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A Cold Email Got Me My Job—and an Afternoon with Gay Talese
A Cold Email Got Me My Job—and an Afternoon with Gay Talese
Portrait of the author, around when her email address was farwellchic3@aol.com.
Everyone says networking is the key to success. For me, it’s been notes to perfect strangers.
By Olivia Reingold
08.09.23 — Culture and Ideas
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The Free Press
The Free Press
A Cold Email Got Me My Job—and an Afternoon with Gay Talese

My caller ID read: “Gay Talese.” 

The byline I had once pinned on my wall was now flashing across my phone. 

Just one day earlier, I’d emailed his publisher on a whim—I’d been rereading Talese’s iconic 1966 Esquire profile of Joe DiMaggio, the former Yankees star and husband to Marilyn Monroe, on the subway ride home. I’d forgotten how good it was—the way…

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Olivia Reingold
Olivia Reingold is a staff writer at The Free Press.She has cocreated and executive produced Matthew Yglesias’s podcast, Bad Takes. She got her start in public radio, regularly appearing on NPR for her reporting on indigenous communities in Montana. She previously produced podcasts at Politico, where she shaped conversations with world leaders like Jens Stoltenberg.
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