Nikki Vargas on Finding a Job That Appreciates the Side Hustle

The difference it makes when employers value a worker's whole life, on and off the clock.

I met Nikki Vargas in 2016 when we both worked as part of the American team for UK-based travel site Culture Trip. That didn’t work out so great for either of us, unfortunately, but we remained friends. Nikki went on to start Unearth Women, a women’s travel publication that launched a print magazine to great fanfare. But print media is a harsh environment in the best of times, and she eventually had to give up on that particular dream. However, it was enough to get Nikki a book deal for Wanderess, an Unearth-Women-inspired travel guide. And she now has a second book deal for a memoir in progress.

[Read Part 1 of this interview.]

Would you try to relaunch Unearth Women as a big deal again, if someone came along with a check to fund it?

To answer that question, I’ll tell you where things stand today. Unearth Women exists strictly as a digital publication. It’s a sidebar to my life and my career. I love it dearly. I see it as a playground in which I can run and do whatever the hell I want. No one can ever take it away from me, and no one can ever lay me off from it. I appreciate all the positive things that have come as a result of Unearth Women, like the two book deals I’ve received for the women’s travel guide, Wanderess, published by Penguin, and now the travel memoir I’m writing for Harper Collins, as well as the opportunities to travel and the jobs it has helped me land.

But if someone wanted to come around and invest in Unearth Women today, I don’t know if I would take it. I recognize now that I am not for that life. I don’t want to run a business. I don’t want to oversee a company. I didn’t enjoy it. The only part I really loved about it was editing, and working on the magazine, and thinking of the stories to include. Everything else—the financial struggles, the company meetings, checking in with sales, the constant worries about how to sustain the company and also pay people—I hated all of that.

To rewind a bit though, I want to talk about your next job after Culture Trip, which was at Atlas Obscura—right when Unearth Women was taking off. And I know that situation created some tension at that job, to put it mildly. 

Oh, man. When Atlas Obscura happened, it was right at the beginning of Unearth Women’s meteoric rise. The thing is, although Unearth Women was blowing up in every other sense, it wasn’t blowing up financially, and I still needed a job. So in my mind, when I got the job at Atlas Obscura, I was like, okay, this is a way that I can continue growing as an editor. I had just been laid off from Culture Trip. This is a way to move forward in my career and have a paycheck, but I can still keep doing Unearth Women on the side. 

Did anyone at Atlas Obscura know about Unearth Women when you took the job?

At the time I got the job, Unearth Women was mentioned in the interview process, but I don’t think it was seen as anything other than a blog. When I arrived at Atlas Obscura, my attitude was like, I’m going to be gone in six months. I just kept to myself. I was quiet. I went there, I did the work, I left. In my mind, this was a short-term gig because I believed Unearth Women was set to become its own media company.  

“I just kept to myself. I was quiet. I went there, I did the work, I left. In my mind, this was a short-term gig because I believed Unearth Women was set to become its own media company.”

About a week into the job, the New York Times piece on Unearth Women dropped. I had interviewed for that story three or four months prior. I knew it was going to be in digital, but I didn’t know it was going to be in print. The CEO of Atlas Obscura was at home on a Sunday morning having his coffee and breakfast when he opened the New York Times and saw a big photo of my face printed in the paper.

Oh I remember. It was a big story!

I hated that picture.  The Atlas Obscura CEO supposedly spit out his coffee and called the editor in chief—who I reported to—and was livid, because I didn’t make any mention of Atlas Obscura. 

But it just set everything on the wrong foot. This was right at the beginning of that meteoric rise for Unearth Women, things were happening, they were watching, and they weren’t happy about it. That paired with my general laissez faire attitude—it was a bad match all around. Unfortunately, my level of distraction with Unearth Women cost me my job at Atlas Obscura, and we parted ways a few months later on not the best of terms, which I regret. 

And then after all that, you and I coincidentally ended up working at the same place again, this time at the Infatuation.

I remember when I interviewed for the position, it was both an interview and also a reference for you. It was a twofer, like let’s talk about Chris and why you’re recommending him, and then also this interview. 

