So What Can One Do With An English Degree? Work for Amazon.com, As One Grad Discovers

Juliet Mize was plugging dutifully through her junior year at PLU when she decided that the major she picked –communications- was not for her.

She had always wanted to major in English, but her parents had wondered if she’d every find a job with that degree. Now, two years out of PLU, Mize ’06 can answer that question with a definite yes.

She works at Amazon.com, working with a major New York publishing house.

“Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve been a big reader, a bit of a book nerd” Mize said of her interest in books and publishing. She graduated with as an English Major with an emphasis in Literature and a minor in publishing.

“When it came to it, I had to be true to myself,” she said of her switch in focus. “I had to follow my passion.”

But would it lead to a job? Mize began asking herself that when in her senior year, she sent out 50 resumes, most to New York publishing houses, and received not an e-mail in return.

So Mize talked to Solveig Robinson, program director of the Publishing and Printing Arts program, and she told the worried Mize she’d make a few calls. Those contacts turned into a job interview, and then a job at Parenting Press in Seattle. After a few years there, Mize decided it was time for a move, and applied cold at Amazon, where at first she heard nothing.

Then a few months later, a recruiter called her about a job, which they decided wasn’t a good fit.

“But the cool thing about Amazon is that if you interview once, they will hang on to your resume until they find a fit,” she said.

So when a new position appeared, they called her. Mize now works directly with the publishing house.

“It’s not easy coming out of college, but I think if you apply the skills that you are passionate about, you’ll find something that fits you,” she said.

She credits the staff at PLU with taking a real interest in her, and her strengths, to launch her career.

“This personal attention I received from my professors helped me understand how to market myself as an English major and as an employable person,” she said.