Mentoring Does Not Stop When the Course is Over
This week I had the opportunity to give guidance to a former student*. She just graduated with a B.A. in English and has been looking for work and was feeling a bit discouraged with her search. Apparently the retail places she applied to did not not recognize the valuable skill set that she possesses.
Through a Twitter chat, I gave her positive suggestions on where to look as she continued her application process and I helped her see the skill set that lies at the heart of a B.A. in English.
So you have a B.A. in English, this means you can:
1. Analyze anything (I'm serious, remember when The Simpsons used to be fun?, yup knowledge will do that to you)
2. Criticize constructively (you know what a split infinitive is when most people don't care and you know that a company doesn't want that in their ad copy)
3. Research effectively (you know you can't just Google everything, and you know why)
4. Write for a specific audience (they want to reach that target tween market, you're on it!)
5. Read complex material and synthesize what you have read (what they see: blah blah blah, blah blah blah; what you see: this company is spending too much on social media marketing & not reaching an audience)
6. Understand connections between concepts (bad economy=bad job market=more Kraft Dinner)
7. Determine connections between seemingly unrelated/distantly related concepts (corrupt banking system+ more grammas hiding money under their beds and not in banks =bad job market=more Kraft Dinner)
8. Rule the world
Okay so maybe number 8 is a bit biased but 1-7 are very valid. The trick in this particularly complex job market is to market 1-7 to potential employers packaged in a way that fits their specific interests. For example, if you maintain a blog, you create new material as well as synthesize, analyze,and interpret issues. All of this is valuable to an employer. People pay good money for good blogging.
In the end there were three really big positives that came out of our discussion of possible places/types of employment.
1. A B.A. is not an employment death sentence:
There are many places that one can use the specific skill set that an English B.A. provides. It all depends on your marketing strategy. You need to sell yourself; you are your number one advocate. An arts or humanities degree does not necessarily train students in the art of self-marketing and promotion directly; but more and more programs are discovering the need to have workshops on how to sell your skills and your degree when you graduate.
2. Technology (especially Twitter) allows for mentoring from afar:
Technology can connect us and allow for the seamless flow of feedback, ideas, and discussion. This is especially important when the person on the other end really needs to know that someone is there for them and that someone is in their corner rooting for them. The truly "social" part of social media is the ability to "be there" at any time and to provide guidance and advice.
3. Mentoring does not stop when the course is over:
True educational and learning experiences continue long after the course is over. An effective mentor is often part of the "pay it forward" school of interpersonal interaction. I was lucky enough to work for a very supportive professor during my time as a teaching assistant. She taught me that mentoring does not end at the end of the term or when the contract is over. True effective mentoring continues for years, and continues to help shape and mold who we are as people even after direct contact may be lost. A good mentor will always have time to talk or to write a reference letter; this is just one of the many ways they give support. I am happy to be able to continue to share and foster the principles that my TA supervisor demonstrated in her everyday interaction with her students. I have used these same principles in my interactions with my own teaching assistants and my students. I also have a firm belief that the people I may mentor will carry that forward in their own relationships. The mentors of today had great mentors in the past.
*She is not exactly a former student but she is friends with all my former students so she is a former student by proxy?
Through a Twitter chat, I gave her positive suggestions on where to look as she continued her application process and I helped her see the skill set that lies at the heart of a B.A. in English.
So you have a B.A. in English, this means you can:
1. Analyze anything (I'm serious, remember when The Simpsons used to be fun?, yup knowledge will do that to you)
2. Criticize constructively (you know what a split infinitive is when most people don't care and you know that a company doesn't want that in their ad copy)
3. Research effectively (you know you can't just Google everything, and you know why)
4. Write for a specific audience (they want to reach that target tween market, you're on it!)
5. Read complex material and synthesize what you have read (what they see: blah blah blah, blah blah blah; what you see: this company is spending too much on social media marketing & not reaching an audience)
6. Understand connections between concepts (bad economy=bad job market=more Kraft Dinner)
7. Determine connections between seemingly unrelated/distantly related concepts (corrupt banking system+ more grammas hiding money under their beds and not in banks =bad job market=more Kraft Dinner)
8. Rule the world
Okay so maybe number 8 is a bit biased but 1-7 are very valid. The trick in this particularly complex job market is to market 1-7 to potential employers packaged in a way that fits their specific interests. For example, if you maintain a blog, you create new material as well as synthesize, analyze,and interpret issues. All of this is valuable to an employer. People pay good money for good blogging.
In the end there were three really big positives that came out of our discussion of possible places/types of employment.
1. A B.A. is not an employment death sentence:
There are many places that one can use the specific skill set that an English B.A. provides. It all depends on your marketing strategy. You need to sell yourself; you are your number one advocate. An arts or humanities degree does not necessarily train students in the art of self-marketing and promotion directly; but more and more programs are discovering the need to have workshops on how to sell your skills and your degree when you graduate.
2. Technology (especially Twitter) allows for mentoring from afar:
Technology can connect us and allow for the seamless flow of feedback, ideas, and discussion. This is especially important when the person on the other end really needs to know that someone is there for them and that someone is in their corner rooting for them. The truly "social" part of social media is the ability to "be there" at any time and to provide guidance and advice.
3. Mentoring does not stop when the course is over:
True educational and learning experiences continue long after the course is over. An effective mentor is often part of the "pay it forward" school of interpersonal interaction. I was lucky enough to work for a very supportive professor during my time as a teaching assistant. She taught me that mentoring does not end at the end of the term or when the contract is over. True effective mentoring continues for years, and continues to help shape and mold who we are as people even after direct contact may be lost. A good mentor will always have time to talk or to write a reference letter; this is just one of the many ways they give support. I am happy to be able to continue to share and foster the principles that my TA supervisor demonstrated in her everyday interaction with her students. I have used these same principles in my interactions with my own teaching assistants and my students. I also have a firm belief that the people I may mentor will carry that forward in their own relationships. The mentors of today had great mentors in the past.
*She is not exactly a former student but she is friends with all my former students so she is a former student by proxy?
Comments
Post a Comment