Jean Baur: Self-Employed Writer & Speaker

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Name: Jean Baur    

Age: 71

College & Majors/Minors: Lake Forest College, English Major with Honors

Current Location: Connecticut

Current Form of Employment: Self-employed: writer and speaker

Where do you work and what is your current position?

I work from home and write books, and I also create and give presentations to a wide range of industry groups, from librarians to insurance executives.

Tell us about how you found your first job, and how you found your current job (if different).

My first really good job was working in NYC as a corporate trainer. I researched the company, found connections, and went after them until they hired me. I was hired to teach business writing, but soon also taught presentation skills. And then they asked me and one of the account executives to revise the writing program, which we did.

What was another writing-related job that was important in your career?

I worked as a freelance writer for many years and learned that I could write just about anything if I understood what was needed. I wrote for the food industry, Time Life Books, a small publisher, ETS, and so on. This gave me confidence and diverse opportunities.

What did you do in college to prepare for your post-grad life?

Not much. It was a tricky time as the war in Vietnam was raging and many of us were focused on social issues—stopping the war, race relations, poverty—without any real career path. I took the GREs, but knew I didn't want to go to grad school. It took me a long time to realize that my degree in English had prepared me for many types of work.

What is your advice for students and graduates with an English degree?

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Take advantage of internships, and your career counseling office at your school. Don't worry about not knowing what you want as you'll discover that as you try out different jobs. For some, the job will simply be a way to make money so that they have time to write, while for others, the job itself matters more. Remember, every organization needs people who have what you have: great analytical skills, deep knowledge of human behavior and strong writing and editing skills. It won't be easy and your career path, like mine, may zig and zag a bit. But you'll never be bored and as long as you keep reinventing yourself, you'll be fine. I've been a corporate trainer, a creative writing teacher, a freelance writer, an author, a career coach, a florist, a mother, a therapy dog handler and a speaker. So much fun!

If you want to learn more about Jean, you can visit her site at JeanBaur.com. You can also check out a few of her books here: 

By Jean Baur
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By Jean Baur
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By Jean Baur
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Posted on April 21, 2018 and filed under Self-Employed, Writing, Writer.

Jimmy Daly: Marketing Director

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Name: Jimmy Daly

Age: 31

College & Majors/Minors: English

Current Location: Vail, CO

Current Form of Employment: Marketing Director at Animalz (a content marketing agency)

Where do you work and what is your current position?

I’m currently the marketing director at a startup agency called Animalz. We specialize in content strategy and creation for software-as-a-service companies. The company is based in New York City, but we have employees all over the world. I’m lucky enough to call Vail, CO home.

My current focus is on launching a company blog. It’s highly strategic—you won’t find information like this on other content marketing blogs.

Tell us about how you found your first job, and how you found your current job (if different).

Every job I’ve had since graduating college 10 years ago has come through a personal connection. I first put my writing skills to use for a family friend. He ran a web design company and needed some to help with email and content marketing. That job led to connections, which led to another opportunity, which led to more connections and more opportunities.

One great thing about working in content marketing is that all of my work is public on the web. My current boss hired me after reading work I’d published for another company. 

What was another writing-related job that was important in your career?

Early in my career I worked for an agency that required me to write 2-3 articles every single day. It was a grind, but I learned more about writing in those two years than I have before or since. I learned to be efficient, to quickly identify great ideas, and to create archetypes that I could use over and over again. There’s nothing like shipping new work on a regular basis to hone your skills.

What did you do in college to prepare for your post-grad life?

Honestly, nothing.

I studied English because I liked writing, but I spent a lot of time fretting about what I would do with the degree. What I didn’t realize at the time was that writing is the foundational skill of many jobs in the tech sector. If you can write, you can find a good job.

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What is your advice for students and graduates with an English degree?

A lot of people are going to ask you some variation of “So, what are you going to do with that English degree?” Ignore them. Keep an open mind. Your options are nearly limitless.

I never thought I’d spend 10 years working in software and tech, but it’s been a great adventure and I’m really excited at my future prospects. 

Most of my work is featured on the Animalz content marketing blog  including a post on commercial writing skills that I think would be useful to any English major. I also send a weekly newsletter for marketers and other creatives called Swipe File.


Posted on April 21, 2018 and filed under Marketing, Interviews, Interview.

