In the realm of job searching upon graduation, newly-grads tend to have several options for their early career choices. The moment of self-reflection plays a crucial part while determining what sort of path to take. Other than that, accumulated past experiences take a significant portion to direct graduates to land their first job.
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A few months ago, I happened to have conversations virtually about career aspirations and life after graduation with friends of mine who are heading their third and final year of college and one person who just graduated. Most of them are studying English in different Indonesian universities. I intended to know how they thought about the career choice nowadays, and I was pretty surprised with my friends’ various and exciting answers that brought me to come up with this post.
In the beginning of the conversation, I would always ask some questions like, “What will you do with your English degree?”, “How’s your internship search experience by attaching your credentials so far?” or “What do you aspire to be?” We all agreed that talking about the future seemed so exciting, but it quite often got us the feeling of insecurity, doubt, or nerves. However, we agreed that recognizing the strength and weaknesses within ourselves could be a good starting point to lessen the anxiety of deciding what we want to do in our future careers.
After several minutes of conversation, I realized that each of my friends had various opinions about their aspirations, and they also explained the reasons they wanted to pursue them. One of my friends said although some typical roles such as translator, interpreter, content writer, tour guide, teacher, or whatever closely associated with an English degree holder will always be in demand, the job market nowadays enabled students majoring in English to choose outside the traditional ones.
I learned from my conversations with my friends on google meets that final year students might have different options of career choices because they had many interests in several fields. Also, the extracurricular activities and internships could influence their consideration of a career, so their previous experiences could validate what they wanted to achieve in the future.
In the following paragraphs, I wrap up our conversations, particularly into five job fields that students or graduates of the English language program might think of pursuing. Note that, these jobs might require certain requirements and additional portfolios to get in. It could be different from one company to the others. However, from what my friends and I have researched, these job fields are usually open for all degrees.
- Digital Marketing
One of my friends once said he wanted to blast off his first career for being a digital marketer after signing up for a mentoring program. He was inspired by his mentor, who has been diving into the digital marketing area for over three years. “It was interesting to learn about how a business goes online and introduces its product and service to a wider audience by leveraging digital marketing,” he added. For those of you who are still unfamiliar with this field, let me walk you through a bit of the digital marketing world. According to HubSpot, Digital marketing is a promotion effort through some digital channels such as search engines, social media, email, websites, and apps. Digital marketing is suitable for people who are keen on creativity and analytical thinking. People with this profession develop campaigns for various company objectives. English major teaches us to communicate and write effectively. It will resonate with the purpose of digital marketing since the field requires someone who can connect the business with the right target audience.
- Business Development
I remembered a friend who has graduated last year shared her story of landing her first job in a startup company before graduation. She mentioned when the HR manager interviewed her, the manager really liked my friend because she possessed a good quality for being a business developer. Awesome, right? Then she told me the manager mentioned her previous experiences in handling partnerships in an organization plus her good English communication skills are perfect matches for the position. The company hired her!
- UX Writing
If you are new to this occupation, you are not alone! I was first introduced by my friend who was interned in a startup company about UX writing. So, what’s UX writing, and why is it suitable for an English degree student? UX Writing is the practice of crafting copy that guides users of a product or service to help them interact with it. The aim is to settle communication between the users and digital products. My friend said UX writing is suitable for English language students or graduates because being a UX writer needs some key skills for writing effectively. Many courses that have been studied in classes might help English students to blast off their careers in the field!
- Consulting
Personally, I came across the word “consulting” in the beginning of my third year. Consulting is one of the roles you would find at management consulting firms such as Bain, McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), or Accenture. Consulting firms help other organizations improve their performance in different areas like accounting, business operations, regulatory compliance, and human resource management. One of my friends who graduated three years ago and landed her job in consulting firm said being a consultant is expected to interact with clients and stay on top of communication throughout their projects. She also mentioned several traits that an English degree has possessed through in-class learning. They are clear communication, the ability to identify problems through deep analysis -whether through writing, in a discussion setting-, and the ability to conduct research.
From those chit chat, I realized that so many opportunities for English students and graduates out there. For those of you who are in the middle of internship and job searching, Best of luck! And do not forget to do self-reflection of what you want to do in the future!