Kim Austin ’90
Occupation: Content Consultant, Wordjanitor Creative
Major: English
Hometown: Grass Valley, California
Awards: 2018 Stevie Award: Re-Branding/Brand Renovation of the Year
Before college, Pacific English graduate Kim Austin ’90 envisioned three possible career paths: working as a park ranger, becoming a teacher and working for a magazine. As a versatile student, Austin expanded her studies beyond English and took classes in computer science and geology. This combination of writing skills and technical knowledge ultimately led her to a successful career in the tech industry, starting as a magazine editor and eventually moving to content strategy at companies including Cisco, Oracle, and Five9. Austin shares her experiences and offers advice to students considering a career in content writing.
What did you do as a content strategist?
As head of content for my most recent company, I was responsible for leading the creation of all our marketing content. In the tech industry, that would include solution briefs, case studies, infographics, the blog, social media and all the marketing content on our website. So, if it had words, pictures or both, I was involved along the way. At other companies, I have also been responsible for video scripting and email marketing.
As I was developing my career, some of these things were just coming into being — like blogs and social media. So, I got to figure those things out as they developed. That’s how I got a really broad base of skills and experience across so many different areas.
Now I’m a consultant. I help companies evaluate what they’re doing and give them advice on what they can change and can improve.
How did your skills in English prepare you for a role in the tech industry?
Everybody tends to think of computer science and engineering as the only part of the tech industry. But every company needs marketing and human resources. The people who make the marketing decisions aren’t reading code; they’re creating the messaging for the companies. I started out as a magazine editor in tech. So that’s where my English degree and my computer science experience got me in the door. I started out as an editor at an (extremely nerdy) computer magazine because I understood tech and English, grammar, writing and journalism. I eventually went from the publishing industry to the tech industry, working on publications and marketing.
There’s a big need for English degrees and people who are very well spoken and well written in the tech industry because the technical people who do the programing and come up with the features and functionality aren’t always the best people at telling stories. So, it’s a great benefit to have people who can write and edit and do that storytelling, whether it’s in marketing materials, blogging, social media or writing for a website. So many majors don’t focus on writing and editing, and there’s a lot of need for that in any industry but especially in tech.
What advice do you have for current students who want to enter a similar field?
Study what interests you. What do you want to dig deep to explore with academics who live and breathe it? As a student at a small university, you have amazing access to your professors.
A university education is more than preparing for a specific career or job, especially in the humanities. Sometimes, your major and career match up and sometimes, they don’t. I used my English degree every day as a writer, editor and content strategist. I know hundreds of tech executives with humanities degrees. In fact, the executive leading product innovation at my last tech company had a history degree.
Remember that it’s OK to explore different routes and change your mind or just take the opportunity to explore what’s around you to broaden your world.
What kind of skills do you recommend developing if you want to write for tech?
Build strong writing skills. Tech companies are always challenged with conveying technical jargon into business messages for prospective customers. Depending on your interests, look at classes in marketing, basic analytics, media, communications and human resources.
“There’s a big need for English degrees and people who are very well spoken and well written in the tech industry.”
Leadership opportunities are always good ways to show your organizational skills and ability to take initiative. Look for local and on-campus internships that go beyond your classroom strengths to show you can apply what you’ve learned. Many early-in-career employees find it challenging to transition from graded assignments to the ongoing nature of a professional role. Tech companies have all sorts of summer internship programs where you can get real experience in the departments that interest you.
Video and graphic design skills are also great ways to broaden your marketing opportunities. Smaller tech companies look for people who can work in multiple mediums, while larger companies tend to have more siloed roles. Having the experience — and samples of your work to share — can give you a competitive edge in hiring and access to roles in the creative teams within marketing organizations.
Why did you choose Pacific?
I chose Pacific because I went to one of the open houses and immediately felt comfortable on campus. It just seemed like everything clicked. It was close enough to home, but also far enough away from home. I met the some of the English department professors when I went to visit, and it seemed like they were really interested in what they were doing and excited about what they were teaching. The classes I visited were small, and it just seemed like the right fit.
What were the benefits of getting an education within the humanities?
The ability to not just focus on one thing but have access to a lot of other classes, people and professors with different expertise. Humanities give you an opportunity to get a broad-based education, along with a specific degree.
The more I learned and the more I did at UOP, the more opportunities I got. I was able to do a news writing independent study and got credit for writing articles for the Pacifican. I had an internship in the PR department writing press releases, writing for the Pacific Review alumni magazine and doing interviews. I realized from those experiences that I could work as a magazine editor or in journalism. And that was largely due to the opportunities I had at Pacific to try different things, to have those internships and to have the professors that knew me well enough to know where my skills were.
What got you into computer science courses?
Math is not my strong point. But I started learning basic programming when I was probably 10 years old. So, I took a computer science course to meet the requirement for my general ed and also connect with something that I had experience in. Being from the Silicon Valley, it just kind of seemed like a good fit. So, if you’re a different kind of nerd, you can do very well in the tech industry.
What are some of the ways the liberal arts have helped you beyond your career?
The liberal arts have given me a broader worldview than I would have had if I had gone through a program that was focused on one very specific outcome. I got to take classes and connect with people across different disciplines. Some schools are very focused on one outcome, whereas in liberal arts you’re focused on your major, but you have more exposure to a broader world view than you might get elsewhere.
These opportunities also spark interest in different things that you can follow throughout your life. One of my best classes outside of English was in geology. It gave me a greater appreciation of the Sierra Nevada [and] California. So that’s one of the big advantages of being integrated into the whole university community, especially in the liberal arts, no matter what class you take.