From Shakespeare to Shopify: How I transitioned from English Lit to High Tech
Being a Humanities major is a tough thing these days…
Whether you’re studying Philosophy, History, Languages, Religion, or the Performing Arts, there’s no shortage of people to remind you of the shortage of career opportunities for humanities majors. Ever since I declared my major in English Literature, I’ve had friends, family, and even friendly strangers I’ve met in the street ask me, “What are you going to do with an English degree?”
I always had a hard time answering these kinds of questions because my decision to study English Literature had nothing to do with the career prospects at the end. Like most humanities majors, I enjoy learning for learning’s sake, and I was drawn to English because I’m interested in how literature can help us understand the complicated and messy business of being human. Oh, and because I was really good at finding sex jokes in Shakespeare.
So when I graduated with a BA in English and was suddenly faced with the fact that the outside world might not “value” my degree in the same way I did, I balked and went to grad school. But that just delayed the inevitable. After finishing my Masters degree, I was confronted once again by the spectre of eternal unemployment. So I did what most recent grads do: I moved back in with my parents and started churning out dry, humourless cover letters in response to dry, humourless job postings.
One day, I was browsing the Internet when I came across an article about a successful tech startup running out of Ottawa. The company was called Shopify, but I hadn’t heard of them until that moment. I checked out the hiring page on their website and was pleasantly surprised to find that they had a posting for a marketing internship. But what really struck me was the way the internship was described. The description was actually funny! It was light-hearted and personable. After a month of wading through stale job descriptions, I suddenly felt like there was someone on the other side of my computer screen who wanted to get to know me as a person — and not as the bullet points on my resume.
I was inspired. I started furiously typing into the small white application box. If anyone was going to let me be creative with my cover letter, it was these guys.
This is what I submitted:
It was certainly unorthodox to say the least.
Whether my application made the right impression or not, it was enough to get me in the door for an interview with one of Shopify’s recruiters. I came fully prepared to stammer my way through the interview, drawing loose (ahem, bullshit) connections between my two English degrees and the requirements of the internship. But we didn’t talk about my experience or qualifications. In fact, we didn’t even talk about the job at all. Instead we talked about where I grew up, my family, my interests, and my hobbies. I gave a rather long-winded explanation of water polo (which is a sport that I love). I may have even professed my deep and undying love for poutine and labrador retrievers. Our conversation felt more like the kind two people might have on a first date, rather than in a formal interview.
The next four interviews went largely the same way. Each person I met with didn’t seem to care that I didn’t know anything about marketing, or that I had no idea what SEO meant or what the hell went into creating a brand identity or increasing conversion rates. It seemed Shopify wasn’t interested in what I didn’t know; they were interested in my potential to grow and my willingness to learn.
This is when I realized that my English degree had more value than I thought. All the time that I thought I was mining Milton for spiritual enlightenment or deconstructing gender in Jamaica Kincaid, I was really teaching myself how to doggedly love the process of self-improvement. As much as I loathed writing second or third drafts of my essays, I secretly relished the criticism my professors gave me because it meant that they were helping me to become the best I could be. That kind of passion, commitment, and devotion has value. I think Shopify recognized that value, which is why I am still working here today.
Part of me will always miss the joy of purchasing new books at the start of a school semester (I’m a huge nerd, I know), but my internship at Shopify helped me to convert my studies into a practical skill set that I can continually add to and improve upon. Plus, instead of making me regret my decision to pursue two (yeah that’s right, two!) degrees in English, working at Shopify has actually helped me to recognize the value of a humanities degree. It seems a tad cliche, but if studying what you love helps you to cultivate a passionate mindset, then you’d be surprised just how far Shakespeare can take you.
