Career Prep for English Students

In fall 2022, alum Marley Richmond (BA 2022) stood in front of English majors in an ENGL 3001 “Textual Analysis” class, talking about her new job as Production Editor for Red Line Editorial. “Things I learned as an intern at the University of Minnesota Press and as The Tower Co-Editor in Chief directly led to me getting hired” in her preferred field, the publishing industry, she noted. Take advantage of department experiential learning opportunities, she stressed to the students. 

Richmond’s class visit represents part of a larger Department of English effort to provide further experiences, resources, and language to help students with career readiness. Surveys have consistently shown that business leaders list as top skills for new employees the very critical thinking, communication skills, creativity, problem-solving, and research abilities developed in English literature studies. But internships and job experience have become increasingly essential, along with the ability to frame knowledge and experiences in language that conveys their value.

Galvanized by that hiring reality, as well as the unsettling impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, English has been implementing new initiatives engaging students with career coaches and resources. We are making available more scholarships so students can accept unpaid internships, and continue to lead in offering classes that focus on experiential learning. On the English website and Pillsbury Hall bulletin boards, students can now find examples of potential careers both general (lawyer, strategic communicator) and specific (individual alum career stories). Our instructors are winning awards and grants for integrating career preparation into their courses, whether the class is “Intro to Shakespeare” or “Nature Stories.” 

Career Prep in Class

Alum Richmond’s visit was part of an in-class career preparation intervention piloted by English last year that has since been established as a recommended unit for all ENGL 3001 classes. Organized by English staff, the intervention kicks off with a 15-minute visit by English Coordinator of Advising and Undergraduate Studies Rachel Drake, who situates students in a career preparation timeline, introduces the CLA Career Readiness Guide, and engages them in reflecting on career choices in light of their own interests, values, and personality. A Career Services Career Coach follows up the second week with resources to help students investigate and prepare for different career options. The third week, a recent English alum such as Richmond presents an example of how a peer used those resources and experiences to secure a first job.

Students have responded with enthusiasm. Surveys of the nine participating classes thus far found 79% to 88% of the students strongly agreed or agreed that the information conveyed by the speakers was helpful. One of the instructors went on to offer an optional career prep assignment, which 30 percent of their students chose to complete. As one student wrote: “This was a great experience!”

Connecting Students with Alum Careers

English alums sometimes tell us that they couldn’t have imagined, as a student, the career they now enjoy. And while some students say they are energized by the breadth of careers available to English majors, others feel overwhelmed by choices. Since 2022, English staff have been creating materials that make career options more concrete: 

• a revamped Career Exploration page on the English Undergraduate Studies website that features English alums and their specific careers, with interviews that describe their career pathways. A new promotional sticker (“English Works”) with a URL directs students to the page (one of six fun stickers distributed via classes, events, and mailings); 
• an expanding set of posters up in Pillsbury Hall that highlight common careers out of English and describe how competencies learned in English make them a good fit; 
• a printed brochure, “Pathways in English,” that provides ideas about careers and suggestions on preparing for them.

Let us know if you'd like a brochure or promo stickers to distribute. And update us about your career so we can share your pathway with students!

Experiential Learning & Internships

Given the importance to employers of experience in the field, English is at work increasing funding for internship scholarships, so that all students can afford to engage with often unpaid opportunities. Since 2007, English staff have arranged for exclusive internships for English majors at local presses and arts organizations; all these internships now are accompanied by a $2,000 scholarship. We are adding three exclusive publishing internships for 2024-2025.

Fortunately, the English department is far ahead of most departments in offering experiential learning through our courses—and not just in the classes that produce the Tower and Great River Review literary magazines. In any one semester, up to 100 students enrolled in English courses such as “Nature Stories: Environmental Discourse in Action” and “Literacy and American Cultural Diversity” will venture outside the University to teach English to new immigrants, assist high school students with leadership development, or advocate with environmental groups. 

Lecturer Melissa Licht last spring received CLA’s Career Readiness in Teaching Award for her leadership in teaching, and training others to teach, classes with community-engaged learning components. “Experiential learning assignments, carefully integrated with traditional writing and team-based presentations, form the backbone of my classes’ career readiness platform,” says Licht. “Students need skills in communication, active citizenship, complex problem solving, team building, leadership, creativity, innovation, and engaging diversity in order to be effective in their work—and so that their work makes a positive impact on our shared world.” 

Modeling the Language of Competencies

Professor Katherine Scheil recently spent two semesters as a Career Readiness Teaching Fellow, exploring how a Shakespeare course could also prepare students for careers. She learned that pointing out where students are developing career competencies helps build their skill confidence and models language employers understand. “I’ll say, “Let’s work on your problem-solving and innovation skills. What are some ways you could stage this play today?’” She created a handout that begins, “So how does taking a course in Shakespeare help prepare you for a career?” and describes core competencies the class will develop. 

Career Readiness Teaching Fellows are also challenged to design an assignment to incorporate a competency framework. Scheil designed one around creativity to help students deliberately practice challenging paradigms, taking risks, and employing their knowledge to create original work. Since historical adaptation of Shakespeare is a course topic, Scheil challenges her students to create alternative versions of a scene, character, or setting—or even to imagine a new play combining characters from across Shakespeare’s oeuvre. “My students love this assignment,” she says. 

“Most English faculty already have assignments that align with the skills promoted by the CR program, so it wasn’t a huge shift compared to what I already had in place. And the results have been worth it,” adds Scheil, who has shared her experience with colleagues. “Students see that literary studies is a space they can gain skills to supplement their career and life goals.”

Communicating effectively, thinking critically and creatively, solving complex problems, and collaborating across diverse group settings are competencies that prepare students for an unpredictable future. With those skills and real-world experience, English alums are succeeding in a wide variety of careers, as they’ve shown us. By providing more career preparation resources and opportunities, the English department is working to increase our students’ confidence and success as they navigate that important next stage.