How academia prepared me for a job in tech

Working at a tech startup was never my career plan. I graduated with degrees in English and Spanish in 2006, started my English MA program back in 2007, and finally graduated with my Ph.D. in English Language and Literature in 2015. During th0se 8 years of grad school, I taught classes for lower- and upper-level college students, read some 500 novels and researched my ass off. My dissertation was a 300-ish page examination of motherhood in the works of prolific American women writers across the 20th and 21st century. And I loved it. All that time in grad school — all the classes, the exam prep, the trauma of the dissertation — was preparing me, I thought, for a life of teaching and research at a university, preferably a small liberal arts college with a pretty campus and an active student community.

As it turns out, all those years in grad school were perfectly preparing me for my current role, which is leading a content team at a tech company. Here are some key things I learned that have contributed to my success:

1. Credible sources are everything

Anyone who’s ever written a college-level paper understands the value of credible sources. As both a writing instructor and a grad student, I fine-tuned my skills to weed out the credible from the un-credible, which is particularly useful now when I’m using primarily sources from the web instead of sources from academic journals. Being able to differentiate between what’s real and what’s just noise is a must when you’re writing guides and resources that will impact your readers’ decisions. My team and I work diligently to make sure everything we write is backed up by a credible, reliable source.

2. Everything’s a draft

If (when) I get around to writing a book on writing, I imagine it will be titled Everything’s a Draft. It’s sort of my writing mantra. It didn’t really become real to me until I was writing my dissertation using several seminar papers as chapter drafts. Everything you write can and will be revised, no matter how perfectly you think you wrote it the first time (hint: it’s never perfect the first time). This is especially true when writing for the web, where you have to navigate changes in trends, technological advances and, of course, SEO.

3. You’re still always a student

Being a Teaching Assistant while I was going through my Ph.D. program was a sort of weird experience. I was, on the one hand, a professional, teaching 300-level writing courses to students who would go on to lead successful careers in the fields of business and engineering. On the other hand, I was constantly reminded of how little I knew when I was writing papers and sitting in my classes. I learned so much, both as a student and as a college writing instructor. I continue to learn something every single day, even as I manage my team of 7 people. I’m always a student, even when I’m sometimes the person in charge.

I might not have planned on landing in the tech industry when I took the GRE, but I can definitely see how I got here. And as humanities departments continue to decline in universities and colleges across the country, I hope other Ph.D. graduates will recognize that their skill set and experience extend well beyond the classroom. Considering the fact that I have 3 other Ph.D. grads on my team, I think it’s safe to say that’s already happening.