On Track for Success: PhDs Working Off the Tenure Track (Week 4)
To conclude our series on humanities PhDs working full-time off the tenure track, we have Colleen Kennedy, who earned her English PhD from The Ohio State University in 2015. Her dissertation considered the role of odors, aromas, and other olfactory descriptors in early-modern literature. Today, she works in the publicity unit of the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC.
What is your job?
I am the Publicist for the Shakespeare Theatre Company. I work closely within my department to promote the productions for the season. I create press releases, such as announcing the cast, and guarantee that theatre critics will attend and review performances on opening night. I pitch stories to various print and online publications, morning news shows, podcasts, and other media outlets. I also coordinate with the stage management team and media outlets to schedule interviews with actors, directors, and designers, and work as an agent for the cast and creative team for publicity opportunities. I make sure events are listed on a variety of local arts and cultural events calendars, and I have been working with other departments within the company to find potential publicity opportunities.
A Publicist creates earned advertising. Unlike paid advertising, I must make the connections with print and online media outlets to get coverage through persuasive pitches and interesting angles. Likewise, most of the “communications” are generated and disseminated in-house, on Twitter, Facebook, and the website. In many theatre companies a Publicist may be in charge of marketing and/or social media, too, but in my position the communications I tend to write — press releases and press statements — are meant to be published in outside venues rather than in-house.
I am in the Department of Marketing and Communications, which includes many subdivisions and duties — at the theatres, in the administrative offices, and in all outward-facing arenas. My department is concerned with everything including paid advertising; the social media presence of the Company; the overall design and copy of the website; the graphics and artwork of the Company; subscription, package, group, and individual ticket sales, including the box office; retail, concessions, and other sales; in-house publications; bookings and events held at the theatres; and audience services and theatre management.
What made you want to look for career off the tenure track?
Ha! That’s a long story, but the short version is: my husband was tenure-track at a large research university, and well on his way to securing tenure there. I had two previous visiting assistant professorships, and was likely about to embark on another, but I was dreading living apart again.
We decided together to leave academia at the beginning of the last academic calendar. After my first few 2018-19 academic applications went out, I just stopped. We chose a few cities where we would both want to live, to see if we could land satisfying, well-paid positions outside of academia. He had a long hiring process for his current position, and that allowed me the time to refocus my energy into creating resumes and cover letters for other types of positions, specifically in Washington, D.C.
How did you get your job?
I applied for and interviewed (by phone) at several Washington, D.C., libraries, theater companies, and non-profit organizations. The whole process — especially for those who have applied for academic positions — is so much more quick, transparent, and (relatively) painless. I was happy after the phone interview here, and that made the decision easy.
What kind of job counseling or advice did you seek out?
I made sure to create a Linked-In account, and I think more helpful than the account itself was seeing how others in positions I would want framed their skills. I talked to any and all friends with a PhD working outside of academia, asking for materials and asking them basically the same questions as we have here. I used the resources on The Versatile PhD, Beyond the Professoriate, and other online opportunities. I joined the alumni associations at the universities that granted my PhD and MA. I was making connections and asking lots of questions, doing the homework to learn about different career options. And this may be different for other positions, of course, but I was dropping any real mentions of my research. No one needs to know what my dissertation is about in a cover letter — succinctly stating that I am an expert in Shakespearean performance is enough.
What does your average day look like? What kind of decisions you make?
I usually work 9:30am-5:30pm in an office building, with a few evening events per month. My day consists of drafting, revising, and editing press releases and other writing for the theatre. I send a lot of emails to theatre critics and writers, and I get to have coffee or lunch with these writers so we can discuss potential articles at length. When I have an interview pitch accepted, I also schedule the interview, provide transportation, and inform the actor about the details of the interview.
But there are all sorts of surreal aspects of the job. I have helped members of the Supreme Court onstage for a Mock Trial. I have attended The Atlantic Festival and shared a greenroom with some major celebrities. U.S. Senators have performed jokes I wrote while wearing crowns and capes, and, at this point, I’ve emailed more than one “Dame.”
What skills do you use in your job?
I am still a writer and researcher, but usually in a different capacity. When I am pitching stories, I begin by doing a lot of research to gather details about my topic, but also researching to consider the best outlet for a story. In some ways, it’s even more specific than trying to find the correct academic journal for an article because it’s not just where does this story belong, but also who is the person who will want to write this story.
I get to do a lot of archival work, too, such as finding and pulling previous photographs and articles, watching older productions as research or for audio clips, etc. I really enjoy digging into the theatre’s past to get a better sense of where it is now and where it is heading.
I do also write some materials, such as short essays in our theatre program and copy on the website. It’s an opportunity to take my years of study and distill it into an accessible piece of writing that may be read by up to 10,000 theatregoers during the run of a play. I’ve written mayoral proclamations, a note entered into the Congressional record, and comedy sketches performed by U.S. politicians, as well as ghostwriting for other tasks.
I really love doing that.
What, if anything, might you have done differently during your PhD career to set yourself up to transition into a career off the tenure track?
I would not have continued for the PhD. It’s that simple. Maybe I would have earned a Master’s degree in Arts Administration, Museum Studies, or Library Sciences instead or in addition to the MA in English. I have never been called into a non-academic interview where the PhD was needed, and I believe that for many jobs the PhD made me a less desirable applicant for a variety of reasons.
How do you see your job for your field more generally changing in the next 5-10 years?
The world of print media is rapidly changing, and although there are fewer venues for publication (my colleagues in advertising, too, are affected by this and where to run their adverts), there are always ways to get people talking about theatre and arts. I may just have to get creative!
What advice would you give someone considering entering your field?
I don’t know if I would be interested in all public relations positions, but I am happy working to be doing publicity promoting the arts, humanities, and other non-profit organizations with a mission I believe in.
So, if anyone were interested in those sorts of position, it’s easy to find some of the outlets now as a current or recent graduate student:
- become a writer or editor for various publications (I did a lot of theatre, book, and music reviews and interviews in my grad-school hustle, and still do an occasional concert review on the side)
- volunteer for a local arts organization as a publicist: help drum up some excitement for new works and events
- do informational interviews about the position (you can contact me, for example)
- study up on the technical aspects of the job (my learning curve included learning the templates for specific writing assignments publicists do, but a good MOOC or some online videos and articles will help with that)
What do you most like about your job?
There are many things I truly enjoy about the job: free tickets for plays (and often at other local theatres, too), knowing that my writing will connect with theatregoers, reading an article that I helped facilitate come out, having weeknights and weekends free to spend with my husband (which wasn’t true when we were both academics), and more.
But, as a very recent example, I spent a long, leisurely lunch with a highly respected theatre critic, and we just chatted about theatre generally. And somehow, I got paid to just have a really great conversation with someone else who is so passionate and experienced in theatre. What could be better than that?