Anyone here working in writing/advertising/publishing/marketing?

CJFusco · CJFusco's Garage

I have just finished my Master's Degree (English) and am planning on earning my PhD in the same subject eventually, but I think I want to find a job/career in the mean time. I am sick of doing bartending/restaurant work in order to pay the bills (even though it pays pretty well).

I have been sending out resumes over the last few weeks, but the market seems a little thin right now. Does anyone in the aforementioned fields/industries have any tips for me? I would be willing to relocate, and I am very enthusiastic about beginning a new career.

legion · 06-06-2007, 07:26 PM

What type of work are you looking for specifically?

Is there anything you have explicitly ruled out?

CJFusco · CJFusco's Garage

At this point, I'd consider anything that I'm qualified for... within reason

Sonic dB · Sonic dB's Garage

other than English...what are your skills? creative writing? Design?
web design? art? sales?

TimothyFarrar · 06-07-2007, 04:17 AM

Try copy writing, ad agencies spend the big bucks on it.

id10t · 06-07-2007, 04:52 AM

We're doing a search for a new director of marketing here at the college I work for....

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

I've been a copywriter and am now in sales and I promise you an advanced degree will not earn you a dime more in this field than will a high school diploma. In sales, unless it's very technical, you don't need a college degree at all. It's all cold calling, building a referral base and market research. In copywriting it's all about your sample book and getting to know all the people who go on to be outside consultants and can farm work out to you. You have to pay your dues in most businesses and grad school doesn't count toward that.

notfarnow · 06-07-2007, 06:04 AM

Combine your masters in English major with some courses in writing for the web & online usability and you'll have a marketable skill set. Many larger business sites have QA departments that employ copy writers/editors.

At one conference I went to, I met a guy who did website QA as a freelancer. He would take a page or two from a company website, and mark it up with edits. He'd send that along to whatever contact he could get, saying that he found X number of additional errors, would they like to see the rest of them? About 15% bought his services, which ranged from cleaning up typos to complete rewrites.

CJFusco · CJFusco's Garage

Thank you for the advice. That sounds like a pretty good idea, Jake.

Rick - the graduate degrees are not completely simply to help me secure a job, they are for my benefit and my satisfaction. I do want to eventually teach at the University level, hance my desire to begin a PhD in the next couple years (student-teaching is usually a part of PhD programs - you teach the courses that the tenured professors don't want to touch).

As far as my education and work background, my BA was in English with a focus on creative writing with a minor in Cinema Studies, my MA is in English with a focus on literature. I have experience in sales, management, television/film production, magazine/newspaper layout, computer graphic arts, some HTML, all Microsoft products, advertsing/marketing theory...

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by CJFusco

Rick - the graduate degrees are not completely simply to help me secure a job, they are for my benefit and my satisfaction. I do want to eventually teach at the University level, hance my desire to begin a PhD in the next couple years (student-teaching is usually a part of PhD programs - you teach the courses that the tenured professors don't want to touch).

In that case, grad school is a good move for you. Around here in DC, I don't think an advanced degree has ever earned anyone a dime more in pay, but it does add to student loan debt. Sometimes it's a freebie, since companies will pay for it. But I just never saw the point of someone working in politics, going back to school, racking up $30k in new debt, making almost nothing in those two yrs. and then coming back to the workforce to make about what they made before. One of my co-workers is doing that very soon, heading to Columbia School of Journalism. But our company is kicking in $10k for the effort and keeping her employed part time. Still, she won't get a dime's raise in base salary when she comes back and there will be a ramp up period for the commissions to start rolling in again. Luckily, she's doing it for personal satisfaction and not career advancement or pay increase.