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Seeing Other People

My “Dream Job” Paid Me $34K and Broke Me: Part 1 of My Career Story

Seeing Other People

Ilana Dunn

Society & Culture, Sexuality, Science, Mental Health, Social Sciences, Relationships, Health & Fitness

4.5608 Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2026

⏱️ 71 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In Part 1 of my career story, I’m breaking down how I got here –from quitting my photojournalism major at Syracuse, to hustling through internships in music, to landing my “dream job” at a major record label that left me underpaid, burned out, and questioning everything. I share what it actually takes to break into creative industries, the realities of pay and privilege, and how burnout and heartbreak pushed me to pivot out of music – ultimately landing me at Hinge, where my career (and confidence) took a major turn.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Today is a pretty big day because I have been talking about recording this episode probably for six months and honestly, if I'm being realistic, probably a lot longer than that.

0:15.0

And knowing that I am now sitting here, we've pressed record, I'm ready to go. I have an outline. I posted on my

0:21.7

story that I'm doing this. That means it's happening. So that is my win for today. And I will take that and run

0:29.1

with it. And I'm proud of myself. And the things that we always put off are usually not the hardest

0:35.7

thing to do. Like I always think about how much stuff is on my

0:39.2

to-do list that I'll put off and put off and put off. Like right now, I have to reach out to,

0:45.0

I don't even have to reach out to my doctors. I have to go, just go on the CVS website and

0:50.6

click renewal, like request renewal on prescriptions.

0:55.0

And I've been putting that off for two weeks, and now I have like two pills left of the things that I take every day.

1:00.3

And I'm like, oh my God, why can't I just do it?

1:03.0

It's always the simple things that we save for so much later.

1:08.2

And I don't know why.

1:09.1

I don't know why we're like that.

1:10.6

But this is one of them.

1:12.3

We are going to talk all about my career today. I constantly get questions from people about

1:20.4

how I got to where I am, about starting a podcast, about transitioning from one industry to the next, about pay transparency,

1:33.1

about brand partnerships, about becoming a content creator. And the one thing that I really want to

1:41.8

put out there is I never in a million years set out to do this.

1:46.2

I did not sit there and say, I want to be a podcast host when I grow up.

1:51.0

I didn't even, you know, actually my best friend Julia, she had always said she thought I would

1:55.7

be perfect for radio.

1:58.5

And in the back of my mind, I was like, yes, I want to be on the radio,

...

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