Career Diversity: Supporting Publishers in Publishing

While earning her doctorate, Julia Musha (PhD '09) began working in publishing, ultimately spending 15 years, she says, in an “accidental second career.” Then she was recruited to be a project consultant for Virtusales Publishing Solutions, the UK-based company behind BiblioSuite software — which helps publishers run their businesses: managing contracts and royalties, tracking production costs and schedules, etc. “The job consists of leading publishers through the process of implementing the software,” says Musha. “We listen to them describe their processes, workflows, and requirements, and together figure out the best way to configure the software to their needs.” No coding skills required! 

What is most fulfilling about your position at Virtusales?

One of my favorite parts of the job is solving problems, whether figuring out the best possible way to get something accomplished for a particular customer's needs, or sussing out what might be causing an unexpected behavior in the software. I also have really great colleagues; there is a general atmosphere of collaboration and collegiality, and I enjoy working for an international company with colleagues based in the UK, Canada, and Germany. 

What has surprised you about the job?

Because this is a new industry for me, there is a lot that is new, but perhaps the most surprising element when I first started had to do with the way we record our work time: for the first time since my temping days I had to fill out a timesheet. I thought this would be oppressive, but in fact the timesheet makes work-life balance possible by drawing a clear line between work time and non-work time. Time spent over the expected 7.5 daily hours can be taken as time off, so instead of the unaccounted seeping away of personal time around the edges (checking work email in the evening, say, or eating lunch at one's desk), there is clarity.

Describe your career path.

My career has been a series of accidents and coincidences. In 2005, procrastinating from dissertation writing, I started reading and posting on a now-defunct online discussion site, where I met the owner of Felony & Mayhem Press, a very small independent publisher of mystery novels. Eventually, this acquaintance led to freelance proofreading work, and then a part-time job that I could do while finishing my dissertation. When I did finally get the PhD, I took one look at the MLA job listing and decided to go full time at Felony & Mayhem. It was a small enough place that titles didn't matter, so I calculated royalties, made corrections to book files, negotiated with printers, hired freelancers, attended conventions, and even handled social media. 

After a while I got antsy and started looking at other, larger publishers. I landed a position at Cambridge University Press, as a production editor in the journals department. Having shifted from trade books to academic journals and from a decision-making position to one with a much more limited scope, I felt somehow both under- and overqualified. After about a year, I was promoted to a team lead position, managing a small group of production editors, which gave me the chance to learn new skills. Coincidentally, we implemented new financial software, another experience that would eventually prove useful though at the time it mostly felt painful. 

My current job is the result of a LinkedIn message from a recruiter who thought that my diverse publishing experiences would be a good fit for a project manager position with Virtusales Publishing Solutions. All the project managers come from publishing, which means we can serve as translators between the customers and our developers. 

What do you wish you had known as a graduate student? What advice would you give PhD students preparing for the job market?

A few years ago I came across an old journal from my graduate school days and was startled to read a sentence to the effect that I couldn't imagine myself working a "regular office job." Academia was all I had really known, so it makes sense I felt that way, but in actuality "regular office jobs" have been great for me. The hiring process, for one thing, is so much faster and looser than the academic job search, plus I like working in teams rather than entirely on my own, as one generally does when writing and researching in the humanities. What I lost, in making the switch, was the classroom: I loved teaching, and I still miss it. But nothing I've learned or done has been lost, including that teaching experience, which now informs how I conduct trainings, a key part of my current job. My advice: 

• you already have the knowledge and skills to make a living outside academia
• talk to everyone, because you never know where a job lead might come from
• most industries feel different on the inside than they look from the outside