, so it’s an exciting time to report on ~~the culture of money.

Finally, tell us more about your newsletter, A Woman To Know — where did you get the idea from it, and who's been your fave entry so far?

I was inspired by a tweet! (lol) The thing I love most about creating it, though — and definitely keeps me motivated/inspired/energized by it — is all the suggestions. People email me constantly with women they read about in single paragraphs or glimpsed on museum placards, and there’s so much out there that never made it into our history books. I get hopping mad about it! And then I add a name to my list and try to find out who she was, and then I look up and it’s been an hour and I need to close my laptop.

Jane Heap is my forever favorite — I think I have a crush on her?????

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Don’t forget to follow @juliaccarpenter on Twitter, and have a stellar weekend!