You are an English major with a passion for reading and writing marvelous prose. But, post-graduation you find yourself asking, “so…what jobs can I do with an English degree?”
An English degree is a great starting point for many careers. You can work in publishing and journalism, or you can go into editing, public relations, and marketing. If you want to teach, you’ll need to get an additional teaching credential.
If you’re interested in law school, an English degree can help you prepare for the LSAT (Law School Admission Test), but it’s not required. And if you want to go into business and work at a large corporation like Microsoft or Apple, an English degree will give you a good background on how to communicate with customers and employees alike.
What jobs can you do with an english degree
Technical Writer
You can use your English degree to write technical and scientific manuals, user guides, and other instructional materials. Technical writers create instructions for a wide range of products and services. They need to be able to write clearly and concisely without being overly verbose (writing too much).
Technical writing also requires the ability to work well with others on teams that often have diverse members with varied skillsets. You’ll need to be able to communicate effectively with engineers or other technical experts who understand the product you’re writing about but might not have strong writing skills themselves.
College Professor
Another option is to become a professor at a university, community college, or high school. Whether you choose to teach in the humanities (English) or social sciences (history), you’ll be able to share your passion for English literature with students. A background in English will make it easier for you to pick up additional teaching certifications like ESL certification and teaching certificate programs that enable you to teach at schools with higher populations of non-native English speakers.
Editor
If you have an English degree and a love for words, becoming an editor may be a natural career path for you. Editors are responsible for checking written material to make sure it’s grammatically correct and meets the standards of their publication. They sometimes also help with copy editing (checking facts) or fact-checking (looking at information in articles, etc.).
The job description varies depending on where you work, but editors usually do some or all of the following:
- Review articles before they’re published to ensure that no errors are in them
- Work with writers to edit their work
- Edit manuscripts by hand or using software programs
Journalist
The field of journalism is a great choice for anyone who enjoys writing, researching, and interacting with people. It’s also an excellent career choice for those who have a passion for current events and want to make a difference in the world through their writing.
Jobs in this field include reporters, magazine writers, news anchors and producers. If you enjoy interviewing people and working with multimedia tools such as video cameras or computers (you’ll often need these skills depending on what type of job you get), then this might be the right fit for you!
Public Relations Specialist
Public relations specialists are responsible for managing a company’s image and reputation. They work with the media, social media, and the general public to ensure that the company is favorably perceived by these audiences. Public relations specialists can be found in almost any industry, from banking to manufacturing to education.
Travel Writer
Travel writing is a great way to combine your love of travel with your love of writing. If you like to travel, and you like to write, then this could be the perfect job for you.
Travel writing can be a full-time career or part-time job. For example, if you’re retired or not working at the moment, then it’s easy enough to set aside time every day (or week) for travel writing. However, if you have another full-time job then it might be difficult for those periods when there aren’t any assignments available because those are usually the times when people need their articles written most urgently.
There are many different types of travel writer positions out there: freelance journalists who work from home; staff writers who work in an office setting; editors who assign and edit articles from others; photographers who go along on trips as well as take pictures; social media managers who handle all aspects related so that companies can get more followers online…..the list goes on!
Content Creator
Content creators are a specialized subset of marketing and business professionals who use a variety of written, visual, and audio media to communicate with their audience. Content creators often work in advertising agencies or in-house at large companies.
For example, an ad for cough syrup would be created by someone who knows how to write creative copy, but also has practical knowledge about the products being sold and the target audience that will use them. A video testimonial from an athlete endorsing your product could be used as part of an awards ceremony presentation or included on your website to encourage more purchases from customers who like athletes’ opinions on products they endorse.
Ad Agency Copywriter or Creative Director
Ad agency copywriters and creative directors are responsible for creating the words and images that appear in advertisements. Copywriters write the copy (i.e., wording) of an advertisement, including any slogans, taglines or calls to action that are used in the ad. Creative directors oversee the entire creative process from start to finish, including concepting ideas with teams of writers and art directors to overseeing production of the final product.
Ad agencies have many different departments: account management, media buying (buying space in magazines or on TV), strategic planning (which helps clients plan their marketing strategies), creative services (which houses writers/art director teams), production services (creative development) and more.
Digital Marketer
A digital marketer is someone who uses digital communication to promote a product or service. Digital marketers use social media, email marketing and blogging to deliver brand messages to customers. A degree in English (or any other humanities major) allows you to be flexible enough to work in a wide variety of industries and positions.
- Define the role: As a digital marketer, you’ll need to be able to clearly communicate your ideas via email, blog posts and social media accounts. You’ll also need basic knowledge of HTML coding so that you can create landing pages for clients’ websites or write blog posts with images embedded within them.* Skills needed: The most important skill set for anyone working in this field is writing ability combined with an understanding of how people respond emotionally when presented with different types of content.* Work environment: Most jobs will require some type of office setting where employees spend their days crafting emails/blog posts/social media updates as well as identifying opportunities for new content creation.* Work/life balance: Working hours tend towards long days because most tasks are done online (rather than face-to-face interactions), so flexibility around hours may be required depending on what time zone your client base is located in.* Salary range: $35K-$50K annually based on experience level; salary goes up significantly once someone becomes more senior level within their company’s hierarchy* Typical career path(s): Someone could go from entry level all the way up until they become CEO at some point down the line if they have enough talent; however, many smaller companies only have room for one person at each position at any given time which makes upward mobility difficult unless there’s another opening somewhere else along those lines
An English degree gives you lots of career possibilities.
- You can work in any of the fields you studied in college. English majors have a broad array of career choices, including teaching and writing.
- You can get involved with research projects that help solve real-world problems. If you’re an English major who’s interested in working with people and solving problems, you may like to think about pursuing a career in social welfare, law enforcement or crisis counseling.
- You can join organizations that promote literacy and education for all members of society. Many colleges have programs for helping high school students prepare for college life, or even help them prepare for specific careers after graduation from high school and college itself!
