Post 162: Navigating the Job Market with an English Degree

It has been some time now since I graduated from University. And I have entered those years where applying for jobs is sort of awkward, because you might have both too much and not enough experience for the jobs you are looking for, assuming you don't just dive into minimum wage retail positions (that even for entry level still often asks for 6 months or even a year of experience). 

I have worked in lots of different jobs, though they probably aren't as diverse as the Job Titles would make them seem. They all boil down to some sort of personable attitude (either with coworkers or customers), tech skills of a basic to moderate level, and daily Spam emails.

I have to say, looking back, I may never have really loved any of them (I mean, obviously or I'd likely still be there) but I don't think I really disliked any of them. It was generally not even that I wholly liked or was ambivalent about any particular job. It was just a varied extravaganza of pros and cons. 

None of which is relevant to today's topic, which is basically "I have an English degree, now what?"

Well, there are lots of ways to go with an English degree, but today's main focus is going to be writing jobs that would be classified as weird or obscure that you might not even know about, like Fortune Cookie Writers. 

Fortune Cookie Writers:

I'm going to be honest, I never really thought about who was writing the messages that turned up in my fortune cookies. There are post generators and content generators galore out there, so I think I always just assumed that is where they came from and that is why they are often random. I think the strangest one that I can recall was something along the lines of "May a bird nest in the tree of your heart" or something like that. It seems very poetic, but also pretty weird to me. 

But it is a job, a writing job, with the potential of being pretty entertaining. 

Website Content Writers:

Do you know who aren't writers? Engineers and scientists. Now, not all of them struggle with writing. But most that I know struggle with writing in a way that is interesting or comprehensible to non-STEM scholars. So, they often pay writers to write or re-write content for them. Technical writers are given reports and help, essentially, translate them into a more everyday level. But, as we further delve into this digital age, more of these non-writing types are starting websites to explain what they do and why. 

For example, these quotes taken from a website about colors and psychology:
"When red is placed on a black background, it glows with an otherworldly fire."
"Could mellow yellow be the color of insanity?"

Now does that say writerly or what?

Ghost Writers:

There are a lot of celebrities out there that have "written" autobiographies. And by that I mean, there are a lot of celebrities that shared their life story with writers who then turned them into autobiographies. But the thing is, ghostwriters get 0 credit. As in nada, zip, nothing. 

By definition, it sounds like plagiarism. Hiring someone to write something, so you can sign your name on it and get the credit? Sounds sketchy. But its actually very common. And if what my one and only ghostwriter friend says is true, it pays better because you are signing away credit. 

Now my lovely dears, it seems as though I have run out of time to keep going. But those three strange but English major appropriate jobs will hopefully at least inspire you to check your options.