Welcome to this week’s Scrippsie Spotlight with Rochelle Bailis, an English Major turned Tech/Startup Writer and Content Producer (read on to find out why she got to pet a tiger!)

SCRIPPS PROFESSIONALS NETWORK: So how did an English Major end up falling into the startup world?

ROCHELLE BAILIS: First of all, as someone with a liberal arts degree, let me confirm your biggest fear: it’s unfortunately true that unless you have a desirable degree or a personal connection, most companies won’t hire you without at least some experience. And yet because nobody will hire you, it’s impossible to get said experience—Catch 22, anyone?

I spent awhile teaching in Thailand before searching for a job in the US, but even when I returned I was still unsure the direction I wanted to take my career, but I knew I wanted it to be involved in something exciting, creative and cutting-edge. I had a really hard time finding a job, so I moved back in with my dad and started interning for free at several; different companies as a miscellaneous content/communications/marketing/blogging intern.

The one I immediately fell in love with was the startup. It was small (about 6 of us), it was rough around the edges (a tiny office in Santa Monica packed with over-heated servers and Ikea furniture) and it was totally exhilarating. We busted our asses to get celebrity partnerships, I met a lot of smart people at tech mixers who were also starting their own companies and I learned a ton about how the startup world actually worked.

I was enthralled with the level of energy and commitment that the people in the startup space demonstrated on a daily basis. There were people my age with their own companies, some who’d even sold a company already—crazy! It was inspiring to be surrounded by people fresh out of college who were accomplishing things on their own accord, rather than just “working their way up the food chain” like in other industries.

SPN:  What was the most difficult part of working for the startup?

ROCHELLE: After interning exclusively for the startup company, I reached a point six months in where I felt I should ask for compensation. They agreed to pay me a small hourly wage, three days a week (although I honestly worked outside of those days), which helped with paying my college loans but not too much else. It sounds crazy, but I took what I could get at the time. I didn’t have enough experience to get hired for a job I wanted yet, and I really did believe in this company’s mission.

Once I started nearing the end of my first year, I decided to ask for equity. If I was going to continue working for so little compensation, I needed something as a sign of good faith. For anyone going into the startup space who is not a developer, asking for compensation is extremely nerve-racking. It’s easy to feel like you have little to no value to a company if you’re not part of the tech team.

But here’s the other thing with startups, if they want to keep you, you will know. Once you’ve proven your worth, they will make concessions, they will give you equity, they will teach you something valuable, they will provide you with good connections or they will pay what they can afford to keep you. It’s essential that you take some time proving yourself, learning from your mistakes and approaching each day with an eagerness to work hard. But once you have become an asset, don’t be afraid to ask for something. Equity doesn’t cost the founders anything, and honestly it’s unlikely to be worth anything significant unless you’re really lucky, so accepting it as compensation is a risk on your part as well.

When the founder put off my inquiry long enough, I decided to start applying elsewhere. Once I had that year of experience under my belt, I finally started hearing back from people about entry level positions at other websites. I don’t regret my year of interning at all, it was the springboard that brought me into my first paid position at Docstoc.

Docstoc is an electronic document repository and online store, aimed at providing professional, financial and legal documents for the business community that was recently acquired by Intuit.

SPN: Tell me more about your work for Docstoc.

ROCHELLE: I started as an Assistant Content Manager at Docstoc, where I helped the Content Manager and the Head of Content. I did a lot of data entry, creating video pages, categorizing legal documents… not always the most thrilling stuff.

But I also got the opportunity to keep writing. I asked if I could revitalize the Docstoc blog, then if I could start writing some of their business articles. One of the designers heard that I liked to write, and he asked me to handle some of their ad writing for Google AdWords campaigns. The CEO read one of my articles, and asked for my help writing his next article for Forbes.

Things snowballed, and I became the go-to writer at Docstoc over the course of a year and a half. When I was almost two years into my job, the two managers above me left to pursue their own endeavors. Suddenly, I was the senior person in the Content team. This is how things go in startups; change happens quickly, and you become a leader due to sheer opportunity. You are ready for a challenge because you have to be—it’s that simple!

Intuit Inc. is an American software company that develops financial and tax preparation software and related services for small businesses, accountants and individuals.

SPN: What was it like to have Docstoc be acquired by a major corporation like Intuit?

ROCHELLE: Honestly, sometimes acquisitions can suck. Sometimes they lay half the team off or force you to change locations, and the startup magic evaporates. So far Intuit has been great about preserving the integrity of our “startup” feel by letting us keep our office and all of our employees. I truly love the small company vibe, so that was pretty important to me.

SPN: What do you do for Intuit now?

ROCHELLE: I’m now a Managing Editor & Content Producer at Intuit. I manage about 10 freelance writers, my in-house Assistant Editor and a designer. I also help plan overall content strategy, and am figuring out how we can scale our content production for Intuit without sacrificing quality. Overall, I really love my job.

SPN: Tell me about the you before startups, what was your life at Scripps like?

