#  Joseph Felkers, Class of 2023: Business & Marketing 

 



 Job interviewers often ask me why I chose to study English and how my concentration relates to my career goals in marketing. While other applicants—my competitors—spent their undergraduate educations learning business in a more applied setting, I was reading books. Yet, what I did with those books in the classroom, empowered me intellectually. In English courses, we become aesthetic interpreters: making sense of art and language. That skill relates directly to the practice of marketing. When English students learn how language functions on intricate levels, we learn to create persuasive stories that could captivate any audience.

 The critical and creative thinking skills that humanities education imparts will take you far in the corporate space. The designer stuck in a revision feedback loop and the boardroom brainstorming advertisement concepts are doing the same things that we do in the English department: interrogate to better create. Marketing and creative roles in the corporate space require the same degree of attention that a close reading does. Practicing this mode of perception in an academic space has prepared me exceedingly well for a corporate career.

 This past summer, I interned on the marketing team at vitamin and supplement brand, Force Factor. Working with individuals from across the team, I creatively directed and assisted brilliant professionals. In turn, they taught me how to apply my literary critical and creative skills in my new role. From copywriting a sleep aid’s packaging to managing and leveraging a photo asset library, I developed an eye for what would appeal to consumers.

 Above all else, studying the humanities makes you a killer writer. I didn’t realize until leaving the Harvard bubble how valuable writing skills can be. In your academic essay writing, you’re constantly told to know your audience. While your audience in corporate copywriting might not be a professor or editor, you’ll find that your ability to adopt strategic voices will take you far. Writing in a way that is simultaneously concise and convincing—educational and accessible—is hard to do, but it is one of the skills that I gained from my literary studies.

 Marketing requires creativity, and creativity requires consumption. Sociolinguistics tells us that we need to hear others’ voices and words to develop our own. So, reading books isn’t just for fun and conversation; it’s for your creative repertoire. The more you read, the better the writer you are. The more you discuss and analyze, the more creative you become. I truly believe that the study of the humanities is one of the best ways to develop marketing acumen.

 My advice? Be proud of your humanities education, and take full advantage of it. More and more, I’ve noticed that recruiters are becoming more cognizant of the unique creative and critical skills that humanities students bring to the corporate space. In your interviews, explain how your liberal arts classroom will prepare you for a creative role, and you’ll find that you are qualified for the job.