Our B.A. degree in English can serve as a foundation for many diverse career paths.
So what can you do with an English degree?
Virtually anything you can imagine.
After all, you learn how to read carefully, how to analyze, and how to communicate with many different audiences. This set of skills prepares you to work in a wide range of fields that require critical reading and writing. English degrees are highly valuable in our new, changing, and creative marketplace. There’s no better time to be an English major.
Broadcasting and media, which includes many of the same jobs in traditional publishing, but in different and varied media. You may work as a reporter, an on-air or online journalist, a blogger, an editor, a producer, a web content developer, or a researcher. If you have a passion, your ability to write about it/blog about it/video it may lead you into a career.
Business, where being able to analyze and communicate are highly desirable in virtually any business endeavor. You may work in advertising, market research and analysis, copy editing, merchandising, marketing, human resources management, and retail management.
Creative writing. Novelists, poets, fiction writers, screenwriters, playwrights: these are the vocations that have always said “English major.” But they also include nonfiction writers, travel writers, food writers, memoirists, biographers, and historians . . . For an English major, all writing is potentially creative writing, so if you want to write, there is an audience waiting to read what you have to say.
Cassie Mangano, UMA English Program Alum
“The courses I took at UMA ignited my love for storytelling while challenging me to take my writing to the next level. My professors were supportive and always there when I needed them, encouraging me to better my work and pursue my MFA. With their guidance, I was able to define my writing goals and begin my career as a full-time writer.”
Education, because you have trained in your classes how to share your interests and how to give and receive feedback on your work. You may work as a teacher, instructor, professor, administrator, or teaching and curriculum policy expert. You may also work in educational publishing and curriculum development. Training in English is excellent training for teaching not only literature and composition but also film, gender studies, media studies, cultural studies, theater, communication, and the many other branches of the humanities.
Government, Politics, and Law, where your training in argumentation, synthesis of information, and clear writing are the basis for the entire legal system. An English degree is excellent training for law school, and you may work as lawyer, attorney, or legal assistant. You may also work in national, state, and local governments as a legislator, lobbyist, or researcher.
Librarianship, because English majors can research—if it’s out there, you know how to find it. You also know how to evaluate it and organize it. You may continue to library school and find work in public, private, and corporate libraries—working with the public directly as a librarian or library director, or behind the scenes in collection maintenance, development, and archival work.
Publishing, which includes the traditional venues such as newspapers, magazines, books—and so much more—this is another field that says “English major.” You excel at writing and editing, proofreading, copywriting, and technical writing. In addition, you may work as a bookstore owner or manager, a book buyer, a film and theater critic, or a newspaper reporter. You may also work in such fields as science writing, business writing, and public policy writing, where your ability to communicate unfamiliar, complex ideas to non-experts is invaluable. If you have a passion, your ability to write about it for others may lead you into a career.
The public sector, because—again—your skills in communicating information and policy with the larger public are invaluable. The range of careers here is wide. You may work as an activist, a speechwriter, a grant writer, a policy specialist, an NGO organizer, or a public relations specialist.
These are just some—and hardly all—of the possibilities you can consider when you are an English major. What can you do with an English degree? You name it.
UMA Career Advising
Looking for job, internship or career information? Look no further than UMA Career Connections!