Category Archives: Ann

Declared!

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For awhile now, one item has stayed a constant on my to-do list: “declare major.”

Ever since I can remember (so apparently since I first learned what college was, how majors worked, and what options there were for majors), I have wanted to major in English. For awhile in high school, I’d go through my “double major phases.” For instance, after I got back from studying abroad in France, I was definitely going to double major in English and French. And then I went through an American history phase, and I wanted to double major in English and History. And then English and American Studies. And then English and Religious Studies. ..You can probably continue the pattern yourself.

When I actually got to Scripps last year and started fulfilling my general requirements, I realized that the one constant in my academic life has been my desire to be an English major and that I’m not really equally passionate about one other subject enough to double major in anything. Once I had this realization, I have been quite content with my decision to have one major, and to have it be English. (I’m apparently the exception to the general rule that you will change your intended major before you graduate.)

Since this decision was firmly made, in my head at least, I decided that I might as well declare now rather than later and just get that paperwork out of the way.

Last week, I finally filled in my forms, talking to my British Literature professor Matz to request him to be my advisor, and turned all into the Registrar’s Office, which as far as I can tell means I’m officially an English major.

One decision I made while looking over the requirements for the major again is to pursue the Honors program. I do like challenging myself, but I mainly want to try for Honors because it is recommended for those students interested in going to graduate school, which I think is a definite possibility for me. I kind of see it as a “why not?” option; I’m only majoring in one subject, with no minor, so I do have the time to devote to my English studies. I talked it over with my advisor, and he does think it is a strong possibility for me.

Although one’s major often has nothing to do with their future career, whether intentionally or accidentally, for me it is very much the first step towards my life after school.

My love for English has a direct correlation to the careers I’m interested in, because those careers are basically defined as anything that has to do with literature (book criticism, publishing, anything that involved writing, etc.). I see my major as a way of building a solid foundation for my future internships and jobs, while also having the option of electives so that I can concentrate a bit more in the specific areas I’m interested in. This major can supplement that “self-education” I spoke about in one my earlier posts (or vice versa, I suppose: my self-education supplementing my major)—for instance, how could one successfully judge a book through a review without a basic knowledge of literary history, “classics,” and other writers?

“Write… A LOT”

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One thing I love about all the writing experience I’m forcing myself to have during college (kind of—I enjoy it!) is that it works. I love looking back on past articles I’ve written for any of the various publications I write for, and identifying the ways I’ve improved.

The book critic I was recently corresponding with told me that, if I’m not already, I should write for the school newspaper because he knows that he gained invaluable experience by doing so. I still remember the Turf Dinner freshmen year, when I raced around the tables, only searching out the stand for The Student Life. I hadn’t written for a newspaper before, and was anxious to start gaining experience.

One place at which I have really noticed this is in my internship at the Public Relations Office this semester. I had been used to writing longer pieces, about 700-900 words, composed of longer paragraphs and less quotes (since most of my articles for the newspaper and the magazine have been reviews or summaries of events, not interviews). The first rough draft of an article I wrote for Public Relations followed this pattern—I simply couldn’t figure out how to make it shorter.

Before long though, by looking at the edited copies I was given back and studying the current feature articles on the website written by others, I learned how to adopt a similar style. It’s fun to look at the information the interviewees give me, draw out the suitable quotes that move the story forward, and also highlight or tie back to an aspect of Scripps College that we want to present. Of course, I have lots of work ahead of me but it sounds like I will be able to continue the internship next semester, too, also concentrating on producing articles for the Scripps website.

For my personal blog, I try to write my posts more like stories; for this blog I usually have the same idea in mind but tend to be even more casual since the topic is always more personal. For the newspaper, it depends on the article itself.

Over the summer, I tried my hand at more creative writing, working on short stories that I’ve always had in the back of my mind. This month is National Novel-Writing Month, and I hope to challenge myself in order to gain even more creative writing experience. (And also hope to blog about it, so that the few people following me can help keep me on track!) I love the idea of being a versatile writer, and for anyone who hopes to have a career focused on writing, I suppose this is necessary since it’s not the easiest path on which to have a narrow focus.

