English/CW + [skills]

liberal-arts-skills_683x512This picture condenses a study from 2013, which you can read in its entirety here.

The study was put together by Burning Glass Technologies to advance their own agenda of selling big-data technology that will help people find jobs. But one doesn’t have to purchase their products or services to participate the takeaway here: that supplementing a liberal arts degree (like English or Creative Writing) with additional skills can make it easier to find a good job.

Courses (not to mention certificate programs, minors, and majors) are available in some of these areas, but employers are generally more impressed with achievements than paper credentials.

Your liberal arts major gives you experience in coming at problems from many different angles, finding creative solutions, learning fast, and working effectively with others. Those abilities can also help you use the resources around you to build the skills employers are looking for.

Programs like Illinois in Washington and Illinois Business Consulting can set you up with direct experience in using these skills, but there are many other options. Your part-time job, RSO leadership, campus or summer internship, blog, or volunteer service all offer opportunities to practice skills in marketing, social media, graphic design, data management, and business.

The Post-Graduation Job Search

By e-mail-65927_1280popular demand, here are some of the sites that U of I English/CW majors have found helpful for landing jobs:

  • I-Link (this University of Illinois resource should be your first step, as these employers are looking to hire Illini. The interface can be frustrating, but the “Advanced Search” bar will help you zero in on the openings of interest to you.)
  • Chicago Artists Resource (shows job openings at arts and cultural organizations in the Chicago area)
  • Idealist.org (specializes in openings at nonprofit organizations of all kinds)
  • Nontech.io (jobs in the start-up tech world that don’t involve tech skills)
  • Indeed.com (enormous job database)
  • USAjobs.gov (database of all federal government jobs, including internships in DC, at national parks, in the Smithsonian museum system, etc.)
  • Support Driven Jobs (jobs in tech customer support–a growth field for good communicators)
  • Bookjobs.com (particularly strong on internships in editing and publishing)
  • Looksharp (requires a login–and as with all such sites you should be careful about how much information you provide–but it specializes in internship and entry-level positions)

The following websites also have some job listings, but they are even more useful for other aspects of your job search. LinkedIn is a helpful resource for networking (and you should definitely create a profile if you are job hunting–employers will look you up). Want to know more about a company? Glassdoor has a lot of crowd-sourced insider information–which means it can be useful, but should not be treated as a necessarily reliable source. The Muse stands out among career advice websites for up-to-date and non-obvious insights.

Why Major in English/CW? Here’s What the Data Says

When the University of Illinois started collecting data last year on what students plan to do after graduation, we didn’t know what to expect. More data is better than less data, but we weren’t sure how this particular data would reflect on our department and what we do. After all, we’ve all seen the memes, the knee-jerk reactions, the popular assumptions: people in “impractical” majors like English are unemployable, right?

Right???

Turns out this is what the data looks like:

IlliniSuccesstable

How about that.

If you’re getting a BA in English or Creative Writing, you’re just about as likely to graduate with a job in hand as someone with a BA in Math/Statistics or Economics, and you’re more likely to be employed than someone with a BA in Political Science/Global Studies/Area Studies, Pychology, Astronomy/Physics, or Biology.

Obviously, these numbers aren’t the whole story. They probably over-represent students with post-graduation plans, as they are more likely to fill out surveys like this. They don’t differentiate between students who are going directly to high-paying corporate jobs and those who are planning to wait tables all summer while looking for more permanent professional work. They also don’t say anything about starting salaries or long-term goals.

What they do say, however, is what those of us teaching in these disciplines and talking to our alumni have known all along: majoring in English or Creative Writing can lead to a a job, same as any other major.

 

Summer Publishing Programs: Worth It or Not?

The Dept. of English just got a solicitation from a new summer publishing program, this one at the University of Southern California and co-sponsored by the LA Review of Books:

We are excited to announce … a new summer publishing program that is designed to provide an immersive, five-week training for students interested in digital and print publishing. The new program, the Los Angeles Review of Books / USC Publishing Workshop, will have its inaugural session this summer beginning June 26.

The program will be hosted on the USC campus and is open to rising Juniors, Seniors, and postgraduates from any college or university, nationally and internationally, who are interested in a career in publishing.

The Los Angeles Review of Books / USC Publishing Workshop distinguishes itself from more traditional publishing courses by emphasizing real-world experience: students will create a print magazine or website, or develop a business plan for a new publishing enterprise ready either for direct funding or for research and development funding. Industry experts will advise students about every aspect of digital and print publishing, from editing to layout, coding to graphic design.

Sounds pretty good. But. The letter goes on to direct the reader to a website (www.thepublishingworkshop.com) for details. You have to click a tab within the website to get to the catch: the cost.  The program alone costs $5K; housing is an additional 1.8K – 2.2K. There are also details about the optional meal plan (only a few meals are included with tuition) and parking ($12/day — no weekly discount available).

That price tag is not unusual for summer publishing programs, which tend to be located in expensive urban centers where the active publishing professionals you want to learn from and network with already live. Here’s a list of some of the most well-known similar programs.  Some are graduate programs (which the USC/LARB program is not), but most offer shorter summer courses of study.

Are they worth it, for those in a position to pay that kind of money?

The question gets asked frequently, and the answer is by no means obvious.  Some point out that these programs involve paying for information and contact that one could obtain for free through assiduous networking, research, and informational interviewing.  Others suggest that the critical mass of knowledge, practice, and contacts that these programs bring together is well worth the return on investment.