Michelle Swanson: Self-Employed Resume Writer

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Name: Michelle Swanson

Age: 39

College & Majors/Minors: Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Current Location: Edwardsville, IL

Current Form of Employment: Self-employed Resume Writer

Where do you work and what is your current position?

I own and operate MichelleSwanson.com, a resume writing and job search consultancy serving senior business executives worldwide. I offer a range of services designed to help my clients document and communicate their professional value. My focus is on developing resumes/CVs, executive bios, LinkedIn profiles, and letters, but my clients also rely on me to edit business plans, presentations, emails, press releases, and other business and career-related communications.

“I was a nontraditional student and returned to college to finish my degree after 6 years in the Air Force.”

Tell us about how you found your first job, and how you found your current job (if different).

I was a nontraditional student and returned to college to finish my degree after 6 years in the Air Force. I found my first post-college job through a staffing agency and, after about 2 years, left to start my own company.

What was another writing-related job that was important in your career?

My military service included serving as an Intelligence Analyst. In that role, I wrote reports for intelligence agencies and decision-makers at the highest levels of government. This early experience serves me well in my current career because I learned how to gather and process large amounts of information, cut through the clutter, distill the information into its crucial pieces, and communicate a message in a way that supports decision-making.

What did you do in college to prepare for your post-grad life?

Unfortunately, I did very little to prepare for my career during college. I regret not pursuing internships or professional training such as certifications.

What is your advice for students and graduates with an English degree?

My advice to students and graduates would be to stay open to all the career opportunities that are out there! In college, I was aware of only about a dozen possible career paths for someone with an English degree. I wasn’t even aware that professional resume writers existed! I’ve been in business for more than 10 years, and I’m still amazed by the sheer variety of paths you can take. If you think you’ve thought about all your options… you haven’t. My clients with bachelor’s degrees in English include an IT Project Manager, Vice President of Crisis Communications, Health Insurance Product Manager, Business Analyst, Senior Director of Digital Video, Television Production Assistant, Advertising Sales Manager, Director of Marketing and Investor Relations, Award-winning Independent Film Producer, Television Director, and more. Your degree is just the beginning and does not limit your opportunities!

To learn more about Michelle, you can visit her site at michelleswanson.com. You can also connect with Michelle on LinkedIn.


Posted on April 21, 2018 and filed under Self-Employed, Writer.

Brittany E. Williams: Digital Advertising Copywriter

Name: Brittany E. Williams

Age: 29

College & Majors/Minors: Fort Valley State University, Bachelor of Arts in English Literature & University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Master of Arts in English Literature

Current Location: Atlanta, Georgia

Current Form of Employment: Copywriter

Where do you work and what is your current position?

I’m a Digital Advertising Copywriter at The Home Depot.

Tell us about how you found your first job, and how you found your current job (if different). 

Shortly after finishing grad school, I was contacted by a recruiter with a large staffing firm who found my resume on sites like Career Builder and Monster. It was a contract (temporary), project-based position with an industrial lighting company as a Graphic Designer/Production Artist. Not what you’d typically expect for someone with two English degrees; however, my previous experience with my collegiate newspaper and yearbook allowed me to learn programs like InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator, which helped me land the gig. This job also required extreme attention to detail and the ability to thoroughly proofread to ensure all copy was clear and accurate. 

Fast-forward to my current job, and once again, I was sought after by a recruiter with a smaller firm that specialized in placing talented candidates at a variety of well-known companies. A former contractor had just been promoted to a full-time position, so they were in the market for a new SEO Content Writer. I interviewed and was offered the job on the spot!

What was another writing-related job that was important in your career?

“I consulted a resumé writing service to help me rewrite my resumé, created an online portfolio of my more creative freelance work that more accurately reflected the type of work I was seeking, and even made up some projects just to showcase what I could do if given the opportunity.”

Thankfully, I’ve been blessed with several writing-related opportunities throughout my career thus far, but I’d say there were two pivotal roles that led me to where I currently am today. The first was a short-lived contract position with a large financial institution here in Atlanta. There was no creativity involved and little to no direction on the writing I was producing. It was very constricting, which made it difficult for me to grow at the time. I wasn’t a good fit for the culture either, which plays a huge role in how successful you’ll be with any organization. Even though this position paid me the most money I’d ever made, it simply wasn’t in line with my ultimate career goals. 

