What kind of work do you do?

[rufzilla]

Hey all,

What kind of job(s) do you do either as your primary source of income or to supplement your stipend? What about summers? Do some of you find temp jobs over the summer when you go back home?

I'm wondering what kind of employment possibilities may be out there for me with a BA in English. I've got a stipend for grad school for this upcoming Fall (I got in, yay!), but I was wondering what other jobs I might be able to find that are related to my degree and can add to my resume. Any suggestions you guys have would be great!

[joeygiraldo]

Well, I have an editing job lined up for this summer before I start. If you are in a Literature PhD program (as per your profile) no doubt that you are capable of being a decent editor of writing... so check up on craigslist and click on Writing/Editing under jobs to start looking.

What else... a lot of people teach. I will adjunct next year and although most places require an M.A., if you are *enrolled* in a doctorate program and provide proof to some schools, community colleges, etc., they will consider you.

Another fun thing I personally considered was bartending. If you live in a busy town or a metropolitan city, you could make good money on weekends! If you are an attractive woman anywhere is good, but I'm a guy so I would have to look for dive bars and less "trendy" establishments.

[jasper.milvain]

I live in a city with tons of colleges and small teaching universities, and make extra money by taking on contract marking gigs from them. They pay up to $20 an hour, and it's easy work. Usually about 50 papers to turn around in a week or two.

[glasses]

The short answer: you can do more or less anything.

I'm working as an editor for a literary magazine where I interned while I was an undergrad; it's a great place. I also do freelance design work (flyers, etc) because I realized I had a weird knack for it and it makes good money. I tried tutoring 8 - 12 grade kids for a while, but it didn't suit me in the least, and it was fun for no one involved. The thing about my current gigs is that I not only love them to bits, but they also leave me time to take graduate classes, to write and publish poems and papers, to loaf a bit and read a lot. On the flip side, a friend of mine is working in a think tank at a local university--she graduated with an English BA, too. I don't really know what exactly she does there, but it's a legal-medical-political-psychological kind of think tank, and it's the complete opposite of any kind of work environment I've ever been in, and she's working on applications now, too, just like I am. Moral of the story seems to be: English majors are ridiculously versatile.

[Jack Cade]

The short answer: you can do more or less anything.

Moral of the story seems to be: English majors are ridiculously versatile.

Amen to that.

It's cause we're trained to think.

By definition of our training we reflexively think beyond boxes, while understanding those boxes, whatever they may be.

[lotf629]

Think about tutoring standardized tests or working with kids on college essays. Your hourly rate can be fantastic.

[rufzilla]

Thanks for all the great advice!

Can you teach secondary ed. with just a BA in English? Or do you have to get a special license?

I'll probably go the tutoring route as I've been looking on craigslist and those tutors make bank!

One more question, though: do most MA programs have summer funding for their students? I live where I will be going to school in the fall, so it would be a good opportunity if I could TA in the summer prior to my enrollment semester. Is this possible?

[greekdaph]

Most independent schools don't require their teachers to have any formal coursework or training in education (or even, sometimes, any teaching experience). What they look for instead is subject-area expertise. So teaching at an independent school could be a really good option for you.

For more information, check out the National Association of Independent Schools at www.nais.org. They have a search feature that can help you locate schools in your area. Also, there are several placement firms (Carney Sandoe is the most well-known and, therefore, often the most effective) that are free for teachers; the NAIS has a list here: http://www.nais.org/career/placementCompanies.cfm

I've been teaching at independent high schools for 3 years and have had a fantastic experience. If you want more information or have any questions, feel free to PM me.

[glasses]

Think about tutoring standardized tests or working with kids on college essays. Your hourly rate can be fantastic.

For sure. But, seriously, this is not for everyone--I love TAing/teaching college, but god, those kids, those parents, those SATs and SSATS . . . that job just slew me. The whole point of working to make money to support the things I actually wanted to do with myself was entirely defeated because that job turned my brain into Jell-O--I've had retail jobs that sucked my soul less (far, far less) than tutoring kids did.

Did anyone else find working with kids absolutely impossible? I mean, I've had horrible, horrible jobs--night shifts at sketchy 24-hour donut shops in sketchy towns, grungy bars, so on--but tutoring kids, that was the worst in my book.

[lotf629]

Ahhh, the SSAT. (Those of you have been spared this monstrosity, it's like the SAT, except for prep schools.) An excerpt from "The Worst Test In The World" at http://www.numbertwopencil.net/pdfs/ssat.pdf:

"If there's any silver lining to this poor, wretched, pathetic excuse for a standardized test, it is that it disabuses those of us who tend to see things through the lens of class warfare of the notion that the privileged are necessarily provided with a better level of service than everybody else. In this case, they actually seem to have it worse. The SAT, for all the cogent arguments that can be raised against it, has for the last decade maintained a baseline level of competency that this test doesn't even graze. I have never seen the Regents exams that New York students have to take to get into the most exclusive public schools, but I have heard decent things about them, and I certainly can't imagine they're anywhere near as bad as this. I'm not sure what could be. Perhaps, somewhere in deepest darkest Texas, there is a Bush-mandated "High-Stakes Exam" on which every essay question ends with "What Would Jesus Do?" and 2+2 is said to equal 'many'. But, until one of you produces such a document for me

[glasses]

Vecrhite371 and loft629, you just absolutely made my morning!

[Minnesotan]

I'm at an R1 land grant in the boonies. My stipend lets me live like a king.

[nike]

glasses,

i will say one thing about tutoring kids -- as someone completely against physical violence or reprimand in any form, I did not realize the virtues of corporal punishment until I was faced with an intractable rabble of hair-pulling, whining, recalcitrant buggers who would cry havoc at any petty provocation by their peers and respond in kind with name-calling and spit-balling and bawling until the entire classroom was a mass of 20 obscenely overreacting temper-tantruming infant terribles that could only be silenced with a resounding "SHUTUP! BE QUIET! SIT DOWN. DON'T MOVE. NOT AN INCH. JOHN PUT THAT PENCIL DOWN" "But.. but but.. " "NO. SITTTTT!!!! And you, what ARE you doing?! Really? I DON'T CARE. Don't move, LEAVE HER ALONEEEE! And Jenna, if I see you even FLICK your eyes in Rachel's DIRECTION, it's[mustering the most pathetic threat possible] you don't get SNACK TIME FOR A WEEK!"

lol i totally agree with you

one of my students brought a 1 gallon Coke and drink it all by himself and thinking he was rich or proud of buying that sh!t and didn't realize it was his parents pay for it and not having a single respect to the tutors during class and kept of cracking jokes like his own personal playground.......i am enough with tutoring...it's not about teaching English, it is about testing your patience