I had mentioned in a previous post that often people with aspirations like mine tend to get the same advice over and over (which, of course, just shows how important it is to take this advice): read a lot. However, we also get another piece of advice just as often: write a lot.

Sometimes, all this writing seems to get tedious, but then I look back over the improvement I’ve made, or have an especially enjoyable day writing a piece I find particularly interesting, fun, or challenging, and it is all worthwhile. Today was one of those days, and I feel excited for the future writing experience and related jobs I will have, for the words I will one day create, and the experiences that will go along with them.

Receiving Advice, Applying it to My Life

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“Read a lot.”

“Write a lot.”

When approaching other writers, book critics, journalists, or like people with questions about what I can do now to help myself succeed in a similar career later, these two statements are the most commonly-given advice.

I actually feel very fortunate in the number of people I have been able to speak to so far in my quest to network and gather advice. One of my biggest assets has been the internet—I never thought of this when I first started my own personal blog, but if you mention another writer or blogger who you admire, sometimes they do come across that post. It has only happened to me a couple of times, but I was always thrilled to see such a comment, since taking the time to write a post about someone—quoting an article they wrote, etc.—always makes them something of a mini-hero in my mind.

Going to Scripps has been wonderful as far as getting career advice goes. A couple of weeks ago, I attended a talk by Lorin Stein, who is the editor of The Paris Review. Of course, the talk was not about how to one day have a job like his; rather it was about the history of The Paris Review and a little bit about reading in the electronic age we are in, but I loved it.

After the talk, I went up to the front of the room to buy my copy of the literary magazine, and I asked him if he had any advice for someone who wants to go into book criticism, or for someone who would want to work at a literary magazine, be an editor, etc. I got the usual answer: “Read a lot.” (I try!) and then he also mentioned that I should get an internship at such a place—“The Paris Review has internships…” (I checked—you must be at least a junior in college…)

I realized later that I read a blog post Lorin Stein wrote for the National Book Critics Circle’s blog, Critical Mass, over the summer and had even jotted down the titles of some of the books he had mentioned.

One piece of advice that sticks out in my head—that was not even given to me, but rather something I overheard a writer telling another Scripps students—I heard last year, at a Career Planning & Resources event. Sometime last spring semester, CP&R brought to campus three or four Scripps alumnae who are now writers in various ways: some journalists, a novelist, a nonfiction writer. Of course, I attended, and I loved it.

One student was not able to stay for the talk, so she was speaking with the women quickly before the event actually started. She asked one alumna, “What would you say is the number one thing you did in college that has helped you become a writer?”

The writer smiled. She replied, “Have as many experiences as possible.”

You can’t write if you have nothing to write about, or against which to base your ideas. I often think of this piece of advice, seeing as it kind of goes against the statement I hear the most: “Read as much as possible.” I would say the difference is the former is for those who want to become writers, while the latter is for those who want to write about or edit literature. However, most writers also tell wannabe-writers to read as much as possible, so I suppose one has to find a balance between the two.

I think back to that CP&R event, and that writer, often. Am I getting enough experiences? (It’s hard when you don’t have a lot of money or a mode of transportation.) Also, am I reading and writing enough?

Even if I grapple with the advice given, I value the few minutes given to speak with writers and editors; there is nothing I love more than picking the brain of my heroes, and my heroes are basically anyone who is successfully doing what I want to do with my life. (Especially Scripps alumnae!)

Linking In!

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Because of recent networking that resulted from some unintentional name-dropping on a different blog post (oh, the glory of the internet!), it was recently recommended to me by Valinda Lee of Career Planning & Resources that it was time to set up my very own LinkedIn account.

Of course, I have had this idea in the back of my head ever since last year, when a very business-minded friend of mine suggested the same thing. However, I had never actually gotten around to it, and since the creation of my own personal blog as well as writing for this blog has resulted in me being in contact with a few writers and book critics, I figured it really was about time to take my online-networking one step further.