The funny thing is, I didn’t truly know what those goals were at the time. I figured since it involved some form of writing at the corporate level, and I was making great money, surely I was heading in the right direction. I was ultimately let go from that job, which was pretty devastating at first, but it wasn’t until then that I realized just how much I dreaded the job! Being let go was one of the best things to ever happen to me because it forced me to make a career shift. 

Up until then, I’d been doing mostly technical writing, with a few freelance opportunities here and there to really write creatively and produce original content. I consulted a resumé writing service to help me rewrite my resumé, created an online portfolio of my more creative freelance work that more accurately reflected the type of work I was seeking, and even made up some projects just to showcase what I could do if given the opportunity. 

Eventually, after many long days and nights of applying to several positions, I landed a role as a freelance Jr. Copywriter at a boutique advertising agency called Shared Vision Marketing in Atlanta, GA. This position stretched me in ways I never imagined. I was challenged everyday to come up with original ideas and execute them in clever, tangible ways. I worked with their in-house Social Media Manager, Art Directors, Account Managers and Creative Director to brand a variety of small consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies to develop web copy, blog articles, direct mailers, scripts and more. I even had a chance to continue honing my graphic design skills by laying out the official program for a non-profit event we sponsored. 

In just two months, I was able to significantly improve my portfolio with tons of fun, creative projects that truly showcased my creative abilities. It pushed me out of my comfort zone and showed me that working as a creative writer in the business world was possible. It forced me to pursue a much more fulfilling career, eventually landing me at my current job as a copywriter for the world’s #1 home improvement retailer. 

What did you do in college to prepare for your post-grad life?

I’d have to say mastering the art of critical thinking is a big one—and ongoing. Learning how and when to ask the right questions; especially “why?” will take you far. You’d be amazed at how many people, especially in the working world, don’t do this. I also believe that my participation in extracurricular activities such as my collegiate newspaper, yearbook and various honor societies, clubs and other on-campus publications like our literary magazine and departmental newsletters, was a big help. I learned to network and build strong relationships as well as how to problem solve.

What is your advice for students and graduates with an English degree?

“I personally think it’s one of the best kept secrets in academia.”

My number one piece of advice is to never allow anyone to box you in. When I was an English major, most people assumed that I would become a teacher or a professor. These are great career paths if that’s what you truly desire, but this assumption is often because most people don’t understand what obtaining an English degree entails other than reading and writing. There are so many paths available to you as an English major. I personally think it’s one of the best kept secrets in academia. English requires you to study several other disciplines to truly understand the intent of a text. You learn to thoroughly research in addition to studying individuals from various backgrounds, beliefs and experiences, providing you with unique insights that make you a much stronger candidate, writer and employee. 

It can be difficult when you’re first starting out, but don’t give up!  Think outside the box and learn how to sell yourself. Always think “big picture” and then convey how all the fine details work to create the big picture. Be a writer, but also be a thinker and a doer. Understand how to best implement your ideas into something tangible that will have the best impact on the intended audience or medium. Always be working on and improving your portfolio and always be willing to learn new skills to help you leverage your writing in new and exciting ways. Keep asking the right questions and be naturally inquisitive. Steadily build your network and keep in touch with recruiters and colleagues as you move throughout your career – you never know when you may need them again! An English degree equips you with all the tools necessary to be successful in a variety of career paths, but keep in mind that some roles may require you to be more than just a good writer. 

To learn more about Brittany and the work she's done over the years, check out her portfoliowebsite, and blog. You can also follow Brittany on Twitter and Instagram or connect with her on LinkedIn. Brittany is also a contributing editor for Neu Neu Magazine, which you can follow on Instagram here


Posted on March 22, 2018 and filed under Copywriting, Interview, Interviews.

The Questioning & Anxiety Behind Becoming an English Major

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The actual decision to major in English came about six months after I had graduated high school and was working on my associate’s degree at a state college in my city. Luckily, I was doing an associate’s in the arts, so there was no need to pick a major quite yet. For a long time, I was set on film or media studies. But a lot of anxiety and thinking was happening at that time, too. I was pretty lost on what I really wanted to study later on in my college career (and that “later” was coming fast).

And then it hit me one day when I was walking to my car from class.

What about majoring in English for my BA? It was something I had thought about a good amount when I was in middle school but it had been pushed to the back of my mind once I started high school. I sort of decided right then that English was what I wanted to pursue as my major and there was essentially no talking me out of it. 

