Clark Walker didn't want to be a doctor. He thought he did — at least, for a while. But by the time his fourth year as a pre-med student at Utah State University rolled around, he had hit a wall.
Each sit-in surgery and exam, and the lifestyle, culture and work that came with it never felt right, never felt like him. So he dropped out.
Roughly two years later, he's working as a barber in New York, a job he acquired entirely through Instagram.
He completed every step of the process, from learning about the position to applying for it to showing off his portfolio work, through the photo-sharing social network. No resume, no cover letter — just hashtags and filters .
Walker, 26, credits the niche community of barbers around the world who regularly use Instagram. Hundreds have built up their own strong brands by posting photos of their clients and sharing styling tips via hashtags and comments. Some, like The Nomad Barber and Kevin Luchmun, have racked up thousands of followers. A handful of shops have their own accounts, too. Walker learned about his job through his now-employer's feed.
And while he's still a rookie in the Instagram barber game, he's positive about one thing: It helped land him his dream job.
See also: Meet the Couple Who Fell in Love on Instagram
"I'm still getting used to the city. I just hailed my first cab to get here, actually."
We're sitting on a bench outside Fellow Barber in the West Village, the shop he's worked at since arriving in New York two months ago. Today is his day off.
For the middle of the afternoon on a Thursday, the place is packed with customers. It's a young, hipster-type crowd: mostly twenty-somethings in flannel shirts, with modest tattoos. The inside's wooden floors, counters and mantels give the space a cozy vibe amidst the hustle and bustle.

He had always loved going to barbershops as a kid. Specifically, he remembers visiting a place near his house on Saturdays with his dad and brothers. His barber was a 70-ish-year-old man named Doug, who "always treated me like a grownup," says Walker.
He liked the smell of the shaving cream, the comfort of sitting in a big leather chair listening to conversations about sports, politics and goings-on in the town. "I felt like a man," he remembers.
In the back of his mind, even in college, he thought it would be cool to open his own business once he retired. Shortly after he left school, he visited Doug — now in his eighties and still cutting hair — and told him he was considering becoming a barber: "And he just said, 'Absolutely do it. You won't regret it.'"
See also: Girlfriend Leads Man Around the World in Breathtaking Pics
Walker enrolled in barber school that year in Salt Lake City, Utah. During the first week, he learned about other barbers using Instagram, not just to post pictures of their work but to connect with other shops and pros across the world. So he started his own account.
A few more weeks into school, he uploaded this photo of a post-haircut client, along with this caption: "The Zachary Efron. That's what he asked for ..."

Two likes, zero comments. Pretty average, or below-average, for an Instagram post. But Walker was just getting started with the network. He kept at it, and slowly began to stack up on followers and meet other barbers along the way. He admits it was a little awkward asking to photograph his clients at first, but most considered it flattering: "Nobody ever said no."
Relevant hashtags like #barber, #shave and #pompadour, he realized, were key to getting noticed and discovering other big shots in the barber biz. Posting became routine.
Six months later, and 1,000-plus hours into haircutting, he graduated and began work at nearby Ray's Barber Shop. Still, the 'gramming continued.
As time passed, he got more personal with his posts. He'd include a short bio about the clients: what they did, where they were from. If someone had an Instagram account of his own, Walker would tag him in the description:

"Every angle. The movie didnt [sic] really show it. @themegatherion said "let's do something a little more different" He's always down for it, and I love it. Thanks dude."
After a year of working at Ray's, Walker was ready to move on. He'd planned to move out of Utah with his wife and their newborn at some point, and the timing seemed right.
"I was kind of maxed out on what I could learn there. I wanted to move to a new environment," he says. "I have a sister-in-law who lives in New York and cuts hair for a living, and she got us thinking about moving, for real."
He'd heard about Fellow Barber during his first day of barber school. He remembers seeing a photo of its West Village location hanging on the wall in one of his classrooms. His instructor told him it was an example of a "high-end" barber shop in New York. Walker was intrigued.
That night, he researched the shop: founded in 2006; values "time-honored" barbershop traditions; hires top-notch talent. Then he followed it on Instagram.
Over the next year, between school and his time at Ray's, he remained an avid follower. When he and his wife began finalizing their trip east, he noticed the shop had posted a photo along with an intriguing caption: "Now Hiring."
"I commented on the photo and said I'd be moving to New York soon and was interested in working there," he says. "They responded right away and told me to get in touch with them once I was in the city."
In the meantime, Walker directed them to his Instagram feed to take a look at his work from the past year. The person running the shop's feed tagged the Fellow Barber manager in on the thread, who soon began "liking" Walker's photos from Ray's.
When he and his family moved to New York City a couple weeks later, Walker stopped by the shop to meet the staff. After a few test haircuts and an informal interview, the job was his.
"It was the easiest 'interviewing' process ever — it was essentially all through Instagram ," he says.
"It was crazy moving to New York almost entirely off a social media tip. But I'm so happy. This shop, the city — it's really my dream job."
Here are some of his photos from the past year:








Since starting at Fellow Barber, Walker has remained active on social. He's continuing to network, too. He traveled to New England a few weeks ago and stopped by a barber shop he follows on Instagram. To his surprise, everyone there knew him from his photos.
"It's pretty wild that all this stemmed from a social network," he says. "But as silly as hashtags or social networks might seem, they're great ways to open doors. I'm so grateful for what I've been able to do using it."
Stay up to date with his photos on Instagram at @jclarkwalker. He recently started a blog called Journeyman Barber about the digital barber lifestyle.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
Image: Clark Walker