Ross Scarano Interview
Ross Scarano is a managing editor at SSENSE. He’s previously written and worked for the likes of Complex, Billboard, The Believer, and more.
How did you get to where you are today, professionally?
During undergrad I interned with an arts nonprofit in Pittsburgh, where I’m from, and this started me writing about music via marketing materials. I wrote press releases for the bands booked to perform at the Three Rivers Arts Festival (Wilco played it—look it up). The arts festival had a blog that I updated too, mostly Q&As with artists who would be exhibiting their work—my first experience with interviewing. This internship, along with my creative writing classes, made it possible for me to find work in media after I moved to New York in late 2010. (After undergrad, I did a few months as a copy editor at an architecture firm, and this was experience that people reading resumes loved to see.) I applied for an internship with Complex via Craigslist and started in January 2011.
(Perhaps it goes without saying, but I wouldn’t have any real skills as a writer if I hadn’t spent much of my life reading. If we’re retracing my steps, that’s the actual beginning. The question I find most revealing when I’m interviewing candidates for jobs is, “What are you reading right now?”)