Great news: my humanities degree got me into a content marketing career!

Hi, I’m Daisy 👋

I graduated from the University of Reading with a First Class BA Classical Studies and English Literature degree in the strange summer of 2020. Since then I’ve actually managed to score a full-time Content Marketing Executive role at DigitalGrads, the graduate recruitment platform. I write articles, manage socials, create newsletters, and basically get the word out about our site. While I was at uni – and even after I’d graduated – I was majorly uncertain about how my humanities degree could help my future career. Somehow I’ve ended up with an amazing job, and I’m going to tell you how.

Making the most of your university experience

In the summer just before I started my final year, I had a breakdown. You know when you realise that you’ve nearly finished uni but you’ve done basically nothing with your time? I wasn’t in any societies, hadn’t scored any work placements, and realised that my future looked bleak: do you know how many great university graduates there are out there? You need to be amazing, or you’re going to fall behind.

I decided to pull myself out of my self-induced rut and make some serious changes.

In my final year I:

• Joined a uni society and got onto the committee. I chose to get onto the committee of The Spark, the uni newspaper because I knew that my dream job is in publishing. Any experience to do with words would help me out on applications.
  • From becoming a committee member, you get: project management and organisation skills.
• Managed to secure some work experience. In my spring term of my final year, I was a Trainee News Reporter at a local newspaper in Reading. I seriously recommend finding a local company that you can work for a couple days every week. Even if you’re just filing papers, any experience is better than none.
  • Office experience is a big one for job applications! If you live in a future where people can work in an office, take advantage of that at uni! You’ll develop administration and communication skills.
• Jumped at any opportunity. One weekend I was even a Production Runner for the BBC’s The Big Questions. Why? Because when else would you be able to do something like that? And you never know, maybe one day in a job interview you’ll be able to bond with your future employer over a unique experience like this…
  • Taking advantage of any opportunity will show employers that you’re driven, ambitious and passionate about self-growth,
• Started a personal blog. No matter what industry you want to go into, starting a blog is a good idea. You’ll be able to prove your passion, knowledge, and grow your writing skills at the same time. It’s a no brainer.
  • Managing a blog will show employers that you can gain a following, think for yourself and be respected in your field.

Now you don’t have to do all – or any – of these things to absolutely smash uni and get employed. But they do help, especially if you want to go into a dynamic, competitive field like content marketing. Find something that you wouldn’t mind spending some time on and just run with it – trust me, even with a high workload humanities degree you have the time!

How to ace the job hunt

So once you’ve left the safety of uni and graduated into – ahem – the ‘real world’, you need to be able to sell yourself. Let me help.

With a humanities degree you have:

• A proven work ethic
• Great written and verbal communication skills
• An independent approach to work
• Fantastic problem-solving skills
• Good research and critical thinking skills

Pop all that on your CV in a punchy way alongside the skills you’ve picked up from your extracurricular activities and you’re golden. Get the Careers Consultants at Uni to check this for you.

Quick tip: take advantage of free online courses. There are some great free marketing and tech role learning programmes out there.

Where to apply

So now that you know how to apply for a graduate job, what’s next? There are so many job sites out there that just waste your time. I applied for nearly 60 jobs before I got mine through the University of Reading’s Careers site. Seriously, it works.

Because the jobs are posted through the uni’s site, fewer people see the adverts. So the chances that an employer will see and love your application are so much higher.

Another great place to go for graduate-only jobs is DigitalGrads. Check out our jobs board to find your breakthrough graduate role.

Good luck out there!