By the time I came to the Infatuation, I was in a very different headspace than when I started at Atlas Obscura. At the Infatuation, I was so grateful because by that point, the Unearth Women roller coaster had come to an abrupt halt. I had been applying for jobs, and the frustrating thing I realized was that while everything I was doing with Unearth Women was enough to get me an interview, it also made it more difficult for me to get hired. Those interviews would ultimately end in, “Oh, you’re too busy to focus on us.” Everything I had done, everything I created, and everything I was still doing seemed both an asset and a detriment to my career. 

I was really struggling to find work, particularly because being a travel editor is so niche. So when I got the job at the Infatuation, I was really, really grateful and really humble. I was intent on acting the complete opposite of how I did at Atlas Obscura. I wanted to get to know everybody, I wanted to be super positive, I wanted to go the extra mile. Because I was tired of the volatility. I was tired of being bounced around from company to company. I just wanted to find a home. 

And for a while, it felt like that. It felt like a place where I could grow, and I was really excited about it, and then the pandemic hit, and I was laid off. 

“And for a while, it felt like that. It felt like a place where I could grow, and I was really excited about it, and then the pandemic hit, and I was laid off.”

Ugh. Though on the positive side, you got the book deal around this time, right?

The first book deal came about while I was working at the Infatuation, or maybe even back at Atlas Obscura. I always imagined I would write a book. Granted, a women’s travel guide wasn’t the book I had in mind, but I wasn’t going to say no to Penguin Random House. 

Wanderess actually got delayed because of the pandemic, so it was published a year later than originally planned. But after I was laid off from the Infatuation when COVID hit, I focused on writing the book, freelance writing, and collecting unemployment. At a point in there, it’s like there weren’t even jobs to look for. I was just like everyone else at that time, sort of in a holding pattern, waiting for things to normalize, to stabilize. 

How did you eventually get the job at Fodor’s?

I have a friend who is the founder of the women’s travel community called Wanderful. They do a lot of conferences. They do a lot of events. I’ve spoken at her conferences. She had a partnership with Fodor’s Travel, and they often cover the work that she does with Wanderful. She was looking for a writer to write a story for Fodor’s about Wanderful, and she thought of me. 

She put me in touch with Fodor’s editorial director. I kept writing for them, and then out of the blue, the editorial director said, “We have an opening on the digital editorial team if you’re interested.” And of course I was interested. It was very kind of him because they hadn’t even put out a job listing yet. He had enjoyed working with me, he enjoyed the writing, and he thought I would be a good fit. 

And you’re working entirely remote?

Yeah, I love it. The only thing I miss is the built-in social aspect. Like, let’s grab a drink after work, or let’s go get lunch together. I do miss those things. As you know, when you’re a writer and editor, for the most part it’s just being by yourself with a computer. I miss those special elements of having an office, but for the most part I love everything else about remote work. I feel like this is the classic travel editor response, but I could go to Bali and work from there! Of course, I never do that. But if I wanted to, I could. 

Considering all the variables in your career thus far, including both regular work and your entrepreneurial experience, what does an ideal work situation look like for you in the future—say five or ten years down the road? Is it possible to think that far ahead, given everything?

So I have the second book deal, for which I recently turned in the first draft of the manuscript. I really love the process of writing a book, particularly this second one, which is a memoir. Even though it has been hard and challenging, it’s also been beautiful and cathartic to relive some of these past memories. I would love to continue writing books if I have the opportunity, and if I have the ideas. 

I also really like editing. It’s funny—when I see things that I did in the past, and then I see my writing now, I can tell that I have evolved as a writer and an editor. 

When I was talking to my editorial director about the role at Fodor’s, the first thing I said was, “I have these other things happening on the side, such as the book I’m writing and Unearth Women. I hope it’s seen as an asset, but I want to let you know now that there might be press about the work I do, and I just don’t want to cause conflicts.” 

My editorial director said that’s why they were hiring me in the first place—that it was Unearth Women, the book, and all the other passion projects I have going on that made them want to work with me. It was such a relief to find a place that celebrates these side hustles, and for that, I feel very grateful.