How I Got My Job: Publicity Assistant, Lulu Schmieta FCLC '21

Lulu Schmieta FCLC '21

Lulu Schmieta FCLC '21 has been working as a publicity assistant at Macmillan imprints Henry Holt and Metropolitan Books since January 2022.

Tell us about your current position and what kind of responsibilities you have?

In my role I help pitch books to newspapers, magazines, podcasts, radio and TV. From researching all types of outlets and media to writing pitches; I am involved in the entire process. Booking author travel and making sure books and assets are being sent where they are needed are also an important part of the process. The goal of my role is to support the publicity team as we help build an audience for an upcoming book. As the assistant, I am also tasked with many administrative duties, like submitting the expense report for the office.

How did you end up in your current position and what were some of the stops along the way?

There were many more stops to this job than I anticipated. I graduated early in December 2020 and fully expected to have a job within a few weeks of graduation. My rationale was that I had three internships on my resume, one more prestigious than the next, and my resume was very much tailored for a job in publishing. I interned at The Robbins Office, a boutique literary agency, at PEN America with their literary awards team, and at the National Book Foundation. I had also taken Publishing: Theory and Practice with Professor Stacey D'Erasmo. I really thought that was all I needed to get a job. The next two months (January and February) were a very rude wake up call. All I did those two months was apply to jobs in publishing. And I didn't get a single interview. By some miracle, at the end of February, I got an email from my manager at PEN America, asking me if I would return as a temporary literary awards assistant. I took the position and worked there for four months. That spring, I had applied to the Columbia Publishing Course (CPC) and I accepted my position to the five-week publishing intensive and started that just after my time at PEN America ended. At CPC, we heard from dozens of publishing professionals and learned almost everything about the industry. One thing that was repeated to us was that hiring managers are always looking for candidates with bookselling experience. So I did a quick search to see who was hiring and applied to Barnes & Noble in Union Square. I was hired and started working there at the end of July, right after the course ended. Again, I figured that I would slap "bookseller" on my resume, get hired within six weeks, and call it a day. I was at Barnes & Noble for almost six weeks. During that time, I was consistently applying to jobs. This time, however, I was actually getting interviews. And, I was only applying to jobs that I was excited about, jobs that I could see myself doing. Within the year, I had added an "assistant" title to my resume, got a certificate from a well-known publishing intensive, and gained valuable bookselling experience. 

Did your English major help you, and if so, how?

My English degree helped immensely! Clear writing is always, and will always, be an asset at a job. All those essays I wrote were practice for thinking critically about a piece of media, coming up with, and defending, an original argument. Public speaking was also thrown into the mix. All of those skills are following me into the office. I can also cite specific classes that helped me. Professor D'Erasmo's Publishing: Theory and Practice gave me concrete ideas and examples to write about in cover letters and tell during interviews for publishing internships. I credit Professor Stuart Sherman for whipping my writing into shape. Professor Andrew Albin, in his Understanding the Cloisters class, had us create a podcast for the final project. I added "podcast writing, recording, and editing" to my resume under "Skills", not thinking much of it. In my final interview for my new job, the hiring managers asked me about my podcast experience. When I explained that we had to take a piece of art and use it to tell a story through a podcast, they were so excited because so much of publicity is finding a story within a book for pitching titles to TV and podcast shows. I'm convinced that that was what set me apart from other candidates and got me the job. And to think I only took that class because it was the only CP4 English course offered that year. I think this is all to say that my Fordham English degree helped me get a job because through all the CP courses I learned how to approach writing and storytelling through so many different lenses. 

 Do you have any advice for current undergraduates looking towards the job market?

I have so much advice. Most of it involves email. Send thank you notes! If your professor has a guest lecturer or you go to a special lecture outside of class try and send a quick thank you to the speaker. Professor D'Erasmo invited so many wonderful speakers to our class and I deeply regret not sending them thank you emails. They are really easy ways to get your name and resume into their inbox. Then, if you end up applying to a job or internship at their company, you can send them a quick email letting them know! In my class, Professor D'Erasmo invited professionals such as literary agent Bill Clegg, editorial director of Barnes & Noble Miwa Messer, and now Editor-in-Chief of Farrar, Straus, & Giroux to our class. I am positive that if I had sent them thank yous I would have had better internships earlier and therefore gotten a job faster. Another piece of advice: Students develop so many skills at school that they can put on their resume. I put podcast writing and editing on my resume after I completed a final project on it. Has that podcast seen the light of day yet? No. Do I still have those skills? Yes. Just thinking about what me and my friends did at school, I can think of a bunch of skills that would excite an employer: video game design, public speaking, video editing, copy editing, WordPress, language skills. (We don't spend four semesters learning a language to not recognize that on our resumes!) Not so much advice, but confirmation: HR and hiring managers do keep resumes on file. I always thought that was something they said to get applicants off their back, but they do! I had an interview with another imprint of Macmillan and didn't get the job. A month later HR emailed me asking if I would interview for my current job.