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November 13, 2015October 26, 2016

What is the Arts and Culture Career Fair? Do I really have to go to Chicago for it?

Why do thieves rob banks? Because that’s where the money is. Why hold the Arts and Culture Career Fair in Chicago? Because that’s where the art and culture is.

Big corporations and organizations that recruit large numbers of students at events like the Business Career Fair and All-Campus Career Fair can afford to pull staff members away from their regular tasks and send them down to Champaign-Urbana for a day of talking to students.

Arts and culture organizations don’t usually work like that. They have shows to put on, musicians and artist to represent, galleries to staff, donors to cultivate, events to plan, workshops and performances to organize, not enough people to do it all, and shoestring budgets to pay for it. But they need employees, too: dedicated, arts- and culture-centered people who want to make a living working with and supporting those who perform, create, teach, and inspire.

Therefore, we’ll bring you to them, at this joint venture with UIC. There’s even transportation available (see details at the bottom of the graphic).

Eager to work in the arts, but not sure how to make the case for yourself to an employer? Michele Plante of the College of Fine and Applied Arts will lead a workshop on resumes and elevator pitches on Monday, November 30, 4 – 5pm, in 149 English Building. In time for Winter Break, you’ll get tips on creating and polishing a perfect first impression, so that you’re ready to go on February 5.

November 12, 2015May 7, 2017

Working Your A** Off; or, Of Course You Can Run a Small Business!

The good news: you don’t need a business degree to run your own business successfully. In fact, as we learned yesterday, Tony Pomonis (English ’02), former owner and manager of the local chain of Merry-Ann’s Diners, failed out of the business school before reviving his college career with courses at Parkland and re-enrolling at UIUC. Not only is a business degree unnecessary for small-business success, argues Pomonis–a humanities degree equips you more directly with the skills that lead to success: curiosity, a willingness to take risks, the ability to interact with people and learn from them, first-rate communication and problem-solving skills.

The bad news: Pomonis used the phrase “I worked my a** off” with alarming regularity in the hour that he spoke about his experiences. He recounted months of trading 12-hour shifts with his business partner, years of working without a vacation day. Hard work for Pomonis hasn’t just meant flipping pancakes with as much speed and finesse as the line cooks he hires (though that is key!), it has also involved

actively seeking out mentors and advice
taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong (and living with the emotional toll)
memorizing balance sheets so as to impress investors
curtailing his personal life to the demands of the job.

The bottom line: You can do it.

But: You might not want to. Small-business success comes at the cost of family life. Pomonis frankly owned up to the trade-offs: he made a lot more money running Merry-Ann’s than he does in his current position with LAS advancement at the University of Illinois, but his new job gives him time and energy to be with family. In his view, there is no contest: “I am infinitely richer” he says, for being able to spend his evenings and weekends at home with his wife and children, without the constant stress of a 24-hour business requiring his attention.

pomonis in the diner Pomonis maintains a stake in the business, however, and continues to cook at one of his diners the three busiest weekends of the year–one of which is coming up. You’ll find him on Sunday, Nov. 15, at the Merry-Ann’s in downtown Champaign from 8 to 2.

November 10, 2015October 26, 2016

Running Your Own Business…as a Humanities Major?

The gap between graduating and starting a business may seem vast. On Wednesday, Tony Pomonis, an alumnus of the University of Illinois Department of English, and former owner of Merry-Ann’s diners will talk to students about strategies for bridging it. Come hear what he has to say Wednesday, November 11, from 5 to 6pm in EB 119. You may have heard some of his story at our Fall 2015 Department of English Alumni Career Panel.

The connection between studying fields like English and succeeding in business is real.

[W]hat good is a degree in the humanities in the real world of products and customers?…Far more than most people think. It all comes down to this: Is it helpful to know your customers? Deeply understanding their world, seeing what they see and understanding why they do the things they do, is not an easy task. Some people have otherworldly intuitions. But for most of us, getting under the skin of the people we are trying to serve takes hard analytical work.

….Studying a moving target like this requires a completely different approach than the one needed to study nature. If you want to understand the kinds of beings we are, you need to use your own humanity and your own experience.

Such an approach can be found in the humanities.”

Along with the logic of the position is the sheer range of notable business people who built their success on a solid foundation of study in English, history, philosophy and the like: innovators like Christina Brodbeck, the former U of I history major who helped found YouTube, developers like Matt Garrison, former U of I English major who founded the R^2 real estate company, manufacturers like George Vlagos, former U of I English major who started Oak Street Bootmakers.

November 6, 2015October 26, 2016

Demystifying Networking: The Informational Interview

by Valerie O’Brien

In his presentation for the Engl 199: Career Planning in the Humanities lecture series, Andrew Allen, Director of Illinois Business Consulting, offered UIUC humanities majors a valuable piece of advice: networking is essential for getting a job.

On the surface, this advice may seem obvious. After all, “networking” has become a cultural buzzword that we hear all the time. Most college students probably recognize “networking” as an important part of professional development. Yet, despite the term’s prevalence, precisely what “networking” means and how one does it may remain a mystery to many students. What does “networking” actually look like?

Allen recommended that students begin networking through informational interviews, which are brief, low-stakes conversations with individuals about their careers. This networking practice can help you to develop a circle of professional contacts, to determine what career options are available to students with humanities backgrounds, and to narrow down that list of possible careers according to your personal interests.

To conduct an informational interview, follow these steps:

Determine what professional field you’d like to know more about and who you already know within that field. It works best to start the networking process with a contact you already have – a relative, for instance, or a friend’s parent, or an alumnus you’ve been in contact with (perhaps through the English Department’s Alumni Mentoring Network).

Get in touch with your contact to ask if he or she would be willing to talk with you for fifteen minutes about their career.

Prepare a couple questions to ask your contact, but don’t simply read them – you want the exchange to feel conversational and natural. Let your contact talk about their job, what they do every day, what they enjoy about their field, and similar topics. Be respectful of your contact’s time, but also be aware that if the conversation is going well, it may last longer than the fifteen minutes you requested.

At the end of the conversation, ask if your contact could put you in touch with one or two of their colleagues who might be willing to talk with you further about their careers. It’s best if your contact emails their colleagues to make the introduction. However, if instead you’re going to be sending the email, be sure to ask your contact if you can mention them as a means of introducing yourself.

After the informational interview, follow up with your contact to thank them for their time. If you want to stay in touch with the contact, you might connect with them on LinkedIn, but you should always either send a courteous personal message when adding them as a connection or ask them about connecting on LinkedIn near the end of the informational interview.

Eventually, the connections you make through conducting informational interviews could lead to a job offer, since, as Allen observed, “companies would rather hire someone they know than a sheet of paper.” It will likely take a lot of phone calls for this to occur, but in the process you can learn a lot about what you’re looking for in your future career.

Networking will require intentionality and time. And it’s important to start early and network regularly! Make this practice a part of your regular routine: Allen recommended trying to conduct an informational interview once or twice a week. It’s also important to start networking long before you’re getting ready to graduate: it’s never too early to begin thinking about possible career paths, especially because as an English or Creative Writing major you have so many options available to you!