How Pivot Helped This English Major Find A Career Path (Part 2)

It Gave Me Experience With Different Roles And Industries

A lot of people see job experience the same way they see money: as if its value intrinsically comes from having a lot of it. If you have five years of experience working in the legal industry as a paralegal, you can afford a fancier paralegal job at a fancier law firm. It’s easy to forget that experience isn’t about numbers. It's about that certain level of competency and knowledge that you can’t absorb in a classroom. It’s also valuable for more than getting hired. In my case, interning at Isabella’s company, Pivot, allowed me to actually know what I’d be doing in the various roles I tried, and how it felt to do those jobs.

And I tried quite a few tasks: business and marketing plan writing and research, grant writing, copywriting, graphic design, web design, social media, technical writing, editing… As a business consulting agency that provided every service from accounting to graphic design, Pivot was the perfect place for someone like me, who wasn’t quite settled on what they wanted to do.

I learned that I loved and was good at research, and actually enjoyed a lot of the “dryer” types of writing, but, surprisingly, I didn’t enjoy a lot of the traditionally creative work, like graphic design or advertising copy. That was the kind of knowledge I would have never gained from reading What Color is Your Parachute. I needed to try it for myself.

When I talk to any of Pivot’s interns, the breadth of experiences they get is always their first—and, usually, top—reason why they love interning there. They’re not stuck in one role, or in one industry. A marketing intern working for a client in the finance industry can take on a web design project for a nonprofit client, or participate in a video shoot for Pivot, itself, as long as they can handle the work.

Liberal arts majors like me are often overwhelmed by the innumerable job options available to us, so being able to try out so many different tasks in so many different industries is a priceless experience.