Career questions tagged student-advice
What is your personal experience like working in the publishing industry?
Hi, I'm interested in working in the publishing industry, so I really want to hear about the personal experiences of professionals in this industry, especially because I'm not sure which specific department I want to work in (e.g. editorial, marketing, production, sales, publicity, etc). If you don't mind, in your response, could you also answer how your department works with the other departments (e.g. as a publicist, how often do you interact with editors, and what do those interactions look like?) and describe what kind of traits are most important for an individual to succeed in your specific department? For example, I'm not confident in my math skills, so I don't think I could ever work in sales. I enjoy editing and have had extensive experience with it throughout my school years, but I've also worked a number of administrative/clerical jobs and enjoyed interacting with people a lot, so I have reason to believe I could thrive in other departments other than editorial as well. Thank you in advance for your time and input! #publishing #publishing-industry #publishing-company #editorial #marketing #production #sales #publicity #business #career #editor #editors #book-editors #book-editor #copy-editor #copy-editors #agents #agent #literary-agent #literary-agents #scouts #scout #literary-scout #literary-scouts #publicist #publicists #production-editors #production-editor #marketer #marketers #copy-writer #copy-writers #career-advice #advice #job #work #career-counseling #help #career-planning #career-path #student #student-advice #career-help #job-experience #work-experience
Can I succeed in business? How can I pick a career that properly suits my interests?
Hello, I'm currently a second-year college student, and I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with my future. I'm currently majoring in English, but I've been debating whether to add business as a second major due to my interest in what I perceive as business-related fields. The only problem is that I'm not confident in my math skills, so I'm wondering how "good" your math skills need to be in order to earn a business degree? I really enjoyed statistics in high school, and I have both statistics and macroeconomics credit already transferred over from high school, but I saw that I would still need to take another math class (precalculus at the lowest level) and microeconomics in order to major in business, and I'm worried that I won't do well in these classes since it's been over a year since the last time I took a formal math class. Anyway, the reason I'm considering adding business as a major is because I have been working a lot of administrative assistant and/or office jobs, and I've found that I actually seem to enjoy doing customer service-oriented office jobs. I especially liked a recent job I had where I got to advise incoming college students on how to adjust to college life and other tips like that. What kind of career could you have where you specifically use your "expertise" or higher knowledge to enlighten/advise less-knowledgeable individuals? Is being a "career coach" one of the only options? I find it really difficult to imagine myself working as a career coach when I don't even know what I want to do with my own career... #business #english #job #career #publishing #work #career-counseling #career-advice #advice #education #major #college-major #choosing-a-major #help #career-planning #career-path #student #student-advice #business-field #english-major #english-degree #business-degree #business-major #career-help #job-experience #work-experience #career-coach
Can an English major work in business-related jobs?
As my question says, I'm wondering how successful an English major would be at working in business-related jobs. For example, I'm really interested in the publishing industry. Can you find success working in the publishing industry with only an English degree, or would you recommend double-majoring in business & English (or at least majoring in English with a business minor)? Would you also say that it depends on the specific department that you're interested in working in (e.g. editorial, production, sales, publicity, marketing, etc), or is it better to have an English and business degree either way? I'm interested in hearing from employers and employees with personal experience regarding this type of scenario. Thank you in advance! #business #english #job #career #publishing #work #career-counseling #career-advice #advice #education #major #college-major #choosing-a-major #help #career-planning #career-path #student #student-advice #business-field #english-major #english-degree #business-degree #business-major #career-help #job-experience #work-experience
What would you do if you loved your job but hated your work environment? Would you leave? How would you cope?
For example, I've worked as a copy editor and/or copywriter for both my high school yearbook and college newspaper, and while I wouldn't say that I've LOVED journalism, I do find it enjoyable at times. I would prefer to be doing creative writing, but I genuinely enjoy all types of writing, and I've cherished all the times that I was able to have touching experiences and interesting conversations with people that I wouldn't have talked to if it weren't for my job as a copywriter forcing me to conduct interviews. However, in both cases, I've hated my actual work environment. There are so many things that I resent, like how I know I'm perfectly capable of doing my job and I'm probably one of the best writers on the team, but I'm not treated like it and my work isn't valued. I never missed a deadline when I wrote for the yearbook, and I even picked up articles that other writers couldn't complete in time when we were in a time crunch, but no one ever thanked me for it. Honestly, I don't think that being thanked or feeling appreciated is too much to expect; these should be essential components of a healthy work environment. But when these components are in fact missing, what should you do? Should you quit your job? Sometimes it's not that easy. And if you choose not to quit and just stick it out, how do you cope? How do you stay sane? When I don't feel valued for the work that I do, it's extremely difficult for me to find motivation to keep up the quality of my work. I mean, if I don't feel that me or my work are valued, what's the point? What should I do? #college #writing #journalism #career #job #career-advice #help #career-help #advice #college-student #work #career-counseling #student-advice #burnout #work-life-balance #stress #work-environment #job-environment
Which is better: continuing to work a job you've grown to dislike because it is advantageous for you career-wise, or finding a new job that you genuinely enjoy?
