After I graduated in December 2009, I left the English department still hungry for more classes, but my time had come and I embraced it. I took that enthusiasm for learning and thrust myself into finding a job that would enable me to keep using my English degree. I knew I wanted to write, and my whimsical dream of being a real writer who wrote books and stories and movies (a dream I still have…) was in the back of my mind, so I privately incorporated that into my job search.
I decided that I needed to polish and expand my writing, and that would mean writing in a way I wasn’t used to. I looked into journalism.
I bought a book called “From B.A. to Payday,” and I found it incredibly useful. I followed the suggestions for the cover letters, for the resumes, for the interviews—all which urged that with my English degree and little relevant work experience, I was to sell my skills.
After a few interviews and a discouraging drought with no call-backs, I kept after this one newspaper that I felt was really promising after the interview. I strategically ‘harrassed’ them, so to speak; I had interviewed with two gentlemen, and I alternated between emailing one the first week, calling the other the second week, calling the first the next week, emailing the second the next week, and repeated the cycle until finally—they agreed to interview me a second time.
I got the job.
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