Elora Sullivan ’11 found a way to combine her English degree, her passion for food and wellness, her experience with cookbooks, and her social media skills: She currently freelances for a Penguin Random House-owned food media brand, TASTE. She manages all of their social media platforms, builds emails with their robust email system, and creates recipe pages for the website. “The best part about my current role is being able to stay up on trends and new developments in the food world,” she says. “I’ve always been passionate about food, and this has been an incredible opportunity to get an inside look.”
Before freelancing, Sullivan’s career trajectory began in publishing. After graduating from URI in May 2011 – where the English department went “above and beyond” her expectations, she says – Sullivan started graduate school at Emerson College in their Writing, Literature, and Publishing program with a focus on book publishing. She began an entry-level position in the trade division at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. “The position was in contracts,” she says, “which wasn’t the most exciting, but I knew that my foot was in the door, and it gave me a good viewpoint of all positions.” After three years, she moved to New York – “the heart of publishing” – and began work as the Associate Manager of Social Media and Digital Marketing at Penguin Young Readers, later on managing the social media and email programs for the cooking and lifestyle imprints of Random House. She recently left this position and began freelancing for TASTE. “I have the ability to make my own schedule and to work with an incredible, brilliant team,” she says of the perks of freelancing.
As for current students interested in her career path, she gives this advice: “In today’s economy, the most important thing is making connections and taking as many informational interviews as possible to learn more about the different roles in publishing.” She also highlights the importance of getting practical, hands-on experience, noting, “Taking an internship position in any department is a great way to get your foot in the door, and to get a firsthand look at how the different departments work with each other, and where you might find your best fit.” And in the meantime, don’t take for granted the ways in which your classes are best preparing you for the workplace: “As an English major, we read A LOT each semester,” she says. “Look back, I’m not sure how I had it in me to write ten-page papers again and again, but truthfully, both of those skills came in handy… Being able to read quickly and efficiently (aka remember everything that happened!) and think critically about the text was crucial to many of my roles in publishing.”
-By Anna Gray