Anna Blackie is a self-confessed bookworm. Books have been her passion since she learned to read and eventually led her into a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English and Writing at Macquarie.
Natural fit: Anna Blackie majored in English, and has gone on to jobs in publishing and marketing.
Initially, she started a Bachelor of International Studies but switched after a year. It turned out to be the best decision for Blackie, and she thrived in her Arts degree majoring in English with a minor in Writing.
“It just seemed like a natural fit. My stars finally felt they were falling into place,” she says.
Blackie befriended other students in her English and film classes and spent time hanging out together at the Uni Bar and going to trivia nights and parties together. “They became my study buddies and also close friends,” she says.
Turning ideas into a real job
In her final year, she consulted the University’s Careers and Employment Services, which provides support to students while they’re studying and also up to 12 months after graduation.
“The careers advisor was really helpful,” she says. “I had all these ideas about what I was interested in but no clue how to make that into a real life job. The advisor gave me a huge book of careers I could explore and suggested an internship in publishing.”
Blackie landed a three-month internship at Pantera Press, a social purpose publisher that champions Australian writing culture, nurtures the next generation of readers and writers, and works to close the literacy gap by funding programs with Story Factory and other social enterprises
Her role involved reading unsolicited manuscripts, writing reports to recommend the best ones to the editorial team. Skills she acquired in her degree, such as textual analysis — understanding a novel’s structure and components — helped her find the potential gems in rough manuscripts.
Her internship stretched to six months, and when a role came up at Pantera, she applied and landed a full-time job. In late 2021, Blackie moved industries, to a new role as account manager at The Idea Shed, a creative marketing agency.
How to adult
At the same time, Blackie was living away from home for the first time and she turned this experience into a humorous self-help book for millennials, How to Adult: A guide to not being a trash human, and other life lessons. Pantera Press published it under their Lost the Plot imprint in 2020.
She had the unique opportunity to be part of the production of her own book. “I was very grateful that I got to see the process from both sides,” she says.
Christine Kynoch, Account Director at The Idea Shed is Blackie’s current manager. Kynoch says that Blackie's interpersonal skills, confidence and openness have led to her success so far. “Anna has a real eagerness to learn. She’s just jumped right into her new role, absorbed new information and learned from those leaders around her.”
Kynoch describes Blackie as an “active listener” who is not afraid to ask questions about how to improve. “Anna is very agile in her ways of communicating because she comes from a strong skill base. I think she's been able to adapt and grow in that sense and look at issues through a wider lens.”
ANNA BLACKIE
Degree: Bachelor of Arts. Graduated 2018.
My job: Account manager The Idea Shed.
Three ways MQ supported me to be job-ready:
- Careers and Employment Service: “The careers advisor was really helpful because I had all these ideas about what I was interested in but no idea how to make that into a real life job. The advisor gave me a huge book of different careers that I could explore and she also suggested that I get an internship in publishing,”
- Internship: “I loved the internship at Pantera so much because it really showed me what the industry was like and if it was what I wanted to do.”
- Developing a love of learning: “I really enjoyed all the courses I did in anthropology, film studies and other areas and it developed in me an open mind and enthusiasm to explore new ideas.”
How I apply what I learned at Macquarie in the workplace:
“When I was an intern and as an editor, textual analysis was really important, to understand about structure and what components make a good novel. All the essays I wrote at uni helped me to write the submission reports I do now. Also all the group presentations gave me the confidence I now have to present at team meetings and discuss concepts with clients.”
Advice to prospective students:
“Look for internships and opportunities that excite you, but also talk to as many people as you can in the industry you’re interested in so they can paint a real-life picture of what it’s really like. Don’t be scared to try things. You don’t have to stick with everything you try. All experience is good experience if you can learn from it.”
