Beyond the Ivory Tower

E-Careers, or the Last Revenge of the Liberal-Arts Graduate

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By Robin Wagner

"Right now it's a crazy, crazy job market and we really need people."

Does this statement sound like fantasy to you? These are the exact words of a Ph.D. candidate in English who works for an Internet company and is always on the lookout for good writers and editors.

Unless you've been locked away in a library carrel for the past five years, you may have noticed many of your contemporaries engaging in the virtual gold rush known as the Internet. It seems that nearly anyone under 30 with a modicum of technology experience has conquered his or her own piece of the Web and its attendant lucre. Meanwhile, if you are considering leaving academe with a humanities or social-science background, you may have assumed that this extraordinary boom market is off-limits to you and your skills.

Nothing could be further from the truth. While the Internet provides limitless possibilities for people with strong computing backgrounds, there has also been an explosion in opportunities for the creative thinkers, designers, and writers who provide the content for online ventures.

The Internet is perhaps the best revenge for the liberal-arts major. While the first few years of the Web's explosive growth were driven by technological advancements -- cooler applications and flashier presentations -- now there is a deep need to fill these sites with compelling content. Enter you scholars of art history, music, sociology, literature, history, et cetera.

You have deep knowledge about diverse and compelling topics, you are an experienced researcher and writer, and you are blessed with a great deal of creativity. By contrast, the typical Web-site staff is heavily loaded with gifted programmers but desperate for content that will draw in and retain an audience.

What type of outfitting will you need to become an e-content prospector? Maggie Debelius, co-author of So What Are You Gonna Do With That? (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), a forthcoming guide to post-academic careers, and editor in chief of Lifeminders.com, has much encouragement and some practical advice to offer. First, Ms. Debelius emphasizes the importance of networking. "Don't shut yourself off in the library," she warns. Her own position at an Internet start-up came from having kept in touch with a college roommate, whose brother was one of the founders.

Ms. Debelius joined Lifeminders.com, which provides personalized information to its members via e-mail, two years ago when it was just five technical and business-savvy entreprenurs in a garage with an idea. They had the venture capital, the technical know-how, and the business plan, she recalls, "but they had no editorial expertise." Yet the content was what would draw members to the site.

Ms. Debelius had worked as a fact-checker and editor for Time Life Books prior to graduate school, and at the time was an adjunct instructor at Georgetown University, writing her dissertation for a degree from Princeton University. "The dissertation was not going to disappear," she explains, so she felt free to take a little time to explore this interesting opportunity. She was also excited by the idea of helping create a new Internet business from scratch.

Having no technical skills other than word processing was not a problem, Ms. Debelius says, though she has acquired a decent level of technical knowledge since she joined Lifeminders.com. She stresses that you need not avoid applying for e-jobs for lack of technical skills. To the technical and business experts behind the Web site, "someone who could write well and edit was much more mysterious."

Of course, there is more to being a content provider than just being a good writer and editor. Most hiring decisions are made jointly, and to convince the full range of staff members that you will be an asset, you need some Internet experience. Ms. Debelius recommends freelancing as a great way to get your foot in the door at a Web venture.

Many Web sites hire freelancers to produce quick pieces for them -- graduate students could write arts reviews, essays, translations, and travel advice, for example. You may also look to personal experience for your freelance ideas. Ms. Debelius first encouraged a former academic (whom she has since hired full time) to begin by contributing freelance pieces on parenting, since he had children at home and since parenting was an important subject for her site. Building a file of Web articles is a valuable step toward a full-time content job, she says.

Brendan Mathews, an online editor at Britannica.com, told a recent gathering of graduate students at the University of Chicago that in addition to the famous Web millionaires, there are also abundant "thousandaires" created from freelance writing and editing opportunities. Identify the Web sites you enjoy the most, he advised, and then write to the editors with your queries or suggestions of topics you could cover that fit the site's mission. He assured the audience that writing assignments do emerge from such contacts. E-mail addresses for Web-site editors, even at rather large sites, are possible to find by exploring the site for a "credits" or staff page, and these people do read their e-mail messages and respond to queries that interest them.

Another way to develop the Web savvy you need for a full-time e-job is to create your own site. If you have familiarity with e-mail and word processing and are willing to invest some effort in learning a few technical details, you could upload a Web page of your own to serve as an online marketing tool for your work and personal interests. Another route is to volunteer to work on or create a Web site for an organization -- religious groups, sports clubs, and animal-welfare leagues are just some of the groups that could benefit from a Web site.

You can learn how to create a page easily using WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) Web-page software programs like the Composer program that accompanies the Netscape browser, and university computing centers frequently offer full instructions on how to create your own site. There are numerous tutorials about Web-site creation on the Internet as well. (A few of these include Project Cool Media, Internet 101, and Homepage.com.

A wonderful bonus for a graduate student considering a career transition to the Internet is that you can ease into it as you are finishing your degree -- dissertation writers can often find time in their schedule to fit in a modest amount of freelance writing. Additionally, you may be able to take advantage of computer courses offered through your university. Look for credit and noncredit offerings on Web-related programs like Photoshop and HTML basics for students and faculty members.

Note: Margaret Newhouse is on sabbatical.

ALSO SEE:

A sampling of resources on Internet careers