Sequel: Chris Huber

Welcome to Sequel, a series spotlighting our talented alumni and the strides they’ve made in their field post-graduation.

For anyone in the English Department who doesn’t want to go into a predetermined path such as teaching or law, former alumnus Chris Huber wants to share his story. As a student at the College, Huber was initially a biology major, as many of us were (including myself). Though, that changed when he had the opportunity to take a job over the summer after his sophomore year. That summer he began writing. When one of his stories was published in Miscellany, he said, “it hit me that I wanted to be a writer, and I changed my major to English.”

Today, Huber works on a tour boat in the Charleston Harbor, but runs a music blog called Extra Chill in his free time. To Huber, the greatest advice he can give students who wish to pursue a creative career is mastering the art of networking. He says, “I can attribute much of what I’ve accomplished thus far to the network I’ve built in Charleston, starting when I was a student at College of Charleston.” Many of the people he networks with are those he met at the College and, additionally, many of them were English majors. Huber began networking when he was the Social Chair of the club Lacrosse team. He was tasked with coordinating events and communicating with large groups of people to make those ideas come to fruition. He says, “my experiences on that team are probably equally as important to my development as a person as my time spent studying English in college.”

Though this is not the only important piece of advice he shared with me. Huber wants everyone thinking of going into this career path is “to remember that you are the main driving force behind any creative or entrepreneurial endeavor.”

Though his foremost job right now is working at the Charleston Harbor, Huber hopes to bring his blog, Extra Chill, into his main focus. He began Extra Chill during his first semester in his dorm one night. It began as a mode ranting about college life and a place to post about underground hip-hop, though he did make stickers. About a year after he graduated, Huber decided to start covering the music scene.

He began writing about bands like My Morning Jacket and Wilco. Human Resources contacted Huber and wanted him to do an interview. Huber shifted the blog to cover South Carolina’s music scene and thus beginning Extra Chill.

To this he said, “being an English major helped me find a sense of self in the creative world. I learned a broad view of what kind of creative work exists, and what has had an impact on the world, and from there I’ve been able to develop my own tastes and writing style.”

I think the biggest thing with any creative or entrepreneurial career path is to go in with the knowledge that it’s going to be a lot of hard work.