Part-time, about 20 hours a week, $3,000–4,000 a month depending on experience. In office. You need to be living in San Francisco, or near enough to it that you can come into the office Monday through Friday.
Tomo is a personal AI that lives in iMessage. We make a lot of short-form video.
The job
You write scripts people don’t notice are scripts. Above all, you have to be able to sell.
You’ll write scripts, in a format I call SIV (the Script, which is the lines they actually say; the Instructions, which is how to deliver them; and the Visuals, which is the text and image overlays that go on top). A creator should be able to read it and understand exactly how to execute it, so you have to be extremely clear, and kind, with your instructions. And it’s ideal if you have a bit of personality in your writing, too.
You need both sides, writing and content creation. Short-form experience is required (TikTok, Instagram), and so is your own following — if you have talking-head footage, even better. Caring about analytics is a plus, and if you’re data-driven, that’s really good. But the main thing I care about is that you’re a good writer, and that you really care about your economy of words and your clarity, meaning whether other people can actually understand you.
Who this is for
You read about language for fun — grammar, linguistics, etymology. You know how to use a semicolon and an em dash. You understand words, and the speed of words. Maybe you care about n-grams, or Google Trends, or semantic drift.
You can sell. You understand rhetoric, hooks, and what makes a product feel valuable. You understand grammar, proper writing, and how people actually speak. You are highly empathetic. You’re interested in writing hooks, and in writing well, and you’re highly methodical about it. A background in business or copywriting helps, and if you’re just generally interested in products, business, and entrepreneurship, that’s good too.
A formal background helps a little — a major, minor, or master’s in writing, editing, copy editing, grammar, linguistics, etymology. Mostly: if you can stare at words and think about words all day, this job is for you.
I also care about speed of output. We work a lot here — it’s a startup, and I’m typically in from 8am to 8pm. I don’t necessarily expect that of you. But the more time you have available, the better.
And you have to be a very fast learner — a really fast learner. That one matters more than almost anything else on this page.
And if you can observe the humor of people in social groups that aren’t your own, and then write it convincingly, that’s good too.
About me
I worked at MrBeast for two years. That sounds like a strange place to learn about words, and it’s the best training I’ve had. A title is shorter than a sentence, and it decides whether a video gets a couple million views or a billion (the same goes for the first thirty seconds). You learn fast that every word counts, and that clarity counts just as much: does everyone actually understand you?
I minored in grammar and I read grammar books for pleasure. My favorite is Joseph Williams’ Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace.
How to apply
Send a snippet of your best writing, one page max. Something that reads easy and casual but wastes no words. Something short would be nice.