It was a way to study literature and it would also allow me a way to get some further education in creative writing. 

Now, like just about every English major, I got (and still get) the usual questions and comments from my parents, friends and complete strangers when they found out what I was going to be studying: “So, do you want to be a teacher?” “You’re studying the liberal arts?” etc. There was a lot of concern, especially on my parents' part, about choosing to study English.

But I wound up applying to my university’s English program and got in with a minor in creative writing. 

Now I’m a graduate with my BA in English and a minor in creative writing. I’m six months out of school and I’m currently at a job where I get to apply some of what I’ve learned! I hit plenty of road bumps along the way to get to where I am though. There have been plenty of thoughts that have come up that made me overthink my choice in major and doubt myself; here are a few of them: 

Self-doubt: This is probably the most common issue I’ve seen in myself and other English majors. It will really come out of nowhere. I often caught (and sometimes still catch) myself doubting my choice to study English and my abilities in the topic when I was in class or working on projects. I was always seeing amazing work from classmates and thinking “I can’t do that” or “I don’t know anything about that author.” Or I’d see an article talking about how studying English is useless, even though I know that it isn’t. Both of those causes are really punches to the self-confidence and can be extremely hard to shake.

Stress: Just like any major, studying English can be insanely stressful! We most often have plenty of papers/essays/projects due at any one time and trying to figure out the right time to actually get said work done while reading assigned work and doing other things in life can be difficult. 

Outside doubt: We all know what this is referring to. Friends, family, and even people you don’t know will ask you (skeptically) if you’re sure English is the right thing to pursue. And being English majors, we’ve done the research and looked into all sorts of jobs that you can get with the degree. But having consistent doubt and questioning thrown at you about your choice to study English can really drag you down.

Loss of passion: I have loved to read and write for my entire life. Reading for pleasure and to learn was always something that I would do voraciously. And my minor in creative writing gave me the ability to pursue that area of writing in the future. But being an English major, we constantly have to read books for class and then spend large amounts of time dissecting said books. This repeated process over and over can really sap the passion out of the two things that drove many of us into English in the first place.

Many times while I was studying for my BA, I lost interest in reading anything outside of what was assigned for classes, due to lack of time and no drive to read anything for fun. That usually led to me also losing interest in my assigned readings and I wound up having to force myself through the work. 

Feeling inadequate among classmates: Sitting in class and discussing literature can often be really interesting. But sometimes I caught myself feeling that I was in the wrong place, that I didn’t know nearly enough to keep up with my classmates, or that I didn’t have anything to contribute to the conversation with some thoughtful insight.

These are perhaps some of the most common issues I experienced myself and saw in friends. They’re certainly things that can make us second guess why we’re studying English.

English is, unfortunately, one of the more looked down on fields of study, especially because it looks like all we do is read a huge amount and sit around talking about the deeper meaning of texts. And while we certainly do those things a lot, there is much more to what we are studying.

Doubting what I chose to study, something that I really do care about, really did nothing for me. All it did was make the choice I made that much more difficult.

And while these doubts can be difficult to overcome, I couldn’t help but find myself just thinking about the outcome. Once I finished my degree, I knew I would have a set of skills that could be applied to a wide range of different types of work.

That doesn’t always work, but it’s certainly a place to start. The doubts and questioning of yourself that come during the course of pursuing an English degree are completely normal and you’re certainly not alone in them. It took me quite some time to figure that out and once I did, it helped a little to know that I wasn’t the only one who questioned and stressed out over it.

And I think acknowledging the fact that you are not the only one dealing with doubt, stress, and anxiety over your degree will make things a little easier. To leave you with something to think on, here is a quote from Amanda Palmer in her book The Art of Asking: 

“There's really no honor in proving that you can carry the entire load on your own shoulders. And... it's lonely.”


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Paige Lyman has a BA in English with a minor in creative writing. She's a fan of sci-fi and fantasy and writes prose in her spare time. With a love for storytelling, she's constantly got her face buried in a book and hopes to one day publish a novel of her own. Being the huge nerd that she is, she loves a good discussion on plot, characters, and how to really make a story amazing! (Her own inspiration is to one day craft a world and story as engrossing as Avatar: The Last Airbender). With a love for English and creative writing, she's dabbled in all types of writing and has no plans to stop.


Posted on March 2, 2018 and filed under English Major Stories.