As part of our Creative and Cultural Careers Festival 2026, we have asked Martin Cavannagh, Head of Content at Reedsy, to share what he’s looking for in new team members. Reedsy is an online marketplace and network connecting authors with professional editors, designers, marketers, and more. Martin creates educational content for writers and freelancers, including blog posts, live streams, and videos on every aspect of the publishing process.
So, first things first: don’t stress too much about what your degree is. It’s easy for me to say now, from my ivory tower of gainful employment — but I think it happens to be true. Your four-year non-vocational programme isn’t a trap you’ve stumbled into, no matter what your well-meaning relatives tell you.
For what it’s worth, I came to the University of Edinburgh to do a degree in Law. In the past 20 years, the only time it came in handy was for a (rather arcane) pub quiz question about Donoghue v Stevenson. What I’ve ended up using far more, in the long run, were things I picked up performing and directing improv at Bedlam Theatre, which turned out to require a lot of organisation and interpersonal skills.
This all led me on a meandering career path: from working on film sets and reviewing films, to marketing for a film distributor (all lovely!), to marketing for an online estate agent (“Hated it. Zero stars” — Martin Cavannagh), to creating educational content for a start-up in the publishing industry, where I’ve been for almost ten years now.
In those ten years, I’ve hired and trained dozens of graduates from across the world, and interviewed hundreds of candidates — and I want to share what actually matters to me when I’m looking for team members.
Hint: it’s probably not what you think*.
*This is what some marketers call a ‘curiosity gap’. I don’t know what you’re expecting from the rest of this article, but statistically speaking, it’s likely to be wrong.
Your degree doesn’t matter (to me)
From my perspective, your specific degree often doesn’t matter as much as you think. Now, this isn’t true in all industries, but in most creative, editorial, and marketing roles, you are almost certainly going to be trained up on the job. An economics degree does not instantly qualify you to work on the floor of a stock exchange, and an English degree doesn’t mean you’re ready to edit Young Adult novels.
I’ve hired grads with first-class marketing degrees and been surprised when what they’ve learned over three years bears little relation to the practical work of marketing a business. But that’s fine — those day-to-day skills are learned on the job.
So, what does actually matter to me?
Passion and curiosity are a big boon
If you tell me you want to work in publishing, and then I have to explain what an imprint is — or what a literary agent does — that’s a bit of a red flag. You can Google that in an afternoon. If I’m hiring for an editorial assistant role, I want to see that you’ve taken some initiative to understand the industry you’re trying to break into.
Of course, nothing says passion more than experience — and it doesn’t have to be anything massive. If you want to work at a gallery, have you considered setting up a pop-up show of student work? If you’re interested in journalism, are you writing for the student paper, pitching articles anywhere, or setting up your own Substack?
None of this has to be a roaring success. It just has to show that you devoted time to this field — and that if I hire you, I won’t have to waste time explaining the basic lay of the land.
It also helps if you’re genuinely interested in the work. Keeping your finger on the pulse of an industry is a grind if you don’t actually care about it. If you do care, it starts to look less like “networking and research” and more like “falling down a rabbit hole until 1 am, getting deep into something niche.”
Learn to communicate simply (it’s harder than it looks)
One of the best skills you can develop, regardless of your degree, is simple communication. Coming straight out of university, you’ve learned to write essays that structure your thoughts, test theories, and present research to reinforce your arguments. That’s great. It’s genuinely useful. But with that type of writing comes some bad habits.
In the academic world, you’re writing for professors and teachers who definitely know more than you do. Once you’re out in the real world, your audience will usually be people outside your subject area. You can try to impress them with complex sentences, semi-colons, and delightful turns of phrase. Or… you can try to help them understand something quickly and clearly.
This, I believe, is one of the most crucial skills you can take into any work environment. If you can walk that fine line — explaining things to me like I’m five without coming across as patronising — and if you can learn to write clearly and concisely without unnecessary jargon, the world (and the workplace) will be your oyster.
Some final, calming thoughts
If you still have time left at Edinburgh, use it to try out new things. Foster your curiosity. Find students with similar passions and band together to put on a show, start a band, release a magazine, or found a small business. This is the best time to find people who just want to get involved, so don’t pass up the opportunity.
If you’re on the verge of graduation, just relax. It’s normal to feel like everyone else has a plan and you’re the only one quietly panicking. I promise you: they don’t. Most people are making it up as they go along, just with varying degrees of confidence. Your first job will not define your entire career. Your degree will not lock you into a single path. Keep your eyes and ears open — and see where your interests take you.
Thank you, Martin.
Martin talked about the importance of trying out new things and finding people with similar passions. Explore different ways to try something new and build experience on our Careers Service website.
Becoming a member of a student society is a great way to find students with similar interests: Societies
Find out more about creative sectors, including the world of publishing, on our website: Sector information
Reedsy offers full-time, paid, remote graduate internships across several teams. You can find current opportunities here: Reedsy
