Rory Gilmore is set up from the start as a brilliant young woman – and one who is likely to go far. Throughout the early seasons, she is seen as a straight-A student, the top of her class, and focused on going to an Ivy League school, and becoming a brilliant journalist. It’s a path that she pursues for the entire show, although there are a few mis-steps along the way, and fans don’t really get to see her actually in a job until the revival, Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life.
As such, most of Rory’s best and worst career decisions happen in the revival, but there are plenty of choices that she makes in the original show that also impact her future work, and her professional success, too. It does leave fans with one pretty major question, though – why did Rory never seem to really have a job in the original series? Despite the odd moment of volunteering or working in the Yale cafeteria, she essentially waited until after graduation to enter the workforce… an interesting decision in and of itself!
10 Best: Getting An Internship
Rory knew from the start that she wanted to be a journalist, and one of the best things that she did for herself in this field was to get herself an internship with Mitchum Huntzberger – and one that she absolutely battled to get, too. She knew that having an internship at this paper would look great on her resume, and she also knew that she could learn a lot about how a real paper ran, and make some great connections, and she didn’t let anything get in her way.
9 Worst: Letting Mitchum Huntzberger Defeat Her
Of course, her internship also had a serious downside. When it came to an end, at first, it seemed like it had been everything Rory hoped for. She felt like she understood the workings of the paper, she made great connections, and she loved every minute. She even talked about how much she learned, but unfortunately, Mitchum told her that she just didn’t have ‘what it takes’ – and Rory let that completely deflate her. For a while, she even let it make her give up her dream entirely.
8 Best: Working For The Yale Daily News
As soon as Rory got to Yale, she knew that she would have to get on the paper – and it was an incredible decision. To have experience on the newspaper for such an incredibly prestigious school is obviously going to look great on her resume, as well as teaching her a lot about the business.
It didn’t just teach her about how to run a paper, either. It taught her how to deal with editors, criticism, angry performers after a bad review, and even people who let their ambition turn them into monster bosses, like Paris.
7 Worst: Stealing A Boat
This isn’t directly related to her career, of course, but it has an impact! When Rory decided that the best way to deal with her emotional turmoil was to steal a boat, she would have presumably ended up with a criminal record – she may have had it downgraded from a felony, but it would still show up on job applications. How she managed to get on the Obama campaign trail with that on her record is a sitcom mystery! And of course, spending that much time on community service would have really damaged her ability to work and earn good grades, had she not taken a break from school, too.
6 Best: Saving The Stars Hollow Gazette
When Rory is at a loose end during the revival, she learns that the Stars Hollow Gazette will close – and offers to take up the job. This was a great move for a few reasons, even if some were more personal than professional. For one thing, it gives her a paper (and another editor position) for her resume, which is especially helpful given that there would be a pretty big gap, otherwise. It also helps her realize where her passion came from, and start to figure out her future.
5 Worst: Refusing A Salary For The Stars Hollow Gazette
When Rory took on the local paper, though, she outright refused a salary – a decision that fans simply couldn’t understand. Presumably, the previous editor was taking a salary, which means that it is there in the town budget. Even if it isn’t appropriate for a Yale graduate with her experience, it just makes no sense to take nothing at all.
4 Best: Writing For The New Yorker
Although fans quickly realize that Rory has very little idea of where her career is going in the revival, in the opening scenes, it looks like she’s got it all figured out… because she has a piece published in the New Yorker!
This was a long-time goal of hers, and an incredible achievement. It is also something that would potentially open doors for her and get her more buzz, although she doesn’t seem to use that much in the show itself.
3 Worst: Refusing To Prep For An Interview
Later, as it becomes clearer and clearer that Rory is struggling in the revival, she decides to take on a job for a website, the founder of which has been hounding her about coming in. Rory, being Rory, assumes that this is a job offer, and shows up with the clear attitude that she is better than the work. While some may think that the offer was made in a very confusing way, and Rory’s mistake was easy to make, she essentially showed up to a new job without having done any kind of preparation at all, or thought about what she might want to start working on. It’s not just a bad career move, it’s an arrogant one.
2 Best: Writing A Book
At the end of the revival, Rory finally seems to find her footing in her work – by deciding to change things up entirely and write a book. The story of her and her mother is a compelling one (obviously, as it forms the basis of the show), and she knows this – and realizes that this is something she really wants to do. No matter how it turns out, this is a great move. For one thing, it shows that she is willing to be open minded in her career path, and it will definitely help hone her writing skills and set up other connections, whether it becomes a bestseller or a bargain bin offering.
1 Worst: Her Approach To Conde Nast
One of the biggest criticisms of the revival was that Rory seemed to be a pretty terrible journalist – and nowhere was this more evident than in the way she handled her meeting with Conde Nast. She showed up with seemingly no pitches, despite having a huge amount of time to prepare, and didn’t sell herself at all to the company. She then offered to take on a pitch of theirs that she had no angle on or connection to, and we never even saw if she turned something in!
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