ROCHELLE: My Scripps experience was, like many young women’s, very enriching. Small classes, engaged professors, intelligent women and a deeply collaborative atmosphere that supported critical and creative thinking—what more could anyone ask of a college experience?

Unlike some of my fellow graduates, who were depressed about college coming to a close, by the time graduation rolled around I was eager to broaden my world. I encourage everyone who is facing graduation to embrace this closing period as a new beginning. Now is your time to harness what you have learned and channel it towards a career, a graduate program, travels or any other personal journey that interests you.

I know, finding a job is stressful. Trust me, I graduated in 2009, during the grand finale of the economic recession. And I’ll be honest, the first year or two of dealing with college loans, making rent and paying bills was tough. I loathed stressing about about money and constantly being asked what I was going to do with my life. But those couple years also also made me a stronger, grittier person. Taking what I’ve learned and channeling it into building my own wealth, creating my own home, helping people and building a career just feels awesome.

SPN: You mentioned you taught in Thailand before searching for a job in the US?

ROCHELLE: After college I had no clue what I wanted to “do” in the long-term, but I knew I wanted to travel. So I applied through a teaching program called CIEE, packed my bags and flew to Thailand, where I spent a little over a year working and wandering all over Southeast Asia. In the course of my stay I traveled to Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, China, Hong Kong, Macau and of course Thailand, and blogged about my travels the whole time. I lived on a shoestring budget, but was able to pay my way through the entire thing through my teacher’s salary.

I honestly, cannot stress this enough, if you feel the itch to travel after school, do not ignore that itch. As time goes on, it will only get harder to get up and go. You will get a job, a significant other, a dog, a cat, a new car, nice furniture or some other roots that hold you where you are. If you have the money, use it. If you don’t, get a job abroad and be scrappy. I have never once regretted my trip, but have met people who told me wistfully that they wish they’d done something similar. You won’t believe how many 27 year-olds will say things like “it’s too late for me now”—it’s not true! But it is definitely harder.

SPN: Do you have any advice for current Scrippsies wanting to work in tech, but not necessarily programming or engineering?

ROCHELLE: Unless you have an “in,” breaking into tech can be a little challenging at first. But don’t let that discourage you. The reality is that intelligent, fast-learning and creative people are an asset to startups, they just need to find you.

My English major was not the death sentence as I suspected, but instead gave me a significant advantage once I was hired. There are many people who can write, but there very few excellent writers and communicators out there, especially in tech. The ability to distill ideas so that anybody can understand them is a rare and valuable skill. Once I had the chance to showcase my abilities, they were quickly noticed and leveraged.

I’ve already mentioned a few of my pieces of advice in my answers above, but let me see if I can offer some tips for those looking to get their foot in the door:

• Become tech-savvier every day. Learn Photoshop and Illustrator. Take an online course on copywriting. Brush up basic HTML. Get better at Excel. Get more active on social media. Play around with WordPress. Learn FinalCut Pro. Start a blog. Read a book on online marketing. Each one of these makes your resume look better, and will most likely become valuable at some point down the line.
• Keep posted on the tech scene, even if it’s just reading TechCrunch once a week or listening to tech podcasts while folding your laundry.
• Make friends with the 5C students who are also into technology. It helps to build lasting friendships with people who will understand career path and industry. Your 5C friends will be your greatest tech allies, sources of advice and possibly even connections for a job one day. Just trust me… it will really, really help.
• Don’t just decide you “are interested in tech” and dive right in. Find companies you actually like, and positions you can actually imagine yourself doing. You probably won’t get that dream job or work for that ideal company right of the bat, but it gives you a goal to work towards. You goals might even change, but without picking a direction you won’t get anywhere.
• If you’re really not sure what direction you want to take, then intern at a tech company (or two!) and get your hands dirty until you find something that speaks to you. Interning is also a great way to prove yourself. Either the company you’re interning for will hire you, or you will gain enough experience to beef up your resume and get a solid reference.
• Connect with people who work in tech and ask them if you can buy them a cup of coffee and learn about their career. People love talking about themselves. This is great for so many reasons. Maybe you will like the path they’ve taken and be inspired for your own career direction. Maybe they will be able to connect you to another person in their LinkedIn circle one day. Maybe they will refer you for a job, or you will even get them a job years from now. You really never know. But those connections you made for the heck of it sometimes end up being the most valuable in an unknown future circumstance.

Finally, be curious, be kind, be open to criticism, but also be brave. Startups in particular favor boldness. They want people who provide different perspectives and who aren’t afraid to disagree (when they have evidence or metrics to back it up, of course).

Be prepared to negotiate for your salary, for your title or for anything else you want, and to prove that you deserve it. You will succeed without negotiating, but your co-workers will be paid more and be promoted more often because they took initiative when you didn’t.

Women are a minority in tech, but things are changing rapidly. The vast majority of men I work with are eager to see me succeed and often encourage me to be even more bold. It’s on you to prove your worth, to learn, to optimize and to be valuable to your business.