It's Not Too Late to Choose Business

Regretting the low pay that comes with your liberal-arts degree? Here's how to get paid business-world salaries without losing your focus

by Julie Gordon

We all know the problem. Your high school buddy, who lives down the street, majored in business as an undergrad and is now headed for a high-paying job that has her parents smiling ear-to-ear and your parents wondering why they just shelled out $30,000 a year so you could major in the lucrative field of philosophy. And you, being a soon-to-be officially unemployed philosopher, are wondering the same thing. Indeed it has an official philosophical name. It's called the "Why Didn't I Study Business So I Can Make Big Bucks Like Johnny Problem."

Well, we've got some good news that you can wave in front of your grieving, cash-strapped parents. Or if you're a parent, something that you can e-mail to your needy, restaurant worker/historian child. There are ways you can turn that emotionally rewarding but low-paying liberal-arts degree into a relatively high-paying gig in the financial world…and without completely abandoning your four years of training.

Here are five suggestions for how to make that happen:

The Major: English

The Job: Intellectual Capital Expert

Writing and editing positions aren't exclusive to newspapers, magazines, and publishing houses. Investment banks, consulting firms, and accounting companies have jobs in those fields in their communications and marketing departments. These jobs often pay higher than other traditional writing positions, but usually significantly less than their counterparts in business departments.

Someone writing a corporate newsletter or working in the marketing department of a bank, for example, would probably earn a salary in the upper-$30,000 to low-$40,000 range, though he might not be entitled to the bonus system many companies have, says Carl Martellino, director of Career Services at Pomona College. However, that employee might still earn more money than if he took a writing job at a consumer or trade publication, which would probably pay in the low-$20,000 to mid-$30,000 range.

Money is one reason why Melissa Master decided to go into corporate writing. A 1996 English graduate of Franklin & Marshall College, Master wanted to work in book publishing—until she saw the average salary. Instead, she opted to work for investor-relations agency Financial Relations Board, performing administrative-assistant duties and writing press releases, fact sheets, corporate overviews, and annual-report material.

Then, despite less-than-decent pay, Master headed into the world of magazines. She worked at trade publications, inching her way up to managing editor and news director for two VNU Business Media titles, until she received a call from the editor-in-chief of consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton's magazine. The editor wanted to improve the quality of the company's white papers and get them up to journalistic standards. Master was ready to take on the challenge.

Now, Master works as senior editor of intellectual capital at Booz Allen (see BusinessWeek.com, 7/31/06, "A Jumping Off-Point for More"). About a third of her time is spent cranking out content for the company's magazine, which has about 80,000 subscribers and is sold on newsstands. For the publication, she ghost-writes pieces for executives and edits stories they write themselves. She also creates articles for other magazines, and contributes to white papers that go out to clients and the media.

The Major: History

The Job: Corporate Historian

Marian Calabro, president of CorporateHistory.net in New Jersey, is someone who turned her history degree into an entry point to the corporate world. Calabro is hired by companies to write their histories. She has penned books on PSEG (PEG), The Pep Boys (PBY), and the Phoenix Companies (PNX), among others. The price for Calabro's services starts ranges between $25,000 and $250,000 depending on scope and complexity of the project.