Brande McCleese: Adjunct Instructor, Editor, & Poet

Name: Brande McCleese

Age: 40

College & Majors/Minors: Southern New Hampshire University - Bachelors English Language and Literature, National University - MFA Creative Writing, Southern New Hampshire University - Masters English 

Current Location: North Carolina 

Current Form of Employment: Adjunct Instructor, Editor, & Poet

Where do you work and what is your current position?

I’m currently an adjunct instructor at several colleges and universities. I teach Creative Writing, Literature and Composition courses. As a sideline, I edit books, business documents and papers. I also blog at southpawscribe.wordpress.com and have been featured on soar.forharriet.com in addition to having poetry published in two anthologies.  

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

I stumbled into my first teaching positions. I was on one campus with a couple of my friends who are alumni and I was speaking to someone from the English, Language and Communication department about a poetry event that I was planning. I mentioned that I had a MFA and then the chair of the department joined our conversation and asked if I was interested in teaching. I said yes and had an interview the next day. I’ve tutored and run the writing center at a local community college and the dean of the campus mentioned that she needed someone to teach a Composition course on campus and remembered that I was qualified. Since then, I’ve been teaching at one or both schools every semester in addition to writing and editing. I’d never considered teaching as a profession before completing my MFA. In fact, it was only while discussing MFA vs. MA with a professor that I realized that the MFA is a terminal degree and what type of doors it could possibly open for me. 

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

It would definitely be editing. I was an editor for a long time before I knew it. I’ve been “fixing” my peers' papers since high school and once I found out that people were willing to pay for it I was shocked. I earned money in high school and college by editing papers and it seemed natural for me to continue to do it after college. I have taken a few courses on editing and have discovered that I love editing the work of others but not my own writing. 

I also have written poems for people/occasions and that was a job that I created for myself by always having a notebook and writing poems or sharing the poems that I began writing for my mom for Mother’s Day and her birthday. Both jobs ensured not only a confidence in creating but also that I was constantly working on something that I enjoyed.  

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

““One of the most important things that I did while in graduate school was to tutor students. I feel like my lectures and my expectations were formed during those sessions.””

Everything. I think that my education, both undergraduate and graduate, prepared me for what I’m doing now. I will caution everyone who plans to teach at any level to be willing to continue learning. I am currently taking a course on teaching writing classes because I wanted to enhance my skills and pick up some new ideas. One of the most important things that I did while in graduate school was to tutor students. I feel like my lectures and my expectations were formed during those sessions. I also learned how I wanted to structure my writing assignments and a bit about what constituted a successful essay in my eyes.  

I also loved that I was required to write every day. If you are planning to write, then that’s essential. I recently developed my first writing routine outside of NaNoWriMo and since grad school. In my opinion it is so hard without the structure of school. In college, I wrote every day especially when working on my thesis. After college, it becomes harder to balance everything and to have a dedicated writing schedule, but I manage to blog every week for the most part and to continue working on other projects.

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

To not get discouraged by what you read about job prospects and to write consistently (if you love writing). I was an English major because I loved reading, I loved writing, and those were the skills that I wanted to build my career upon. I remember a discussion with a friend who said that being an English major was senseless because there’s nothing you can do with it. No one in my family ever asked what I planned to do with my degree, none of them were even surprised by my major. I’ve had plenty of support from friends who are educators and those who know of my love of writing but I’ve also received comments from naysayers asking why English? Those same people tried to discourage me from pursuing my graduate degrees in the same field. As an English major, I feel prepared for everything, except math classes. 

You can read Brande's blog at southpawscribe.wordpress.com and find her writing on soar.forharriet.com. 

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Steffany Powell: Manager of Global Content Marketing

Name: Steffany Powell

Age: #oneoftheolds

College & Majors/Minors: University of Washington (UW): English with an Emphasis in Creative Writing / Masters in Communication in Digital Media

Current Location: Seattle

Where do you work and what is your current position?

Mondelez International (the makers of Oreos, to name a few). My title is Manager of Global Content Marketing.

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

When I graduated from the UW, I thought I could just get a writing job no problem. I had two issues when I graduated: 1. It was March of 2007 and little did I know that The Great Recession was weeks away from taking away most of my job prospects. 2. I had little or no technical skills when it came to working in corporate America. Long story short, there were no jobs and I did not know Excel. I finally settled on a job working at a small eCommerce company. There I wrote product descriptions, marketing copy and I managed the blog posts. It was fun. But it paid $18 an hour. Part time. No benefits. 

But I got scrappy. I took any writing job I could so I could fill my resume with writing jobs. I worked contract (fyi most of the best content writing jobs are contract) and I lived cheap. I learned new skills. I took classes. Finally, I went back to grad school to really focus on what I wanted to do: online content strategy.

