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Not all career paths involve career fairs, but campus career fairs provide all students with low-stakes opportunities to explore potential jobs and practice vital networking skills. Here’s what’s coming up this spring:

January 29:  Gies Spring Business Career Fair.   If you’ve never been to a career fair before and plan to go to the April 11 Illini career fair, then a practice run at the Gies fair is a good idea. Use the link above to research a couple of employers you can talk to, revise your resume and print out a bunch of copies (as many employers as you want to talk to X 2, plus a few extra, and put together an appropriate business professional outfit (doesn’t have to be a black suit!).

February 8: Arts and Culture Career Fair in Chicago.  Email Julia Rundell of the College of Fine and Applied Arts (jrundell@illinois.edu) to reserve a spot on the bus to Chicago for this event at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Talk to representatives from performing arts and cultural organizations about full-time jobs, internships, and volunteer opportunities. Bring multiple copies of your resume and dress business “smart” with some creative flair.

March 4:  Educators’ Job Fair at Eastern Illinois University. Lots of great opportunities here for seniors completing their secondary ed teaching certification.

March 12:  Research Park Career Fair. Small fair at the I-Hotel for employers based in Research Park. Lots of internships (full-time in summer, part-time during school year) and some full-time jobs. The demand is mostly for STEM students, but there will be non-technical opportunities.

April 11:  Illini Career & Internship Fair. A wide array of nonprofit and business employers show up for this fair, many of them eager to find employees as the campus recruiting cycle comes to an end. Bring lots of resumes and dress “business professional.”

You can find more advice about having a successful experience at a career fair in these blog posts:

• How to Conquer the Gies Career Fair as an English/CW Major
• Career Fairs for English/CW Majors
• How to Prepare for the Arts and Culture Career Fair in Chicago
• Getting Ready for the Illini Career and Internship Fair

How should you dress? It’s easy to overthink it. NOT wearing the wrong thing is much more important (and easier) than choosing the right thing. Here’s some accurate, no-nonsense advice from the Career Fair Plus app. 

Need to add to your wardrobe? The Career Closet in The Career Center is a free resource for students.

Wondering about the “elevator pitch” you keep hearing about? People use the term to refer to a brief summary of your experience and interests that you can throw at potential employers at career fairs. Chances are you don’t need one (at least not the way they are usually understood). As an English or CW major, one of your strengths is your communication skills, and an elevator pitch can be a lousy way to convey it. If having a full-blown elevator pitch cued up will help you feel more confident, here’s some excellent advice about how to craft it. You may have more success, though, if you plan in terms of having a conversation with the recruiter rather than “pitching.” Take the time to learn about the employers you want to talk to and have some smart questions in mind to ask about the company or the openings you want to apply for. Listen carefully to the answers you get, and look for ways to use them to talk about the strengths you would bring to that specific role.

Need help with your resume? Start with the Illinois Template. It’s a resume format that career fair recruiters are used to seeing, and it helps make you seem familiar and prepared. You can get advice on revising your resume from Kirstin Wilcox, Director of Internships by calling 333-4346 to set up an appointment. The Career Center (715 S. Wright St.) has walk-in hours for resume review Monday through Friday from 2:00 to 4:30.

 

 

The holidays bring with them many opportunities to connect with loved ones. And chances are, those loved ones are going to ask you how college is going and what you’re going to do when you graduate.

The flexibility and open-endedness that makes majoring in English or Creative Writing a joy can seem less so when you’re being quizzed by a family member who doesn’t quite see how that amazing class in critical theory or modernist literature or poetry writing is going to help you cope with life after graduation.

Some preparation can make those holiday conversations less daunting.

Here are some resources to help you talk to the people who love you about your prospects and plans.

“English/Creative writing majors don’t get jobs — maybe you should switch to something more practical.”

Just wrong. Wrong in general, but also specifically wrong for the University of Illinois. Read the data, know the numbers. Save the links on your phone to show the disbelieving. Need more talking points?  Try this, this, this, or this.

“So you’re going to teach, right? Or maybe go into publishing? What else do people do with an English (or Creative Writing) degree?”

Some English or Creative Writing majors do go into teaching or publishing, Many do not. Every business, organization, industry needs people who can solve problems with words. You have choices to make about where to use your skills. Take some time to browse this very blog for additional information on jobs that English majors do. Some possibilities include human resources, advancement/nonprofit fundraising, communication, business consulting, science journalism, running small businesses, legal writing, project management, book publishing, video editing, science editing, project operations, PR and digital marketing, librarianship, B2B publishing, entrepreneurship, content creation, higher ed administration, manufacturing, events coordination, sales management,  data research, management training, and real estate development.

“You’ll have to go to grad school to get a job, won’t you? What grad school are you thinking about?”

Well, no — you don’t need to go to law school or get a master’s degree to be employed — but you may want to get more education to achieve specific goals. “Grad school” doesn’t have to mean further education leading to a teaching or law career — recent alumni have chosen to get advanced degrees in bioinformatics, business, education administration, human resources, information/library science, medicine, nursing, social work.

“Hmph. Okay. But you’re graduating in____, right? So what’s your plan?”

There are many things you can do to reassure the people who care about you that you’re on your way to a stable, self-supporting adult life. Don’t have a specific career in mind yet? That’s okay — tell them about some concrete steps that you’re taking now that will help you get a job when you graduate.

• Find time to go to the LAS Life + Career Design Lab
• Sign up for a course that will give you some professional skills:
  • Publishing and Editing (ENGL 199 – E, 1:00 – 1:50pm MWF, Prof. Hapke, CRN: 53975)
  • Self-Publishing and Digital Branding (ENGL 380, 11am -11:50am MWF, Prof. Gallagher)
  • Environmental Writing for Publication (ENGL 498, 12:30 – 1:50pm TR,   Prof. Wood)
• apply for a spring or summer internship.
• find a part-time job that will help build your skills.
• create or update your resume
• sign up for alumni mentoring and start scheduling some informational interviews to help you build your network.
• get to know Handshake and start checking it regularly to learn more about the kinds of jobs you’d like to apply for. (Pro-tip: use the job function filter to explore the opportunities in different potential careers. “Writing/Editing” is an obvious one to try — but certainly not the only one available to you.)
• get involved in a campus publication
• register for a career preparation course:
  • Career Fair Preparation (ENGL 199 – CIP, online, Prof. WIlcox, eight weeks, one credit, Jan 14 – Mar. 8)
  • Career Planning for Humanities Majors — freshmen and sophomores (ENGL 199 – FS, 4:00 – 5:30pm M, Prof. Wilcox, eight weeks, one credit, Mar. 11 – May 1)
  • Career Planning for Humanities Majors — juniors and seniors (ENGL 199 – JS, 4:00 – 5:30 Tm Prof. Wilcox, eight weeks, one credit, Mar. 11 – May 1)
• schedule an appointment to talk to Kirstin Wilcox, Director of Internships by calling 333-4346.
• find some upcoming Career Center events that will be helpful to you and put them on your calendar.
• follow up on contacts your family has suggested to you.
• practice your elevator pitch, get your professional attire, and research employers to get ready for the Gies Business Career Fair.

“<changes subject>”

Take some time to remind yourself why you got into this major in the first place. Spend time with a book you want to read and haven’t been assigned. Write a poem. Make a trip to the nearest independent or used bookstore. Storyboard your screenplay or graphic novel ideas. Geek out by surfing Open Culture, Paris Review, LA Review of Books. Watch a movie with some intellectual heft to it. Send an email to the teacher who first got you excited about words. Let yourself get lost in the sheer joy of language.