Ashley Hackett recently landed a contract writing job that, just a few weeks ago, she wouldn’t have ever applied for.
Hackett, 29, has been on the job market for the better part of the year after being one of the thousands laid off from the federal workforce under the Trump administration. But the freelance editor and writer in Washington, D.C., recently came across a TikTok video that emboldened her to go after things she normally wouldn’t, including the technical writing job she’d normally pass over.
The video series, posted by content creator, actor and entrepreneur Gabriella Carr, introduced her “1,000 No’s” project, in which the 22-year-old in Denver aims to get rejected from 1,000 requests over the course of a year as a means of both removing the sting of hearing “no” and pushing herself into stretch goals.
For Hackett, her own version of the challenge has meant broadening the scope of her job search to apply for as many jobs as possible, within reason, without holding herself back by questioning her own skillset or background.
“A lot of studies that show that men in particular are more likely to apply to jobs that they’re underqualified for,” Hackett explains. Meanwhile, she says, “women in particular are writing ourselves off from positions that we’re not checking all of the boxes for.”