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

I wrote horoscopes and event previews for a mobile site called Go2. This was pre-smartphone so it was pretty popular and had been around for about 10 years when I started. I was really able to hone my craft because no matter what, I had to produce 12 horoscopes (one per sign) every day of the year. They had to be short, insightful and most of all funny. It is not always easy to be funny, but I became good at it and actually enjoyed that job even though it paid nearly nothing. To this day, I credit that job and those strict deadlines with my success.

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

I was a teacher’s assistant for one of my creative writing teachers. This actually showed me that I didn’t want to write books, at least, not right off the bat. He was/is a successful writer and I learned so much from him (especially that I did not yet have the ego to be a published author).

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

““Specialize in some aspect of writing or publishing. Don’t be a generalist.””

Specialize in some aspect of writing or publishing. Don’t be a generalist. Even MBAs think they can write. You need to distinguish yourself and be great, not just good. If you think of yourself as an editor you should know not just Chicago style but also AP and MLA. You should know how to write and maintain a style guide. If you want to be a copywriter you should learn how to write in many voices. Learn more than just one style of writing and if you need to make a living—learn technical writing.  Play with enough technology so you can speak to developers. Finally, learn localization techniques and get good at them. Get fluent in a foreign language. If you want to be an author, live. Get out of your hometown and don’t write about yourself for at least five years.

Please note, some of this advice was given to me when I was in school. Some of it is just stuff I know because I work in online content. But all of it I have found to be true. Don’t take my word for it, wait… do. That is my other advice to you. Be fearless, be arrogant, but make sure you can back it up.

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Sumiko Martinez: Community Outreach Officer

Photo courtesy of Chloe Nguyen of www.chloenguyenphotography.com/

Name: Sumiko Martinez

Age: 30 

College & Majors/Minors: 

• B.A. in English from Westminster College, Salt Lake City
• M.S. in Communication from University of Utah
• Ph.D. (in progress) in Communication from University of Utah

Current Location: Salt Lake City, Utah 

Current Form of Employment: Full-time at a not-for-profit state government agency

Where do you work and what is your current position?

I currently work for the Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority (UHEAA for short) as a Community Outreach Officer. I travel throughout the state, working with high school students and their families as well as counselors and educators, helping people learn how to prepare and pay for college. This job involves a pretty wide variety of duties, such as researching federal student aid policy and regulation, giving public presentations at scholarship nights, working with students one-on-one to file the FAFSA, and producing blogs, videos, and publications to support our mission. 

My other job (the one that takes up all my free time!) is being a Ph.D. student in Communication at the University of Utah. I’m currently working on my prospectus and with any luck will be starting my dissertation research this fall. My research interests are critical rhetoric, rhetorical theory, media and cultural studies, rhetoric of education, critical pedagogy, and U.S. education policy.

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

“I later learned that my performance on the required writing test was what made me stand out as a job candidate.”

I found my first job as an internal trainer with UHEAA by searching through websites and job classifieds for anything that required writing skills. It was pretty serendipitous, actually. I interviewed the week before I graduated, and started working the week afterwards! I later learned that my performance on the required writing test was what made me stand out as a job candidate. 

I did a lot of technical writing and training for student loan servicing in that position, which really allowed me to apply my skills as an English major in an interdisciplinary field. 

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

While I was an undergraduate student, I worked as a writing center consultant for my college. This was the first important writing-related job that I had, because it made me learn that even though writing came somewhat naturally to me, that was not the case for a great many people. I had to reconcile my own assumptions with my clients’ struggles, and compassionately help them through a process that may have seemed daunting, annoying, and/or pointless to them. 

“I learned so much, so fast in this job, but the most important thing I walked away with was that it’s all right to not know everything. Now, if I’m unsure about something, I research the answer for my clients and share what I learn with them.”

There’s one session in particular that stuck with me. I was working with a student who had been referred to the Writing Center by a professor. He particularly needed help with comma splices. Ashamed to admit that I didn’t know what a comma splice was, I inadvertently advised him to put in ANOTHER one! After the session, a colleague pointed out my error, and I was completely embarrassed. I learned so much, so fast in this job, but the most important thing I walked away with was that it’s all right to not know everything. Now, if I’m unsure about something, I research the answer for my clients and share what I learn with them.   

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

In hindsight, I didn’t prepare nearly as much as I should have! I visited my college’s Career Center for advice on job searching and resume writing. If I could give my younger self advice, it would have been to pursue more internships to get a better feel for the type of work I really wanted to do. I would have also told myself to get involved in student clubs or organizations, take on leadership roles, and generally not to be a chicken about networking. (I’d also argue that networking can be called “making friends with other professionals,” which I think sounds much more appealing.)

