Editor’s note: Career Spotlight is an occasional feature where we profile former Emporians in their current occupations. If you know someone who has an interesting job let us know. This interview is with Kellee Miller, an Emporia High School graduate and daughter of Marshall and Sharon Miller. Kellee works for the Martha Stewart Living magazine in New York City.
Q Working for the Martha Stewart magazine, do you see Martha around the office much?
A I will see her once or twice a week and her office is very near my office. I have spoken to her in the hallway, and she is always very friendly. But I don’t have much contact with her through my work.
Q What is it like to have seen Martha’s products as you were growing up and now your office is down the hall from hers?
A There are days where you sit here and this is your job and it is what I do every day. Then you see her and then you realize the scope of what you are working for. This is a huge company that she built from the ground up and you have to respect her and what she is doing.
Q What do you do, and what is the work environment like?
A I do copy editing for the magazine and I have been here for two years. The work environment is very creative. It’s a great company to work for and there are a lot of motivated and creative people. They really look for people who like to learn and that is what this publication is all about
Q How did you break into magazine work?
A In New York in the magazine industry, copy editing seems like an easy way to break in. I almost feel it is easier to break into magazines than the newspapers.
I first started at a publication called Wine Spectator. When I started applying for jobs in New York, I was living in Emporia so it was hard to get interviews with an Emporia address. But a recruiter had my information and helped me get that job.
I was at Wine Spectator for two years and I was a copy editor there. It was a great publication and I learned a lot about wine and food. But after two years I was looking around for what else was out there and I saw there was a copy editing position at Martha Stewart Living so I applied. I interviewed with them for a couple of months and made the switch in December.
Q When you were in college, did you think you would be copy editing for a profession?
A I like copy editing, but it’s not what I expected that I would be doing. Throughout college I was doing newspaper work like designing, writing and being a desk editor at the Kansas State Collegian. I had a reporting internship at the Iowa City Press Citizen and then the following summer I was at the Wall Street Journal copy editing through the Dow Jones internship program and that is probably where I first started thinking about copy editing.
Q What advice do you have for people wanting to pursue this kind of work?
A The Emporia High journalism program was good. When I was there we went through three teachers but every one was very good and taught us something different, pushed us to aspire to work at the college paper.
What helped me was working for different publications from high school to college and getting good internships. Publication experience is so important to help you land that first job. If people want to move to New York they should not be afraid of moving to New York. For me it’s not as scary as it once was. It is a really a fun place to be, it’s exciting and there is lots of stuff to do. I actually have a lot of friends here from Kansas. I plan the Kansas State football watch parties here in New York.
Q Do any errors make it into the magazine?
A I think we produce a very clean magazine and really we have a lot of eyes on the magazine. We have three copy editors here and two assistant managing editors, a managing editor and a whole research team.
Q What are the perks for working for Martha Stewart Living?
A Obviously we get a free subscription and the family gets a discount. Also since we are near the food test kitchens we get to sample the leftovers in the break room.