Hilarey has worked as an editor in the digital media industry for more than a decade. She began her career at TripAdvisor, and has since held full-time and freelance roles at both start-up and legacy brands such as Odyssey, realtor.com, Bankrate, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing (now part of Accenture), Swirled, and SmartAsset. She has been at The Balance since September 2019. When she’s not editing articles on subjects like the best time to buy a home or how to plan for retirement, Hilarey works as an adjunct professor at The College of New Jersey. She began teaching social media strategies to journalism students in 2018, and has since developed another course on SEO. Hilarey has a master’s in journalism from the University of Missouri, and a bachelor’s in journalism and professional writing from The College of New Jersey. She also has a minor in communication studies. Hilarey was born and raised in New Jersey and still lives in the Garden State with her husband.
