Oh, The Places You’ll Go: Concrete and Actionable Advice for English Majors
By Shan Rao
As I signed off of Zoom after the English Department’s career fair titled, Oh, The Places You’ll Go, I continued perusing the open windows on my laptop, clicking through links to resources from the speakers. I immediately sent messages to two of the speakers on LinkedIn who had shared their information with attendees. Somehow, this one-hour event had managed to relieve some of my anxieties surrounding the transition from senior year of college into the so-called real world. Not only that, but I felt inspired to continue searching for jobs and connecting with people - something I’d started to feel burnt out on before.
The event featured five speakers representing a variety of age groups and career paths. Speakers included Donna Bray, Vice-President and Co-Publisher of the Balzer + Bray imprint at HarperCollins Children's Books; Hannah Gonzalez, FCRH '20, a second-year J.D. candidate at Stanford Law School; Kwamesha Joseph, associate medical editor at Haymarket and Co-Chair of Haymarket Media's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee; Tom Liam Lynch, Director of Education Policy at The Center for New York City Affairs at The New School and Editor-in-Chief of the website InsideSchools; and Jill Schwartzman, editor at Dutton.
From the beginning, the energy of the event was strong. Donna Bray began her segment by reminding everyone that “if there’s one thing you all know as English majors, it’s narrative and the power of narrative.” She went on to explain the importance of building experiences and an application that speaks to the story of how you came to be interested in that specific field or job. Specifying that this doesn’t mean to only include industry experience, she told students to think about how one experience led them to another and how to showcase that.
Bray ended on a final note about how to break into the publishing world, encouraging students not to be caught up in wanting to work specifically in editorial when they go into publishing. Highlighting the various other aspects of publishing, she encouraged students to get their foot in the door through any paid publishing experience rather than holding out for one specific kind of position.
Following Donna Bray, students heard from a recent alum who had graduated into the world of COVID herself. Hannah Gonzalez spoke about networking, but she didn’t just share the same advice students always hear. Instead, she focused specifically on how to use the communications skills learned in an English major to make connections that feel genuine and with people in fields you’re passionate about. “I always hated the expression ‘it’s not what you know it’s who you know,’” she shared with students, “because I was like, I’m a first generation professional. And I grew to resent the idea that my work product alone was never going to be enough to get me where I wanted to go.”
Rather than stay in that frustration, Gonzalez explained how this kind of building connections can be built into the activities one already does. She was an editor at the Fordham Ram, Rose Hill’s student newspaper, and pushed herself to really take advantage of that opportunity. She explained that, even when she was nervous to follow up with someone, she tried to push herself and remember that building those skills of preparation, persistence, and communication was just as much a learning experience of college as anything else. Ultimately, she shared her own success story of meeting someone at a law school admitted student day who recommended she apply to a program with a law firm that ended up really helping her build the career trajectory she was interested in.
Kwamesha Joseph opened by speaking to the fact that many seniors were coming away from the holidays and family members continually asking the question: “What are you going to do after graduation?” She spoke to the way in which this sense of urgency can cause people to panic with a reminder that in spite of this feeling that you need to rush into knowing everything, this doesn’t mean you have to limit yourself.
Joseph spoke about how her initial passion for medical research caused her to take a job as an assistant editor doing that kind of writing. After some time in the field, however, she realized that she wanted to be more immersed in the actual lives of people and use the communication skills she had in that way. She emphasized the importance of surrendering as your passions evolve throughout life and not continuing to work toward a path you no longer want to have. Now, she is one year away from becoming a nurse. Even though her career path is no longer a “traditional” one for an English major, she continues to make use of the skills she cultivated during those years.
Tom Liam Lynch spoke softly and emphasized his resistance to offering any kind of concrete advice on how to move forward. His first lesson was simply to slow down and recognize that it’s important to take the time to figure out what actually matters to you. “A relationship with yourself,” he urged students, “is the most important relationship.” He reminded students that, as much pressure there is to have things figured out immediately, time was currently on their side as young people.
Moving on from this important note, Lynch spoke about how much digital technologies have begun to play a role in society. These fields are often seen as science or math based and inaccessible to students in the humanities fields. Lynch pushed back against that, reminding students that “we’re just talking about language here.” Building on this, he urged students to be open to the evolving world and take advantage of opportunities to use their skills as English majors across all kinds of disciplines and not view themselves as limited.
Closing out the night, Jill Schwartzman focused her advice specifically to those students interested in publishing. Her first note was that, if you are a student who really loves to read, you should go ahead and really immerse yourself in the world of books. When looking to get into the contemporary publishing landscape, it’s important to really know that world and be able to speak about it articulately. She urged students to, within publishing, follow their passions as to what sorts of books that they want to be working on, reminding them of how she connects more easily when people know what kind of books she does work on and have a genuine passion for those areas of knowledge.
She then moved on to specific practical advice about timelines that students aren’t often aware of, explaining that, in the world of publishing, jobs have a quick turnaround and need new hires to start almost immediately. She suggested that, rather than applying to jobs they won’t actually be available to start at, students focus on really building up an idea of what kind of publishing jobs they want—within Editorial or beyond it—and really get a sense of the books being published now. Then, as graduation nears, they’ll be ready to be strong applicants for the jobs they are then available for.
Overall, I was grateful for a career event that reached a broad range of English majors with a variety of interests. As someone not planning to go into publishing, I was glad to hear advice from those in fields more aligned with my own interests. Nevertheless, I was grateful for the way that those speakers in publishing broke down certain aspects of the job application process with a transparency that was applicable beyond that specific industry. As I continue with my own job searching, I’m grateful to feel reinvigorated and have a better understanding of what to pay attention to.