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

I’m a huge advocate for the humanities, and I know we’ve all heard people disparage our chosen field of study, but take heart! An English degree can benefit you so much. In a society where choice of major is often judged by its perceived utility, studying English teaches you to think above the noise. Learning how to assess sources, frame arguments, and consider an issue from multiple angles are all skills that are necessary not just for the job market, but also for life as an informed citizen. Extend those critical thinking skills that you’ve picked up by studying English, and you’ll find ways to build a meaningful and satisfying life. 

Connect with Sumiko Martinez on LinkedIn, follow her on Twitter and Instagram, and visit her website at SumikoMartinez.com.

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Rachel Grate: Content Marketing Specialist at Eventbrite

Name: Rachel Grate

Age: 22

College & Majors/Minors: English Major, Gender & Women's Studies Minor

Current Location: San Francisco, CA

Current Form of Employment: Content Marketing Specialist at Eventbrite

Where do you work and what is your current position?

I work at Eventbrite, a tech company in San Francisco, as a Content Marketing Specialist. The easiest way to describe my job is that I produce content for event organizers (specifically music organizers — think the people behind your favorite music festival or the owner of your favorite live music venue). The type of content is a lot more diverse than you might expect — I write blog posts and ebooks, but also produce infographics, podcasts, video, quizzes and more. The theory of content marketing is that by producing free content that helps event organizers, they'll later choose us to help them ticket their event. 

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

I'm currently at my first full-time job, which I found by interning at the company before my senior year of college. I liked it so much — and they liked me — that I came back! 

It wasn't quite as easy as that might sound because they didn't have clearance to hire anyone in my role at first. My manager really advocated for me to be able to extend me an offer to come back as a full-time contractor after graduation — which proves how important your network is. (I also contracted for them part-time during my senior year of college, which probably helped me stay top of mind.) A few months after I returned as a contractor, I had proved my value to the company and was converted to a full-time employee.

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

I ultimately decided reporting wasn't for me (I wasn't a fan of the long hours and low pay), but I'm really appreciative of my background in journalism. It started all the way back in high school, on the school newspaper and yearbook. But as an editor in college and through one internship at a newspaper, that experience extended and taught me a lot about writing well, capturing attention, editing others' writing, and meeting deadlines. 

Even though I'm in Marketing professionally now, they're more similar than you may think. (I also still do freelance journalism for a couple different online publications — I just don't like to rely on it for my paycheck.)

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

An easier question might be what didn't I do. At school itself, I worked for the school newspaper as the Life & Style editor, I worked as a writer for the Office of Communications & Marketing, and my senior year I was the Marketing & Communications Intern for our Career Planning office. 

I spoke up in class, and I've had coworkers actually compliment me on my confidence in meetings as a result. And I kept my grades up — recruiters may not care about the GPA number itself, but having "Dean's List" or "Cum Laude" next to your name is a quick way to prove you're a hard worker.

I also had an internship every summer since I graduated high school. Play around in your internships — I worked at a newspaper, a nonprofit, a tech company; I worked in reporting, communications, PR and marketing. It's a great way to find out what career is really right for you.

The first two internships were unpaid, but I learned a lot, got some bylines, and seriously improved my resume — and did babysitting on the side to make money. The next two internships were paid — and I was lucky enough to get an internship at a place I loved so much I came back post-grad.

““If you want to be a writer, you have to know what each writing assignment you take is worth. Early on in your career, that might mean taking on work for free, because the worth is in the education and experience. But once you reach a certain level, be confident in your skill and your own worth, and expect to be compensated accordingly.””

Finally — if you, like me, don't want to deal with a never-ending job search, it's best to get started early. I ended up accepting an offer at the place I interned at before my senior year, but I started applying to other opportunities over winter break. A lot of places won't be willing to wait for you to graduate — but some will. And it's always better to get the conversation started early. One place I applied took two months to respond to me — but they eventually did offer me a role.

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

Don't let the Starbucks barista jokes get you down. I had what are largely considered to be some of the least useful degrees out there (in English and Women's Studies), and I had a job lined up before graduation. But don't get me wrong — it will take work.

If you want to be a writer, you have to know what each writing assignment you take is worth. Early on in your career, that might mean taking on work for free, because the worth is in the education and experience. But once you reach a certain level, be confident in your skill and your own worth, and expect to be compensated accordingly.

You can find me on LinkedIn, Twitter (@RachelSGrate), or check out my content on the Eventbrite blog or HelloGiggles and Mic sites!

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