LinkedIn is very simple to set up. After creating an account with your email address and a password, the website takes you through a variety of steps to establish your network. Primarily, it wants to go through your email contact list. Normally, I hate social networks that try to go through your email contacts, but for LinkedIn this struck me as an excellent idea. I’m able to pick specifically who to request as contacts, which is good because, for example, there are some email addresses for other Scripps student who I barely know, nor relate to me in career interests. I go through the list on contacts (which specifies who is actually on LinkedIn already, and who isn’t), and pick out some of the desired ones: a book critic I’ve communicated with, some Rotarians I know from back home, classmates and Scripps graduates, my dad… I can’t help but worry about LinkedIn etiquette. As a college student, Are there people I should extend invitations to and people I shouldn’t?

Next, I upload my websites, which is really just my personal blog. I also have to put a current position “Public Relations Intern at Scripps College,” which is definitely more impressive than “Barista,” my area of interest as “Writing and Editing,” and region, which I put as “Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area” since I’ll be looking for internships in the Twin Cities, most likely. Plus I don’t have transportation in Los Angeles, anyway.

I check to see my “profile completion” percentage. Only 40%. Hmm. I know I should upload a picture, but unfortunately I always have trouble finding good pictures of myself for things like this. Should I go with my senior portrait, which was professionally taken? Why don’t I have any decent headshots of myself? I go through photographs from this past summer, and finally find a decent one to crop. Maybe it is obviously nothing professional, but I look good and you see my face.

After uploading a picture (and watching as my “connections” slowly increase from one to three), I move on to the “Summary” and the “Specialties,” which prove to be yet another perplexing challenge. Essentially, this seems to be the part where I re-write my resume into… a box. I hesitate at “Specialties.” Do I have any specialties yet? You’d think writing could be one, especially looking at my writing-intensive resume, but I personally feel like there is still lots of improvement. I know I’m a fast learner—is that a specialty? I leave the area blank for now.

Unfortunately, my profile is apparently still only 50% complete. I fiddle around some more, adding my cell phone number, some more work positions besides my internship, add “journalism” to my interests, and specify that I’m looking for career opportunities.

LinkedIn is very involved, and I keep wondering what I should bother including and what I shouldn’t, since it gets a bit repetitive. My school “activities and societies” happen to be the same as my positions, which also happen to all be included in the summary of my experience—how many times do people really want to read about how I’m a writer for The Student Life? It’s getting a little tedious, but the professional in me doesn’t want to leave my page only half-done. Still, as my connections have increased slightly to five, I end this blog post  feeling that much more accomplished, and one step closer to gaining the connections I would love to have.

The Constant Horrors of Resume Tailoring

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Resumes are so much more complicated than I ever imagined them to be.

When I was applying for the Public Relations internship I just got, I was faced with the daunting task of cutting down my resume. A task which leads to many stressful questions.

I have my “master resume” which basically means that it includes absolutely everything I could ever want on a resume, and does not have to conform to the one-page limit. When applying for jobs or internships, I copy and paste this onto a new Word document, and begin cutting out those experiences that are not as applicable to job to which I’m applying until I do get to this much-desired one-page summary of my past experiences.

Generally, however, even this “master resume” is very much tailored to writing and blogging and editorial journalism. Faced with the Public Relations application—and an ever-growing resume—I felt more uncertain about what to delete, what to keep, and how to phrase things.

(Can I really just change the “WRITING EXPERIENCE” title to “PUBLIC RELATIONS EXPERIENCE?” What is Public Relations, anyway? It involves writing, doesn’t it? Is writing for the school paper or the magazine better? How long should the description of my responsibilities as editor-in-chief of the magazine really be? Is any of this memorable? Do I have to make my margins smaller yet again?)

I think one of the biggest challenges is knowing how to describe what you did with that job or internship in a way that related to the job you’re applying for. This is actually a challenge I’m still working on—with this Public Relations internship, I looked at most of my current descriptions and simply decided they were good or close enough instead of trying to make any changes in wording. Of course, we’ve already gone over the fact that Public Relations was a little too vague for me to fully know how to address.

I know that when I start applying to other internships for next summer that will probably be more competitive, I will definitely stop in the Career Planning & Resources Office to work on this if I have these questions again!

I’ll leave you with a slightly silly Youtube video I found about tailoring resumes:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef7nvtbdrPg&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]