WANTED: Content Editor (Volunteer)

For full job description and essential criteria, please see our vacancies page here.

What we need

We are looking for someone to take on a content editor role to oversee our new content stream. We have now built many of the tools that we had in mind on launch and are now looking to systemise the information autistic people need to navigate their way through life. We are looking to produce blogposts, how-tos, and templates on a range of topics.

This role should not require you to do all of the research yourself – research is a fundamental autistic strength and we’ve got a lot of volunteers who are interested in helping out. What we are looking for is someone who can hold this area of work, organise it, schedule it, and liaise with the Council and other volunteers around who is doing what so everything moves forward smoothly.

This is a volunteer role and we’re not expecting you to prioritise this role over your own life. However, we do need someone who is committed to our vision and can spend at least six months on it. As it is unpaid, we do not expect to keep you indefinitely but see this role as an opportunity to develop skills, build a CV and generally be a fulfilling, interesting experience.

We will be making some of our content available for all aspies on our website and some will be reserved in our Vault for the use of Citizens only.

We have a Communications Officer who will be able to promote the content you produce on our social media channels – it is meant to be read and to help. You will be directly contributing to autistic self-knowledge and well-being through your efforts.

We have monthly Council meetings where we review what we have achieved in the last month and plan our strategy for the next one. You are not required to attend this, although we would ask that you do so (in person if you live near London or via teleconference if not) for the first two meetings after you come on board to familiarise yourself with the team and us with you. Afterwards, we ask you to send us a monthly written report so we know what you’re doing and we can work with you to make sure the work you do is fully integrated with what else we’re planning to do.

Who we are looking for

The Autistic Empire is being run on dreams, goodwill and someone who works a full-time job to pay for it all. To make this possible, you need to be able to work by yourself with support and direction to execute a strategy and not require validation of every decision – equally, you must be aware of the limits of your role and the way in which it coordinates with the programme of work for the Empire.

We’ll shape the exact responsibilities of this role around the time you have available and your skills, so don’t worry about that. You’ll be able to talk to Sarah regularly if you have any queries or a vague idea that you would like to develop into something. We are autistic, and that means that we are very good at designing effective systems and we’re always looking how to solve problems and redesign systems to work better. Mistakes are learning opportunities to prevent them from happening again.

We’re not looking for someone who has “Content Editor” on their CV – we are keenly aware of high rates of unemployment among autistic people with other experiences and talents so we’re open-minded. But we are looking for someone who can demonstrate to us that they’re going to either know what they’re doing or learn rapidly.