1. This book to help you to not be intimidated by business majors.
2. This career book.
3. This article to help you understand how to sell your liberal arts degree to employers.
4. This basic tutorial to help you learn a bit of Excel. Not knowing Excel in the non-academic world is like not knowing how to use a word processer in academia. A little preparation goes a long way.
5. The permission to read some junky magazines, science fiction, or whatever you like. You are free of only reading literary theory and 18th century novels.
6. This book to help you think a bit more about money, your finances, and how to earn more. Money can’t buy happiness, but poverty can’t buy you anything.
7. The Pledge. It’s a self-help book. But the advice is brilliant. And the author has a PhD in philosophy—and then, in his thirties, made himself into a millionaire. Suspend your disbelief of personal development and read the book.
8. A record book like this. Every month, write down four practical tasks that will help you become more employable.
9. This article I wrote about 35 jobs for English majors.
10. A career direction. It could be vague. Like working in magazines or learning about ‘business.’ But you need a direction. Go back to #9, and give it a read.
11. The knowledge that what you studied in university doesn’t define your career path. Your skill aptitude is what defines your career path. If you suck at math, you’ll never work as a rocket scientist. But you could be a brilliant market researcher, a software sales person, a business analyst, or a celebrity publicist. People get hired for the value they provide, not for the degree they have on a wall.
12. Your degree took forever. But learning the skills for a new job doesn’t have to take long. 6 months of intensive study can start to make you an expert in a field like sales, business, or PR.
13. The knowledge that opportunity isn’t obvious. You have to train yourself to hear it.
14. The confidence that attitude does help you get hired. It counts. Here’s my manifesto on it.
15. My promise that it doesn’t always stay bad like this. It will get better.
16. Learn how to write a cover letter that doesn’t mention your degree in the first or second or third paragraph.
17. A resume with some type of relevant, practical experience. Nothing? See #18.
18. An internship or un-paid work period on your resume. It doesn’t matter if you feel too old to be an intern. Suck it up. Get the experience. Or volunteer at a non-profit. Or help a friend with their business. Anything that can help you get a bit of practical experience will pay dividends.
19. Five books on your shelf that are related to practical skills. For example, HTML. Or Excel for Dummies. You will thank yourself later in a job interview when you can say yes, I could update the company blog.
20. An online course related to something practical on your resume. Take one here.
21. A real email address. Your education email address says—I’m a student, not a job candidate. Use Gmail.
22. A LinkedIn profile.
23. The recognition that your choice of majors might not have been practical and university might not have been the best investment, but it is over now.
24. Five blogs you read that are helping you become more employable. These vary to the field you are thinking of joining. I read http://www.seomoz.org/, http://sethgodin.typepad.com/, http://www.copyblogger.com/, http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/, http://www.earlytorise.com/.
25. The assurance that life will not be horrible and meaningless outside of academia. You will still be creative. You will still think. There are rewarding careers outside of books and leafy campus pathways.
26. The realization that many smart people exist outside of grad school.
27. This quote: “A year from now you will wish you started today.”
28. This quote: “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” Napoleon Hill.
29. Take one practical step every day towards making yourself more employable. Today, it could be learning 15 minutes of Excel. These little sessions add up.
30. Just say yes. You never know where it will take you.
How to Find a Career With Your Humanities Degree in 126 Days
If you are at a loss of what careers you can get with your BA, MA, or PhD in the humanities, then you are not alone. 
How to Find a Career With Your Humanities Degree in 126 Days is a 18 week challenge (126 days) where you are shown the exact steps and actions needed to get out of ‘liberal arts career limbo.’
The 126 Day challenge begins right where you are—broke, no idea of what you want to do, working a crappy job, and nothing more than a degree on your resume.
Learn more here
Great list, James.
My 126 days deadline expired, no interview for a full-time yet. Recently, I had to explain to my $4/hour employer about #22. “You see, LinkedIn is a platform…” It’s kind of hard to get to real results from here.
Actually, point #18 is a little tricky. As David writes here http://newworkplace.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/a-movement-emerges-will-unpaid-internships-disappear/ , a lot of us cannot afford working beyond the minimum wage when actually what we do is real work for someone else’s profit, and does not even lead to a single interview for a permanent job.
Why do you think that happens?
Always a fan,
The Bosa Bosa Review
http://bosabosareview.com/
(trying to give it a glitter make-up asap)
Hi Bosa Bosa,
Your new blog is looking good. Re: internships. There needs to be a give and take with internships. You should be learning a skill that you can only learn in a workplace in exchange for your free labour. I don’t consider doing data entry for free an internship. The reality is that most fresh graduates seriously lack skills and are not economically positive for companies right away. This was different back in the day when you’d stay in a company for 25 years and so training you was part of an employers investment. Now, employers train you–and then you leave in a year. So I’d have to side on the value of internships–so long as you are actually learning something that you can use to get a better job.
Many honest employers will not want you to just work for free. They will give you guidance and help to turn it into “real work experience”–not ask you to slave away for nothing. And you can intern one or two days per week so that you can still support yourself.
LinkedIn is definitely a platform and won’t “get” you a job. But it is something employers will look at when evaluating you. It’s kinda of like a nice shirt on a job interview–won’t get you the job, but is part of the process.
Keep in touch.
James
Thank you for your reply. I totally agree that it is important to attempt to adapt, get skills, and make better choices. Efficient choices. Plan a little better. It does feel quite often like climbing the escalator in reverse, though. It is not impossible, you know, simply wearying. The will to change your understanding of the world might not always be enough if the other side knows nothing of change. It applies inside and outside the academia. Next time I send my CV, I shall need a lawyer and a hearing. The paper is mute and the receiver quite blind, I’m afraid. Agh, here’s an idea. Musical CV, like a greeting card, I haven’t thought about this! This reminds me of the giant CV-banner in Trafalgar Square, this guy actually did it: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1210698/Square-deal-Unemployed-graduate-offered-job-displaying-giant-CV-4th-plinth.html
Keep up the good work!
The Bosa Bosa Review