I've always believed that if you pursue a career you love, then you'll never work a day in your life, so I've followed my dreams and have always planned to pursue my passion, even if it might not result in the most high-paying job. This passion is writing. However, throughout the years, I've discovered that not just any type of writing suits me. I did informal work as a journalist by copywriting for my high school yearbook for my entire four years of high school, and now I’m continuing that type of journalistic work by working as a copy editor and staff writer for my college newspaper. The problem is that I don’t like journalism. I don’t quite hate it, exactly, but I’d much rather be devoting my time and energy into creative writing. I forced myself to do copywriting for all four years of high school even though I disliked it and thought about quitting so many times, mainly because I wanted to have one extracurricular that I had done consistently to put on my college resume. But now that I’m in college, I find myself stuck in the same position—I’m writing for the student newspaper, but I don’t actually like this job because it’s practically identical to my yearbook role. I can’t quite bring myself to just quit so easily because I’ve convinced myself that if I stick with writing for the newspaper for all four years, then it will be good job experience, especially since I want to go into publishing in the future, but do I really want to put myself through yet ANOTHER four years of forcing myself to tough it out in a job that I don’t like? Is it wrong to want to put my mental health and happiness first, even if I know that sticking it out in this job might be more advantageous career-wise? The thing is, I don’t even want to do journalism as my career—I want to work in creative writing or publishing, but I’m trying to be open-minded about all writing opportunities. At the same time, though, I don’t want to get stuck in a career in journalism when that was never what I wanted in the first place. I’m just so stressed and confused about what I should do. When I asked my aunt for advice, she basically told me I was being too naive and that it’s called a “job” or “work” because you’re not SUPPOSED to like what you do in the first place, so she advised me to just stick it out. The whole reason I wanted to pursue a writing job is because I love writing, but the thing is, I’m not enjoying THIS type of writing, and it just makes me think… what was the point of pursuing my passions in the first place if I’m still not happy? Instead of doing journalism, which makes me so unhappy, I might as well have worked toward becoming a doctor or lawyer or something, since I’d be equally as unhappy but they’re higher-paying jobs. I’m a seriously conflicted student in need of career advice. #college #journalism #writing #job #work-life-balance #work #career-advice #help #career-help #advice #technical-writing #creative-writing #publishing #editing #career #following-your-passions #career-counseling #career-choice #career-path #student #career-planning #student-advice #writing-and-editing
Tips for surviving bad classes and/or horrible teachers?
I'm open to answers from both fellow students and former students for this question! I'm currently taking a literature class, and I absolutely love it, but that's in regards to all the novels on our reading syllabus being outstanding reads and my own innate passion for literature. When it comes to the actual class, I almost dread going to school every morning since it's my first period (I'm a high school student). I find that my own desires and expectations for the class are incompatible with the reality of it. My teacher provides shallow commentary on the content of our novels, but then expects high-quality analysis and understanding from us students when she can't even provide that level of analysis herself. In fact, students often ask questions for clarification and she either beats around the bush or manages to avoid the question entirely by redirecting their attention to some other topic she brings up. She also expects everyone to improve in their writing and reading analysis skills, but provides no coursework or feedback for improvement, instead repeatedly assuring us that "our skills will improve during our time in the class" - something unlikely to happen if she just expects us to become better "naturally." She never returns or allows students to see past quizzes and tests, and on essays, she only writes vague, criticizing remarks of what we did wrong rather than offering advice on how to improve our writing for higher scores. Confronting her directly/privately for advice and further feedback results in more vague comments. There seems to be no way to coax constructive criticism or explanations of the "high-level analysis" she expects out of her, so the result is a class full of disillusioned and tired students who don't want to try anymore and don't want to improve. Not to mention her behavior makes her lack any sort of credibility so I really can't take anything she says seriously anymore. I'm doing relatively well in the class, but this is thanks to the foundation of literature-based skills I've acquired prior to entering this class, not the result of anything she's taught us. With that being said, are there any tips to trudge through a pointless and unfulfilling class? There are a number of problems here, but my primary concern is preventing a terrible teacher from damaging my love of literature, because this has happened in the past where I had an English teacher so awful that I started to hate literature despite it always being one of my greatest passions. On a personal level, it's also difficult not to let her interpretation of the novels we read ruin my reading experience and my feelings toward said books - for example, she makes a lot of misogynistic comments reinforcing gender roles and completely missing the point that I think the author was actually trying to make when we discuss feminist novels. I need tips on how to survive teachers like her so I can get through the rest of this year and also put them to use if I end up having professors like her in college. (Sorry for writing a novel for my own here!) #student #advice #student-advice #class #high-school-classes #classes #survival #surviving-high-school #tips #bad-classes #bad-teachers #literature #english-literature #english #english-literature #academic-english #writing #reading #books #book #novels #novel #essay #essays #help