For almost four years, Publishing Trends’ most popular article has been a piece called “How to Get a Job in Publishing,” by Marian Schembari, a recent college grad who used her social media skills to land a job in book publicity. But getting a job in publishing is just a beginning—how and when does someone move on to the next big thing? If you’ve already got your foot in the door, where do you go from there?
With this in mind, we decided to take the next logical step and ask: “How did you get your second job in publishing?”—a change we chose to define as the first officially recognized title change, whether that was brought about by internal promotion, department change, or company switch. We compiled a survey with questions about the “second-job experience” and sent it to publishing professionals in all corners of the industry and at all points in their career. We wondered what that first career shift could tell us about what keeps young professionals in publishing, and how second jobs and the forces behind them have changed over the past four decades.
While our more in-depth interviews with participants are forthcoming, the initial data provides a striking portrait of a career milestone through time and in a wide variety of contexts.
WHO: The 650 carefully weighted surveys yielded a double digit response—some of them amazingly detailed—about careers that measured anywhere from three to forty-five years. Respondents currently work in companies that range from Big 6 publishers to indie presses, trade to textbooks, agencies to distributors, trade associations to national accounts, and hold titles that run the gamut from Associate to CEO.
WHERE: Among those surveyed, the greatest number began in Editorial, with 41% of responders having started there. Sales was runner-up with 20%, and Rights/Agencies were tied with Publicity, having each been the launchpad for 11% of our respondents. When they moved to their second job, 67% respondents said they moved departments, while 61% said that a second job meant moving to a different company altogether. Whether or not people moved departments seemed to vary depending on where they started: most people who started in Editorial stayed put in their department, with 68% of our respondents who started in Editorial saying they are still in the same department now. Those who started in Sales had higher turnover, with only 37% of respondents who started in Sales still working in that department now.
WHEN: The timeline for how long it took for people to get to what they considered their “second job” in publishing ranged from 6 months to 6 years, but averaged 1.75 years.
HOW: When it came to how the move to a second job was made, 59% said they “took direct action.” “Direct action” meant different things to different responders. Plenty of people said they made their desire to move up known to supervisors, or applied to job listings in-house or from other companies. Just as interesting are the number of job changes young workers didn’t go out of their way to obtain, but which were hardly part of their company’s typical career path. The most common example (and often the source of the most dramatic change) was a supervisor’s promotion or dismissal, pointing to the interconnectedness of individuals’ career paths.
But the meatiest questions begged for an in-depth conversation, so stay tuned to learn: How do people manage to make the leap? Why do people decide their next jobs should be in publishing at all? How does that first progression inform the career changes that come after?
