<\/p>\n
By Trevor Carolan<\/p>\n
Job-wise, graduating with a degree in English can feel like driving toward Deadman\u2019s Curve wearing a blindfold.\u00a0 Financial anxiety adds a zest to living, but hopefully not for too long; so having a basic skill-set to demonstrate your capabilities to employers is essential.<\/p>\n
At our first class, I always tell my Eng 105 students that it\u2019s probably a boring course, but they\u2019ll come away at the end with some quantifiable vocational skills. Specifically, if you can write a good essay you\u2019ll normally have a chance at finding respectable employment.<\/p>\n
Nowadays, every organization needs a writer\u2014someone to get out the newsletter, put out calls and announcements, take care of big email wave-outs, as well as the hard-copy flyers and posters that need organizing. Government agencies, municipal and regional administrations, eco-groups, NGOs, unions, and start-up tech firms\u2014they all need people who can research, file, document, archive, and publicize the work they do. English grads are ideal hires: the process of learning to write and present research papers equips them for communications and clerical work. Presenting class tutorials also gives them basic public speaking skills.<\/p>\n
I tell my students to tidy up their final essays, title and print out clean copies in a clear cover. That\u2019s concrete evidence of their specific abilities if asked \u201cWhat did you learn at UFV?\u201d \u00a0The glamour work in media, public relations, magazine and technical writing still relies on core English outline, research and report-writing skills. \u00a0At interviews add a little gratitude, sincerity and good manners.<\/p>\n
Still looking?\u00a0 Be a joiner\u2014network through community and professional organizations; and volunteer<\/em>. \u00a0Remember, loyalty never goes out of fashion and the world loves a hard worker.<\/p>\n Suddenly you\u2019re a real prospect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Trevor Carolan Job-wise, graduating with a degree in English can feel like driving toward Deadman\u2019s Curve wearing a blindfold.\u00a0 Financial anxiety adds a zest to living, but hopefully not for too long; so having a basic skill-set to demonstrate your capabilities to employers is essential. At our first class, I always tell my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":431,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions\/431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}