Peter Stokes received his Ph.D. in literature in 1996 from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. After a year of teaching at Tufts University, he left academe for a career in the private sector. Since 1998 he's worked for Eduventures.com Inc., a company that provides education companies with analyses of for-profit education and online access to service providers in consulting, research, and investment banking.
As executive vice president of Eduventures, Mr. Stokes oversees the development of the company's Web site and builds partnerships with other education businesses. Here, he talks about job opportunities for Ph.D.'s in the booming for-profit education industry.
Question: Your own background is in the humanities. Was this a natural move for you?
Answer: Well, I don't read Derrida that much anymore, but the analytical skills that I developed as a graduate student are crucial in my job. When I started at Eduventures as the director of research, I discovered that my job was a lot like writing my dissertation. I was building arguments out of data; trying to detect industry-wide trends, rather than social trends; and trying to identify what drove those trends. All the know-how that I acquired as a Ph.D. got used every day. I also discovered that every company needs people who can write and communicate, but, unfortunately, not every talented person in an organization can do those things. I realized that if I could stand up in front of a classroom full of bored 19-year-olds, I could handle any room full of millionaires, no problem.
Question: Why do you recommend that Ph.D.'s consider careers in for-profit education?
Answer: A lot of Ph.D.'s who begin looking at other career paths do so out of a sense of desperation and a willingness in the darker moments to take anything. The for-profit education industry provides these folks with an opportunity not only to continue plowing the terrain they've begun to plow, but to continue to build their skill set and to make a more significant impact on education. There are tremendous job opportunities for talented people in the for-profit education industry, which includes everything from schools, child-care companies, software developers, and textbook publishers to Internet, school-supply, corporate-training, tutoring, and test-prep companies.
Question: What kinds of skills are these companies looking for?
Answer: What these companies want is excitement. They're looking for people who really want to be there and who understand their business. They're especially on the lookout for a new breed of employee who understands the Internet and who understands teaching and the educational opportunities available via the Internet.
Question: But don't you also need technical expertise?
Answer: I think a lot of graduate students undervalue how much contact they've had with technology. They tend to think of themselves as users, but one of the changes that needs to happen in graduate education is for students to see themselves as technology experts of a certain kind. You don't need to know how to take apart a computer to use it well, any more than you need to know how to take apart a car to operate it well. Students need to get away from thinking, "I'm a user of technology," and move more toward thinking, "I'm someone who can implement a technology tool in the classroom."
Question: So, what kinds of jobs are available?
Answer: Content development is probably the most attractive career opportunity for liberal-arts or humanities graduate students. It can mean working with a software publisher to develop educational content or working for an Internet company that helps teachers develop projects for the classroom. It can also mean working for an Internet company to create online educational games for kids. If you're a history Ph.D., for example, there are lots of companies out there trying to produce history content for the classroom. There are also many opportunities for Ph.D.'s in the sciences.
Business development and marketing and sales are things that many humanities Ph.D.'s may feel less equipped to do at first, but those Ph.D.'s who have a business or economics background may find a business-development or marketing-and-sales job an attractive entry point.
There's also a demand for Web developers, Web editors, graphic designers -- folks who manage the ongoing growth of a Web site. If you've built Web sites for your own courses, you could feel at home in a production position.
Question: For those interested in exploring their options, what types of job descriptions and titles should they look for?
Answer: On the content side, content manager is a good one to look for. It's a very grad-student-friendly job, because you're being asked to bridge the gap between the company's content offering and the marketplace. If you understand the online environment and have some experience teaching online, you could quickly and easily become an expert in that area.
On the marketing and sales side, product-marketing manager is a good example. Apex Learning Inc., a company that offers online advanced-placement courses and materials for students, is looking for someone to market its products and services. While some Ph.D.'s may think they know little about marketing and sales, they do know the classroom and how teachers work. They know about the sales experience from the teacher's perspective -- having had to wade through brochures from everyone who tries to sell stuff to teachers. And any Ph.D. who's applied for a grant knows how to market an idea. That experience could make them effective sales people from a company's perspective.
Question: What kind of salary can they expect to be paid?
Answer: I don't know what an entry-level assistant professor at a third-tier school earns these days -- maybe in the 30's or low 40's at best. (See an article from The Chronicle, April 23, 1999). An education business will easily be able to top that, and there's no ceiling.
Question: How can someone prepare?
Answer: See if there's a group of students with similar interests on campus, because networking with other people who're looking for jobs is a great way to locate career opportunities. These groups are typically in the school of education or in the school of business.
Start thinking about what skills you could bring to an education business and what type of job would make you happy. Are you turned on by content development or are you more interested in selling a product?
Learn the language of the business marketplace by reading publications like The Industry Standard, University Business, and Fast Company. And turn your academic C.V. into a résumé. (See "From C.V. to Résumé," by Margaret Newhouse.)
Find out about the company or companies you're applying to and learn who their competitors are. When you go into an interview you want to be able to say, "I'm an experienced educator and I understand the Internet. I know what your business is trying to do and I can help you do it."
For more information on jobs in for-profit education, see Eduventures.com's Management Channel, which features a list of job openings and company profiles. Eduventures also publishes a guide called, "Careers in the Education Industry." It costs $25 and includes an industry overview, information on opportunities in various industry sectors, networking tips and resources, and a directory of for-profit education companies. To purchase the guide, visit Eduventures.com, write to Susan Bash, director of client services, at sbash@eduventures.com or call her at (617) 426-5622, extension 16.
