CAREER DESIGN FOR ENGLISH MAJORS
Specialized coaching to launch a meaningful career
Research shows that an English degree is "...the most regretted major in America" when graduates enter the workforce. (Forbes, July 26, 2017)
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Surprise: English majors actually have a lot of value on the job market. They just need specialized strategies to translate their value to employers, and to sort out whether they want to join the 9-5 right away or follow that "road less taken" and focus on creating something of their own--or both.
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Don't follow one-size-fits all career advice that will have you thinking you should settle for a second-class life. After years of hard work and tuition payments, you deserve career coaching that will help you reach your full potential.
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To get started, take the quick quiz and find out which famous English major paved the path that leads toward work that's meaningful to you.
Has everyone in your life turned into a Greek chorus?
It's time to get them singing a different tune
The Plight of the New Grad in English
If you're anything like most new graduates in English, you're:
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Getting dialogue like this from just about everyone you know, right as you could use some encouragement
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Worried that they’re right
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Waking up at night in a cold sweat thinking about paying off your student loans
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Sending off resumes, but not getting the response you're looking for
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Not too confident about those resumes anyway
Maybe everyone is assuming you'll get a corporate job with the biggest salary you can get--but the thought of being trapped in a cubicle all day makes you curl up and die inside. After all, what was the point of studying the transformative power of literature if you can’t go forth into the world and--transform?
You may even be frozen, like a deer in the headlights, overwhelmed by all the options, but not sure how to evaluate them and pick one to get started.
If something doesn’t change, you won’t be going on that big adventure you’ve been dreaming about. You won’t even be able to afford to have drinks with your friends who’ve already landed jobs. You’ll be left out of adulting, stuck living with your parents--or worse. You won’t be able to make your student loan payments, your credit will be ruined, and you’ll never be able to buy that dream home.
You absolutely can use what you’ve learned in school to have an interesting career, make good money, and even go after your creative dreams.
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Take it from C.J. Lee--she was an English major, and she rode that degree to Japan to teach English, to edit Lonely Planet Travel Guides in San Francisco, and to a C-level position at a media start-up that sold to Netflix. She's even freelanced for the Wall Street Journal and been managing editor of a CBS news site.
The truth is, though, when she first graduated from college, she struggled. She graduated during a recession, and didn’t even have the Internet back then to find jobs that were available to new grads, let alone social media to connect with hiring managers.
She was embarrassed to admit that she didn’t really know what she wanted to do, and didn’t know where to begin with job hunting. She wasn't sure what jobs were available that English majors were qualified for, let alone which ones she would enjoy. She applied to a few jobs that seemed plausible and managed to get one interview--only to blow it on the big day because she didn’t do enough research about the company or position.
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Little by little, she figured out a reliable way to determine her focus at each stage of her career. She learned the ins and outs of resumes and interviews. She networked. In fact, she got so into the best practices of careers and management that she ultimately specialized in managing content on that topic, both for online news sites as well as big companies that needed thought leadership and other marketing materials.
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C.J. knows what hiring managers are looking for--she's hired and managed English majors myself, and seen their core competencies and common failings up close. So when she read an article during that pandemic that said English majors were the least satisfied with their degrees of all majors after graduating, she knew she had to help these talented grads get the careers they deserved.
Don't Settle for "Failure to Launch"
Invest in a career coaching package to get your career off to a good start
Career Design for the Real World
Don't settle for cookie-cutter career advice from people who haven't walked in your shoes. C.J. can advise you on what really works for English majors, and help you get directly to meaningful work without the detours she took. She loves nothing more than to empower new grads to not only land on their feet when they jump into their careers, but feel confident that they have a process for determining what's next that will last a lifetime.
In 10 individual one-hour sessions, you'll explore what directions feel good to you, and map out the best path for you to get there. If it involves getting a professional job, you’ll polish up your resume and cover letters, practice interviewing together, and get some applications in.
If you really want to start something of your own, whether it’s a book or a business, you’ll get a plan in place to keep the lights on at home while you take those first steps.
C.J. will be your biggest cheerleader, guiding you and supporting you along the way. If you work well with accountability structures, you’ll add those in. She will not be telling you that English majors can’t do what you want to do, or that you can't have the career and life you want. Her goal is to help you figure out how you can make it happen, and she’ll be digging out the stories of the people who came before you and managed to beat the odds to inspire you.
Last but not least, she will do her absolute best to not only demystify the process of launching your career, but make it fun.
She's in the process of distilling all her know-how into a workshop and online lab, so this may be your only chance for one-on-one customized career coaching with C.J. Lee. Take the quiz below to get started.
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