# 28: How to Prepare for a Great Job in Business as a Humanities Graduate — 3 Simple Steps
Story behind the Passage
Some of you who know me already also know that I am a rebel. I do not accept “no” as an answer if I am convinced that what I want to do makes sense for solving some bigger problem. And when I say “convinced,” this mostly means gut feeling plus a rational reality check with someone else as a sparring partner. This also holds true for my “mission” of bringing more people from the humanities to business to make a difference there. And whenever I have a conversation with someone who either completely denies that there is value in this or who simply does not get the point, it really thrills me and I become even more determined to turn on my rebel model and shift to second gear.
The same thing happened yesterday when I spoke with someone from an independent foundation that supports young scholars in all fields. When I asked her about her experience with specific needs of humanities students and graduates concerning their career perspectives, her answer was:
“Oh, well, I do not actually see that there is a big issue with this, they always get accommodated somewhere.”
O.k., this might sound a bit mean because people who talk to me on the phone now think I always have a tape running to record their words for my blog. This is not my point. The contact there at the foundation is doing a great job and has many years of experience. In addition, she is a humanities graduate with a PhD herself. The reason why I am using this strange formulation “get accommodated” instead of “finding a job” is because we had this conversation in German. And in German, the term people use in 90% of the conversations I have about this is: “unterkommen.” The only translation that comes close to this is to accommodate. If you read my piece on the “Myth of the Professorship as a ‘Calling’’ you already learned about my passion to unveil passive verbs and the potential significance this might have. In the case of “unterkommen” there is a submissive connotation, at least from my perspective. What I mean is this:
Imagine some big corporate like Deutsche Bank, Siemens, or Daimler needs a new CEO. Then a candidate is chosen and makes his first appearance in front of the public audience. There are press reports about this with a quick overview of his CV, his plans for the company, etc. Now, ask yourself one question: Do you really think that the phrase: “He got accommodated as the new CEO who will be responsible for 80,000+ employees” would EVER appear in this kind of announcement?
Yes, exactly, it would NOT!
And why? If you get promoted or land an awesome job with a high reputation and big decision-making impact, it would be totally unintelligible to use a word that evokes feelings of submission, smallness, good luck, even courtesy and pity by those who hire you. Of course, nobody with some common sense about persuasive communication would do this (unless, as we all know, there are tragic career paths in which people get mobbed out of leadership positions and therefore can indeed feel lucky to get a second chance — but that is not the norm that I am addressing here).
Obviously, however, in the case of humanities graduates, there is this tacit assumption that finding any job that puts you on the payroll of some employer (and not social welfare) is a tremendous success. “Unterkommen” seems to be the maximum achievement after studying for many years, reading more books in a semester than students in other fields during their entire course of study, and even writing a book as part of your PhD. Are you fucking serious??? Is this why you work so hard? You want to be “accommodated,” like some hiker in the middle of a thunderstorm who is lucky if he finds accommodation on the floor in some lonely village in the middle of the night — out of luck and pity on behalf of the host?
Alrighty, if you do not want this, then start taking action. The reason why this not only makes sense for your own life but for the economy at large, is given by the example of Steve Jobs in the passage above — and many other teach leaders increasingly share this insight in the value of the tech and arts/humanities combination. Especially the digital age needs humanities graduates more than ever. And when I say “needs” — I mean NEEDS. A need is something that has to be satisfied if damage is to be prevented. So, for the digital economy, this means that humanities graduates should contribute their knowledge and skills in order to advance technological innovation — not just for some nice-to-have support functions.
3 Things to Do for Your Amazing Career Journey
1. Work in a co-working space (cost: starts at 15 EUR per hour, 50–250 EUR per month)
You think co-working spaces are only for these business people, right? The startup folks and hackers that work on computers all the time. No! Everybody can go there and rent a desk for as little as 15 EUR or less for an hour or even several hours. “Everybody” means people who are willing to contribute to the community. Almost every city has several co-working spaces by now. You can choose the one that is right for you with respect to the location, atmosphere, the size of the space, the people, and the offers. And there is no excuse to not go. You can start with just a few hours every week. Is that not something that all of us want and need, especially since our work of reading and writing leads to chronic social isolation? (And be assured I do not know any humanities PhD student who has not complained about this — it has nothing to do with Covid).
