Susan Juby

This is the Q&A I did with Susan Juby, also for WE.

Name: Susan Juby

Your job: “Writer.” Juby’s fiction titles include Alice, I Think and the just-published Getting the Girl: A Guide to Private Investigation, Surveillance and Cookery.

From where did you get your post-secondary education? “B.A. in English Literature from University of Toronto and UBC, and a Master of Publishing degree from Simon Fraser University.”

How did your education prepare you for the job you now have? “My degrees taught me to appreciate independent thinking, good writing, and smart people. My undergraduate degree prepared me to deal with a life of economic uncertainty.”

The best career advice I received in school was... “I came away with a strong sense that it would be a bad idea to model my career after Faulkner’s early, poverty-stricken years — genius or not. This is probably why I haven’t won a Pulitzer Prize. Yet, I also remember a certain emphasis on doing what you love, regardless of the pay. I got over that notion after several months as an unpaid intern in a publishing company.”

The best career advice I didn’t receive in school was... “Don’t get a large tattoo on your ankle right before you go to interview for a job that requires that you not have any tattoos. (Waitering, not dancing, in case anyone is wondering.)”