Abigail Gardener '19
While at Brandeis, I double majored in English and Anthropology, and it’s probably not surprising that most of my favorite classes were my English ones. I loved being able to read books as part of my homework, and then getting to discuss them in class; every class was like a book club! Also unsurprisingly, my long-time career goal was to go into book publishing, specifically the editorial side, so I had two internships at literary agencies (Massie & McQuilkin in Manhattan, and Aevitas Creative Management in Boston) throughout my time at Brandeis. Both of these allowed me to gain some insight into the publishing industry and confirmed my passion for editorial work.
Since graduating, I have moved back home to New Jersey. To be candid, finding a job in the publishing industry, especially in editorial, is quite a difficult endeavor. I began to explore other areas of publishing and started a marketing internship in September at W.W. Norton in Manhattan. Halfway through the internship, I applied for and started my current full-time job as a Content Marketing Specialist at a law firm in Manhattan, which involves mostly editorial work (reading and writing content pages and blog posts for the firm’s website). In this role, I am also gaining new skills in SEO marketing. Law is likely not the place I would like to be forever, but I am enjoying my position and have discovered that no matter what I do or what industry I enter, I know I want to be doing something with editorial work. I am excited to see where my editorial skills and newfound marketing skills will take my career!