When I say “there is no excuse” for not going, this also means that your life circumstances are no excuse. Most co-working spaces offer childcare and playgrounds for (small) children. So, even you have nobody to watch your child, there are solutions. But the best solution for any problem you might be facing today is in the network that you find in a co-working environment. This is the reason why they exist in the first place. They bring together people from different backgrounds who want to avoid sitting at home alone in front of the screen all day and… (You fill the blank). Everything else usually happens automatically. You meet creative people, you discover common interests, you build up new relationships, you start sharing your ideas and your knowledge, you make new friends from all over the world, you go to talks and events offered by the co-working space, you might even give a talk yourself… And the rest happens as life always happens — if you let it happen...
“Yeah, sounds kind of nice, but I can do this at university as well, right? Why would I go there and even pay for it? And, above all, I need a quiet place to work, no distraction, no people…” Is this what is coming up in your mind now? Yes, I am hearing you, but I am sorry, this is bullshit.
First, complaining about social isolation (even if you did not) but then saying you cannot work if there are people around you really is a no brainer which is rooted in a self-destructive behavior pattern. In order to stop this, you need to start acting differently. It is that easy. And the second thing is — and this makes it completely different from the normal university library work space — the people who work in co-working spaces WORK, for Pete’s sake! They also need to get stuff done, just like you, who needs to finish writing an article or a chapter for the dissertation. What will inspire you, however, is that these people very often make a LIVING from their work. So, they are not just hanging out there to have some sophisticated “discourse” on Foucault or Judith Butler. They care about how to turn the world that these and many other thinkers imagine into reality. And if you just get a glimpse of this, it will already equip you with so much motivation and knowledge that both your academic work and your career plans will take off.
How to start?
- Google for co-working spaces in your city, post the question in your social media networks, keep your eyes open in the neighborhood, reserve an hour or day in your calendar as your co-working time
2. Start applying for jobs in business (cost: 0 EUR)
“Hell, no, it is way too early for this, I am just starting my Phd! But maybe later, good idea, I am going to put it down in my notebook.” NOOOOO!!! This is not why I am mentioning this here. My list, as you noticed above, is about stuff you can do right now. And applying for jobs is a wonderful thing to prepare you for your actual applications in the future. What do I mean?
I mean that the actual application and the possible success of such an application is not even the point. The real value for you is in the process. And you already know this process because it is totally common-sensical. If you want to apply for a job, you usually do the following things:
- Find job ads
- Prepare your application
- Go to the interview
How is all that valuable for your future career if you might not even be interested in any specific job now? Well, now the exciting part starts. You might already be used to checking out academic job postings. If you are a bit more advanced, you know exactly what they look like. Since academia is basically a big public agency, there are different classifications of jobs, part- and full-time, teaching or research-focused, area of expertise, bla, bla. What counts for the first look is always the general job category, i.e., scholarship, lecturer, assistant, junior professor, etc. As you are reading this, the typical one page job ad for academics in your field is opening up in your inner eye, right?
Now, let’s think of a job ad for a “Content Marketing” position at a startup that sells 100% recycled phones? What does the ad look like? What is the header? What is the description? Which skills are needed? How much money will you make annually? What are your career perspectives? What is the culture of the company? Which team will you be working with? How many people would you be leading? What is the budget that you would be responsible for? What is the vision that you would like to realize there in the medium term? What is your unique strength that would bring value to the company?
BLANK
Ah, no idea? See, this is why it makes sense to check out job ads right now. Approach it like you approach your research topics. Take a look at random ads and start research on stuff that catches your eye. It is totally o.k. if you have no idea about these ads. It might even be the case that you feel you need a dictionary in order to understand what the positions offered are generally about. That is just fine. Whenever you confront situations like these in which you feel like an alien, these are the situations that get you ahead. They make you learn because they force you out of the comfort zone.
