becoming rich with an english degree??

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Similarly someone could take an internship/unpaid work experience to highlight interest. They could get involved with basic marketing projects, read about what it entails etc. Employers know that even these specialist degrees don't teach you anything like the sort of stuff you need to know in the industry. Only hands on experience working day in, day out in the marketing sector could give you the skills to be successful. Studying a traditional subject shows you're enthusiastic, motivated and keen to learn. As long as you could transfer you enthusiasm from a subject like English, to a real world job like something in marketing, there's no reason why you can't be more successful than marketing graduates. In fact, employers probably share this view.

Probably generalist employers do - hence they created their recruitment systems. But how many generalist employers are there? I do not share the view that English is a traditional subject or that doing a traditional degree makes you more employable. Beating up an Asian kid was also tradition, wasn't it?

If I am to speak freely, I prefer science graduates because they study universal subjects. There are no western, eastern or Arab sciences. Just one science. There is no "respect for another culture" in sciences. "Respect for another culture" often does more harm than good. This is the primary reason why I personally prefer science graduates.

Reply 21

Brevity

Original post by M1011

Law is one of the most competitive fields. Great if you make it, but the world is full of people with Law degrees doing entirely unrelated jobs. That's not to say it isn't a good option, but it certainly isn't as easy as you make it sound.

PQ = Post Qualification

M1011, it's like you've never seen me around the 'Legal' forum, and don't know what 'PQ' stands for (if this is so, I really need to reassess my fame: 700 posts, and for what?).

I asked about the PQ situation because I thought maybe accountants and lawyers mean different things by PQ(E).

Law may be a competitive field, but I I'd like to see some hard numbers before I'd be willing to concede it's 'one of the most competitive fields'. I wonder if it's any more competitive than similar fields, eg. investment banking, consultancy, asset management, etc? I'd doubt that it's wildly more difficult to get into than those I've mentioned, but I'm willing to be corrected.

Reply 22

M1011

Original post by Brevity

Fame? I'm not a regular browser of the Law forum if that, erm, helps alleviate your wounded pride :tongue:

Your question certainly implied you didn't know what PQ indicated. Just to be overtly clear, 5 years PQ would generally speaking mean 8 years from graduation in the field of accountancy.

Please note I didn't say the most competitive field, as you quote I said 'one of the most'. You've just named the lion share of the others (investment banking, management consultancy etc), which are still a tiny fraction of the total jobs going and are all without doubt fiercely contested. Compared to most jobs, the path to a law firm is very competitive.

Reply 23

evantej

Original post by gossipgirl1

I know it sounds shallow :tongue:

I have applied for english at uni because I love it most at thats what I want to do, but recently I have been told by friends that there aren't very high salary jobs that you can get with an english degree, do you think this is true?

I have heard of people doing grad schemes in banking with an english degree, I don't know if thats likely though?

I mean I like the idea of being a teacher but the salary isn't very good and marketing seems to be a big thing that english lit people do but again, not that high a salary,

I know this sounds shallow but does anyone have any opinions on wealth and english degrees?

I think you need to differentiate between employment using and not using your subject knowledge. There are likely to be few employment opportunities that use your subject knowledge. The only one which I can think of that is relatively well paid is a university lecturer, but that requires at least another four years of postgraduate study first. Some writers obviously make a lot of money, but a degree in English is not strictly necessary (J.K. Rowling studied Classics and French, not English), and I imagine there will be lots of writers without any formal higher education too.

Most relatively well paid jobs open to English graduates will be open to everyone else.

Reply 24

M1011

Original post by clungemagnet

1) In answer to your question; there are lots.

2) What on earth has that got to do with tradition in the sense of academically rigorous subjects?

You are more than entitled to your view (I largely share it), but the thought process you have used to get there appears abhorrent.

Reply 25

Jelkin

Original post by clungemagnet

WTF? Where was that ever a tradition? Do you know what "tradition" means?

I'm an English grad working in the City and I'd say there's plenty you can do with it. The issue is mainly that you're a less "obvious" choice because you could be competing again economics or business grads with internships and whatnot, but if your application is strong/you have lots of extra-currics and all that then employers will pay attention to you.

As for career choices, you could work for the civil service, in marketing/advertising (advertising doesn't pay well as first but if you stick at it there are big bucks to be made!), accounting, law, and other areas. Most graduate schemes do not specify a degree subject and despite what a lot of TSR users seem to think, most science degrees are no more relevant to everyday work in most areas than most core arts degrees!