In the beginning of his book, You Can Do Anything, George Anders tells the story of Josh Sucher, a college graduate who had no idea how to find a job. The chapter is titled, “Explorers,” it follows Josh Sucher, and highlights the values and intricacies of a liberal arts degree. Like most students with a liberal arts degree, Josh Sucher creates his own path, winding and networking from one field to another. From the outside, it may seem like a liberal arts major wanders mindlessly from job to job, testing out one field and then moving onto the next. But in reality, the unrestricted journey of shape-shifting in professional environments is inherently part of the career for those that hold a liberal arts degree, especially English.
Many English majors define themselves as curious people. In many ways, curiosity is the driving force that propels the English major forward. What unites the liberal arts degree holders is the avant-garde spirit that yearns to learn, experience, and know more. George Anders begs you to “come at your career with a pioneering spirit, and gain the confidence of steadily building up your strengths.” We can all learn from his story about Josh and let curiosity continue to “tug [us] in unpredictable ways.”
Just as Anders portrays, an English graduate from The College of Charleston, Jared Shapiro, encounters an almost identical experience. When he frist started at College of Charleston, he encountered a sort of identity crisis because he didn’t know what direction his life was headed. He was advised by his older brother to “go the practical route” and study math and business. For three weeks of his sophomore year, Shapiro was a business major and switched out right before the window closed because he just didn’t like it. He knew that he always had a love for English so with the help of awesome professors like Mike Duvall, he was able to seize opportunities through the English department.
With the driving forces of curiosity and a desire to experience more, after graduating from CofC, Shapiro applied to join the Peace Corps. He was determined to utilize both of his majors, English and French. When he was accepted into the Peace Corps, he was sent over to Togo, a Francophone West African nation neighboring Ghana. There, Shapiro taught English to French-speaking students. He enjoyed the incredible experience but knew it woud not last forever.
When Shapiro came back to the United States after one year of working in Togo, he moved to Washington DC. Here, he was an Account Executive at Qorvis, a global advisory firm with based in Middle Eastern countries. The company “navigates the headwinds of a rapidly changing stakeholder economy and anticipates what’s next in the increasingly volatile geopolitical landscape.”
After Shapiro joined the Peace Corps, his goals were “very short term.” He says that his plan was to “make as much money for as little stress as possible.” This was absolutely not the case for him, unfortunately. As you can probably tell from the Qorvis’ company description, it is certainly a high-stakes professional environment. Shapiro described it as a “pressure cooker.” Quickly, he saw the repercussions of working in high pressure organization doing crisis and global issues work. Although this work was highly demanding of him, he says the “benefits of the pressure cooker sometimes outweigh the stress.”
Shapiro stayed at Qorvis for two years and three months, working his way up to Account Supervisor. He engaged with federal agencies, congress, and the media. Shapiro says he never saw himself as someone who would work in communications or public relations, but
“my English major was super useful. My ability to synthesize complicated arguments into something that was understandable came naturally after all of the things we did in English.”
After Qorvis, Shapiro moves to a large pharmaceutical company called Syneos. Interestingly he was recruited through LinkedIn. Shapiro stresses the value of networking through LinkedIn– he was actually recruited by Syneos and quickly got the job there. Here, he starts as an Account Supervisor doing writing and research. After about a year of working there, he took a promotion to an Account Director doing management and overseeing the communications for the company. Shapiro discusses how significant role changes in your career is not something you necessarily learn as an English major, or in college, for that matter.
But, after speaking with him, I am inclined to believe that adaptability and versatility are the defining skills of an English major.
After conversing with him, my biggest takeaway was how he stressed that you learn from the companies you work for, as you go.
Like Josh Sucher from George Ander’s You Can Do Anything, Jared Shapiro is the ultimate explorer. He has the skillset and abilities to shape-shift and adapt based on the professional environment he is in. Interestingly, he never thought he would end up working in a corporate environment. In many ways he still sees himself as a grungy, gritty, college kid who is still creating his professional career path.