Sheila Curran - Smart Moves for Liberal Arts Grads: Finding a Path to Your Perfect Career

Copyright 2006 by Sheila J. Curran and Suzanne Greenwald

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by
Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com

Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication
Data Curran, Sheila J.
Smart moves for liberal arts graduates : finding a path to your perfect career / Sheila J. Curran and Suzanne Greenwald.
p. cm.
1. Vocational guidanceUnited States. 2. College graduatesEmploymentUnited States. 3. College graduatesEmploymentUnited StatesCase studies. 4. Bachelor of arts degreeUnited States. I. Greenwald, Suzanne. II. Title. HF5382.5.U5C85 2006
332.7020973dc22

2006040387

eISBN: 978-0-307-81584-2

v3.1

This book is dedicated to our most patient and supportive husbands, Joe and Jeff. We could not have asked for a better fan club.

We give special thanks to John Grossmann, writer extraordinaire, who has shared this labor of love and without whose help this book would not have been possible.

As we have gone along our own journey of writing Smart Moves, we have been inspired by literally hundreds of people and nurtured by the excellent food and ambience at our officethe 729 Hope Street Caf in Providence, Rhode Island. It would be impossible to individually thank all those who have given us insight and inspiration, but their help is warmly appreciated. We are especially grateful for the patience, time, expertise, humor, and helpful hands of the following people:

Family and special friends

Joe Curran, Peter Curran, Chris Curran, Alison McGowan, Pat McGowan and (late) Bruce McGowan, Bridget and Richard Simpson, Stuart and Siew Li McGowan, Jeff Greenwald, Don and Beverly Bavly, Eric and Miriam Bavly, Lawrence Bavly, Benjamin, Ariel, and Jessica Bavly, Barry and Marjorie Greenwald, Garry, Jessica, Alexeya, and Nathaniel OBrien, Leslie Bash, Alexander, Isobel, and Oliver Genn-Bash

Professional inspiration

Colleagues in the Duke University Career Center and Division of Student Affairs, the Ivy+ Career Directors group, the SEACNET career group, the University Network career group, staff of the Cambridge-MIT Institute, the Brown Office of Institutional Research, and the University of Chicago Admissions Office

Friends and colleagues

Larry Moneta, Zoila Airall, Treat Harvey, Karen Bridbord, Ellen Welty, Bill Currin, Scott Brown, Liz Michaels, Lance Choy, Pat Rose, Skip Sturman, Kim Schliep, Steve Goldenberg, Jack Fracasso, Ruth Macaulay, Eric Broudy, Jennifer Floren, Janet Cooper-Nelson, Rhoda Flaxman, Bev Ehrich, Barbara Peoples, Jan Tullis, (late) Frank Newman, Geoffrey Hayward, Jennifer Kay.Goodman, Monica Brady, Ricardo Wellisch, Cary Friedman, Susan Graham, Sarah Steen, Stuart Canning, Nicole Stark, Sarah Feldman, Lucinda Jewell, Elena Zezlina-Philips, Karim Malek, and Amani Michael

Liberal arts friends and muses

Jonathan Bigelow, Anthony Vitarelli, Philip Kurian, Mike Sacks, Elizabeth Dixon, Liz Reaves, Michael Otto, Luz Herrera, Lisa Price, Elizabeth Shammash, Katharine Woodhouse-Beyer, Mike Smith, Allison Macmillan, Leon Richter, Aliza Gutman, Leon Dunkley, Doug Kezirian, Anuja Khemka, Dave Brown, Adam Decker, Rob Howe, Tim Taylor, Clarissa Quintanilla, Paul Doscher, Jeff Shesol, Chris Engles, Leta Malloy, Milena Ivanova, Tara Fiscella, Brad Weinberg, Jeffrey Ganz, Joy Ridgeway, A. Craig Powell, David Cicillini, Will Tams-Wadman, Christian Anthony, Taylor Margis-Noguera, Lillian Zhao, and Noi and Josh Reineke

Special thanks

Carrie Rodrigues, our editor at Ten Speed Press; Christopher Ladner, Ladner Bond Literary Management, our agent; and Sabrina Spitaletta, who was instrumental in helping us in the early stages of this book

Ever since you were in grade school, people have been asking you what youre going to do when you grow up. Generally, its a throwaway questiona bit like routinely asking you how youre doing. Unless youre truly Machiavellian, this is not the time to proclaim to your parents or your Aunt Mildred your desire to go off and join the circus.

Little wonder so many students simply answer lawyer, doctor, engineer, or perhaps teacher. And for many, the more times they reply, the more their answer becomes a self-fulfilling, though often unfulfilling, mantra. Unfortunately, choosing a career this way is a little like saying you want to read a book because it has an attractive cover.

S urprisingly, the few who admit their uncertainty often hold a distinct advantage over those students who claim to know where theyre bound after they graduate.

The fact is, beneath this kind of standard-issue campus bravura, most students are clueless about what they really want to do when they graduate. Surprisingly, the few who admit their uncertainty often hold a distinct advantage over those students who claim to know where theyre bound after they graduate. Why? Because embracing uncertainty encourages you to go beyond the attractive cover of those prestigious but knee-jerk careers and, metaphorically, actually read the book. You start to examine what it really means to be a doctor. You discover that most lawyers do work that bears little resemblance to whats on Law and Order reruns. Or a little real-world investigation helps you realize an engineering career is not for you, never mind your prowess as an eight-year-old Lego whiz.

So if youre not headed down one of those clearly marked paths for doctors, lawyers, and engineers, just what are you going to do? For one thing, youre going to work as hard at discovering a career that fits your personality, your talents, and your passion as you did at getting into the liberal arts college of your choice. Probably harder, because this discovery often takes years.

Ask any student psychological services or careers office, and theyll tell you that career decision making creates a huge amount of stress. Senior year, when the uncertainties of the future often seem overwhelming, that stress becomes epidemic.

It doesnt have to be.

Most people would love to have twenty-twenty hindsight on their careers, thus avoiding numerous mistakes of youth and inexperience and various wrong turns. Weve assembled the next best thing. These are the stories of twenty-three liberal arts graduatesEnglish majors, biology majors, psych majors, even a Far Eastern civilizations majorwho have gone on, if not from the specific springboard of their major, then with a major push from their liberal arts education, to all manner of fascinating and satisfying careers. In