Winter Break (Senior Project and Job Hunting) – Johnalie
Winter Break (Senior Project and Job Hunting) – Johnalie
03/09/2020 1:10 AM
Hey, everyone! Johnalie here.
If you’re reading this, it means I’ve survived finals and I’m back in home sweet suburbia – Rolling Meadows!
Some of my favorite things to do over breaks apart from sleeping in and binging Netflix is reading for leisure, playing video games, drawing, and going out with friends. With break in full swing, I’m honestly probably well on my way to checking off at least the first two things on that list. Another thing I’ll be doing over break will be devoting a decent amount of my time applying for jobs. Now that I’ve managed to catch a break from a full workload of classes and two part-time jobs, I need to make the most of my free time and start looking for a job for after I graduate next spring!
Luckily for me, I just completed my senior project class. For English majors, senior project is the equivalent of a capstone project. The course itself is meant to parallel Introduction to English Studies, which explores the multitude of different career paths one can take with an undergrad degree in English. As a senior, you’re then asked to select a career path and conduct in-depth research on the industry, field, and different job titles available to you within a particular career. Some students choosing to get their graduate degree will do their project on the process of applying to grad school in a particular field of study (for English majors, it’s oftentimes medicine or law). All of the research you do gets compiled into a 1-1½ inch binder and turned in at the end of the semester. These binders get stored in the English department as a resource for underclassmen taking Intro to English, and the cycle continues so-on and so-forth.
I did my senior project on content writing, copywriting, and social media management within the broader field of entertainment. This was the scope of my senior project, but I’m definitely going to be looking for marketing jobs as well. That said, the class was really great at helping me prepare for the job-searching process.
The Smith Career Center has also been a great resource over the past semester and in general. They’ve helped me fine-tune my resume and cover letter and have helped point me in the right direction as far as looking for relevant job listings.
Job-hunting won’t be the only thing I do this break. As you might know, job-hunting can be a very long, time-consuming process. So hopefully I can take Netflix breaks here and there. Who knows, maybe I’ll finally get through season three of Queer Eye in the process!