Hello York St John!

Ever considered a career in publishing? While university is certainly a time for your studies, socialising, and Netflix binges, it’s handy to have a think about what path you may want to go down in the future after you graduate.

Whether you know what you may want to do, are bouncing between ideas, or have no idea at all, it’s worth your time to check out the Publisher’s Association, who are holding their Work in Publishing week this year from Monday the 19th November to Friday the 23rd November.

 

What do publishers do?

While you may think that publishing is a career just for the English Language and Literature students, it requires many different graduates from a wide range of courses, and could very well apply to your own. Within the publishing career, you can work as a business analyst, a publicity manager, or a consumer insight manager-and that’s only the tip of the iceberg! You would also have the opportunity to choose to work from a wide variety of publications, such as:

 

• Academic: Here you work to produce textbooks, reference journals and research tools.
• Educational: If you have an interest in the educational sector, you would work with school books and learning tools.
• Consumer: These books are focussed towards the general public, and include fiction, non-fiction, and children’s books.

 

Who are the Publisher’s Association?

The Publisher’s Association (PA) represent publishers in the United Kingdom, working with book, audio, journal, and digital publishers. Working with well-known companies such as Penguin, Pearson, and Random House, as well as a number of independent publishing houses, they also focus on the importance of making books that are accessible for print-impaired readers. If you are interested in getting involved with any of their campaigns, keep reading…

 

How can I get involved?

The Publisher’s Association’s Work in Publishing week is a campaign taking place across Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, all of which are easily accessible ways for you to get involved! The purpose of the campaign is to bring attention to the many career opportunities available to graduates and young aspiring publishers.

Look out on social media for the #workinpublishing hashtag to look into the careers of publishers who will be sharing photos, blogs, and interviews for you to get an insight into what it’s all about! Whether you’re considering a career in publish or if you’re not quite sure, it’s definitely worth checking out to see if this could be the path you’ll take.

 

What other activities can I take part in?

• Simply complete the sentence: “I want to work in publishing because…”

When done, send your answer to PA and they will turn their favourite ones into social media quote cards!

• Write a short blog about your experiences with work experience or internships.

In 500 words or less, tell PA about your first experience with publishing. Email your blog post to PA, along with a one sentence biography and a photo of yourself.

• Join a Twitter Q&A!

A quick and easy way of getting to know more about publishing and the PA: follow the Publisher’s Association’s Twitter account (@PublishersAssoc) and look out for their Q&A sessions over the week. This gives you the opportunity to ask professional publishers any questions you may have!

• Use PA’s social media toolkit.

PA have designed a number of profile pictures, banners, and images for Work in Publishing week which you can download here. You can use them on your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn profiles to really shows your support.

Don’t forget to use the #workinpublishing hashtag!

 

So if you’re still debating what you think you want to work as after you leave university, make sure that you take a look at PA’s Work in Publishing week, whether you want to research their website, write a blog post, or even just take part in a Q&A to get more info. It will all be useful and help towards deciding what you want to after university. You never know, in a year’s time or so, you may be working in publishing!

 

[This post was written by Alice Syms, one of our Careers Ambassadors. Look out for more posts from her in the coming months!]

 

 

Photo by Jared Craig at Unsplash.