And the same happens with steps second and third. As you prepare your application documents, you will face the challenge of putting together your CV in a different order than in your usual academic application package. And you will also considerably shorten it and highlight your achievements in a different way. All this will require assistance. But guess what? The people who can help you with this for 0 money are the people sitting right next to you in the co-working space (see above)! They might not be experts on the topic either because they are also just beginning their careers but they can give you one thing for sure: their FEEDBACK from their PERSPECTIVE. And then you go from there…
All this might not get you plenty of invitations to actual interviews at the beginning, but who knows? As you can see, this is about practice and market testing. And please do not go like: “Market testing, eeeeh, yackie…brrr.” You know what? What I am describing here is the 100% analogy to what you do when you apply to jobs in academia (where you spend most of your time marketing yourself, by the way…). You learn how to play the game and you learn where you are in the competition. And by repeating that again and again, you get better and you gain confidence. Both aspects pay your tickets to landing a great job when you need it. But, as in sports, it is too late if you start practicing when the tournament starts. I often hear PhD students say: “Oh, I am going to hand in my dissertation in March and then I am going to start looking for jobs….” Well, if you do that, have fun hanging out with all the other humanities folks at the job agency who will also be unemployed for at least six months because they got the timing wrong.
How to start?
- Indeed, Glassdoor, Monster (and so many other online platforms), go to the websites of companies that you find interesting but you do not know what they actually do, bulletins in co-working spaces, sign up for newsletters, so you keep checking jobs regularly and make it a habit once a week or so to study ads and work on cover letters and CVs.
3. Read online business magazines and startup books (cost: 0 EUR-10 EUR)
This is where you can fully unfold your reading and learning potential. My students know what I am talking about! I love startup and founder stories. And I love them exactly because I do not have an MBA. Reading the stories and daily news about the startup scene in your country and the world is like a journey. You start learning about the people that shape this world and the visions that drive them. And above all, you learn about the skills and the knowledge that they applied in order to enjoy their bumpy ride in business and in life.
The reason why I am suggesting startup stories here is simply because startups are the most future-oriented businesses that combine technological expertise with big social visions. And the latter aspect is what usually drives people from the humanities who usually see the BIG PICTURE. The nice thing is that you pick up on key terms of technological development without even noticing it. What is AI really about? What does DevOps mean? What is AGILE coaching and how is it useful for traditional companies?
Again, you will not be reading this stuff in order to become a tech or business expert. That is not the point because, after all, you have studied the humanities for a reason. Your passion is about people, usually, not about things. But learning about these aspects and current technological trends will do two things: 1) You build up general knowledge that is going to be important in the future, also for traditional organizations in all sectors and industries, including NGOs. 2) You become more confident because this feeling of alienation will be gone as soon as you get the hang of the business world.
Just remember how you felt when you started your studies in the humanities. There were probably courses in the curriculum with titles that told you exactly 0. You had no clue what they would even be about. But bit by bit, as you proceeded, the picture got clearer and you were not scared of unknown terms or concepts. You even learned where to roughly situate these concepts in your mind and in the bigger context of the country you studied or the theoretical landscape that you focused on. And this is the major value of reading these stories — be it in books, online blogs, magazines, or wherever. It is like learning about a new culture based on exciting stories about inspiring game changers.
How to start?
- Magazines: e.g., T3n, Berlin Valley (German), Fast Company, Wired, TechCrunch
- Books: e.g., The Airbnb Story, Delivering Happiness (Zappos), Dear Female Founder (Lu Li) -> and check the book shelf of your co-working space
One Last Word …
Of course, all these practical steps above do not guarantee that you will land your dream job. That is not even my point. Since I am a rebel fighting to get more wonderful and smart humanities students into positions that MATTER because they make a difference in the world, my simple goal is to make you DREAM in the first place. You cannot land your dream job if you do not have a dream — that is easy to understand, right? It does not even take a B.A. to understand that. But be honest to yourself for a second: Is that not something that people like “us” have unlearned already? Is your biggest career goal “unterkommen”?
If not, start with these three baby steps above and simply let life take you by the hand. Steve Jobs would have loved the idea, I bet. He might not have been an angel as far as his human leadership skills were concerned. But for sure, he appreciated the value of the humanities for technological innovation.
“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” — “Think Different” commercial (1997)
Homework
1) Find one person among your friends/family members who has a business job that you have no clue about. Send him/her a message right now and ask him for a 30-minute call in which you simply interview him/her about daily work tasks, what he/she likes about the job, how he/she ended up in that position….
2) Search on one of the job platforms above and just enter job titles or companies that you find interesting and/or that you often encounter but have no detailed idea about.
3) If you catch yourself struggling in this very moment because you have already “wasted” time by reading this article and now you are tempted to lose the day in procrastination mode while skimming job ads — just find an open slot in your calendar within the next 24 hours to do the homework assignments.