Working Student(s): Growth & Content

Follow the Gradient is a fast-growing media platform by Melanie Gabriel and Christian Woese for European founders and operators who want to build big and ambitious companies and stay sane while doing so. Every week we go deep with people who have actually built things – no fluff, no surface conversations, just practical insights.

Until now, we’ve run a lean setup with limited hours on the content side. As we grow, we want to invest heavily in distribution, quality and reach. That’s where you come in.

We’re looking for a working student who is hungry to build something media-shaped from the inside, not just “support tasks”. You’ll be part of a small team where your ideas move from concept to live within days – and where using tools and automation to scale your impact is a core part of the job. You will have direct ownership over a wide range of topics and a large degree of freedom to execute against your ideas.

And because our needs fall into two distinct areas, we’re open to one person owning both or two people each mastering one track:

• Track A - Content & Research (Podcast + Newsletter)

• Track B - Growth & Social Media (Clips + Distribution)

You can apply for one track or for both.

Track A - Content & Research

If you’re obsessed with founders, operators, markets, hidden champions and the stories behind them, this is your lane.

You will:

• Hunt down future guests our audience hasn’t heard of yet but should.

• Spot patterns across industries and propose conversation angles we should tackle.

• Prepare briefing notes, research packets and first drafts for interviews.

• Help shape long-form content across podcast, newsletter and YouTube.

• Turn raw ideas into clear narratives and reusable talking points.

• Use tools and AI to speed up research, summarisation and prep work – while always guarding the quality and depth of the final content.

This track is for you if:
You read founder essays for fun, track operators on LinkedIn, know how to find people who aren’t obvious, and have a sense for “this is a conversation that matters now.”

Track B - Growth & Social Media

If you’re curious about how media brands scale from thousands to tens of thousands, this is where you experiment.

You will:

• Cut, edit and package video clips and short reels.

• Own the social calendar end-to-end – ideation, writing, scheduling, iteration.

• Analyse what performs and run fast cycles to double down.

• Help build the growth engine that turns Follow the Gradient into one of the go-to voices for founders and operators in Europe in 2026

• Build distribution loops, partnership ideas and content experiments.

• Use tools like automation platforms, AI models and scheduling systems to make our workflows smarter, not heavier – always in service of better content, not shortcuts for its own sake.

This track is for you if:
You know (or are hungry enough to figure out) what makes a clip go viral and grow exponentially, you enjoy tinkering with algorithms, and you get energy from trying ten things to find one that works.

Who you are (for both tracks)

• Enrolled student with time and drive

• Creator mindset – you take ideas from zero to something real fast

• Hands-on problem solver - you live by our motto “done is better than perfect”

• Strong curiosity for tools and automation – things like Make, n8n, ChatGPT, Gemini or Nano Banana make you think “how could I use this to work smarter”

• Track B specific: 

  • Strong visual instinct – you know what looks good and why (you know the cases where perfection actually matters)An eye for design and brand consistency across formats

• Clear communicator with strong taste and attention to detail

• Comfortable with editing tools or willing to learn at speed

• Curious about founders, operators and how great companies get built

• Energised by experimentation and hungry to build something that scales fast

• You care deeply about the quality and usefulness of what we put into the world, even when you use heavy automation behind the scenes

What you’ll get

• Influence – you help shape the content and the brand

• Creative freedom and very short feedback loops

• A front seat to Europe’s most interesting founder conversations

• A portfolio that demonstrates real impact, not theoretical projects

• A chance to join a growing media brand at an early moment

How to apply

Send us a short selfie video how you will make impact in week one after we started together to [email protected] with the following additional information:

• Which track you’re applying for (A, B or both)

• A few lines about what excites you (we expect you to use AI tools in your work but please not for your motivation letter)

• Any clips, posts, research, writing or edits you’ve already created

• One idea for how we could grow faster or make our setup more scalable

In the meantime: Follow the Gradient and stay tuned!

🫶🏼 Melanie & Christian