"Good writers and editors are needed in almost every industry, so find yours and make a place for yourself."
When did you graduate from BYU?
BA English 2016
What is your job/position? And how would you describe what you do in that job/position?
I’m a virtual reference librarian. I provide virtual reference assistance to college students, using their university’s online libraries and databases. I provide step-by-step instruction on how to choose keywords based on the research question or thesis and how to access and search databases based on those keyword(s) phrases. I then show them how to filter results and use the different database functions.
Describe the path that you took from your BYU English degree to your current career, highlighting the important realizations and turning points that paved the path for you.
Following graduation, I took a job with a marketing company in Salt Lake City as a junior copywriter, where I had previously worked as an intern during my final semester of school. I spent two years with the company, but I quickly learned that marketing was not my passion. I grew progressively uninterested in marketing copywriting and started to look at my goals long term. Since my emphasis in college had been creative and professional writing, I had little interest in pursuing editing or teaching jobs. I felt like I needed to go back to school and considered an MFA in creative writing. At the same time, I felt drawn toward a library science degree program. I had previously worked in my hometown public library as a teenager and loved it. The more I looked into the program, the more I saw how my skills and interests aligned with library science. Librarianship combines a love of reading with a knack for research, public relations, data science, literacy advocacy, and much more. I took a job as a junior high school assistant librarian while still pursuing my master’s. I moved across the country for my husband's job and took a new job as a reference assistant at a public library while I finished my program. After graduating with my MLIS, I started working remotely as a virtual reference librarian and as a part-time writing tutor because I get to set my own hours and because I enjoy aiding in research more than face-to-face customer service.
What are the specific skills that you cultivated as an English major that you now use in your professional life? And how do you use those skills in ways that set you apart from your colleagues?
As an English major, I learned how to conduct research and how to identify keywords and phrases for my paper theses. I also learned how to read quickly and thoroughly and retain what I'm reading. Another important skill I learned as an English major was source credibility, identifying biases and lenses through which works are written and read. At the heart of librarianship is the desire to grant access to reliable and worthwhile information. These skills aid me in my day-to-day practices. My ability to quickly identify keywords and to spin iterations to ping as many valid results as possible is something that sets me apart from my colleagues. I am often the go-to for finding obscure information resources or assisting with tricky research questions. Additionally, my ability to retain information like authors, titles, genres, makes me one of the top literature and book recommenders.
What are some of the surprising ways in which your English degree helped you in your life?
These are two surprising ways that my English degree has helped my life:
- My own resume (and those of my close friends and family members) is always edited to perfection.
- Reading the news or media coverage isn't as daunting as it could be. I find myself being able to identify bias or noticing the skewing of data to make a point, and it helps me better able to sift the garbage from the worthwhile reading.
What do you wish you had known as an English major? Is there any advice you’d like to share with current students?
I wish I had known just how valuable the skills of an English major are and how we should be compensated as such. Some employers, managers, or naysayers will try to tell you that anyone can write content or edit copy, and that's simply not true. Good writers and editors are needed in almost every industry, so find yours and make a place for yourself. In some companies or jobs, you will have to be your own biggest advocate, so don't let imposter syndrome drag you down.
Contact
quinn.r.rawson@gmail.com