Original post by Amzzyy
Hello. I was just wondering what jobs you can get as an english graduate. I've heard that you can't do many things but I want to study it at university. Are there many job opportunities for English graduates?
only a teach or lecturer
really
Original post by jumjum
only a teach or lecturer
really
really
So you can't go into the media with it?
Original post by Amzzyy
So you can't go into the media with it?
probably wouldnt journalism be better though
There is certainly no shortage of people with English degrees going into media/journalism, however it is extremely competitive. Connections/work experience are necessary.
There are endless possibilities of things that you COULD do, one being the media as I saw you ask. But there are no end of graduates in English and similar humanities subjects, meaning that the possible fields for you to go into will be very competitive, so you really need to either have experience/contacts or to have secured a high degree from one of the very top universities to secure them unfortunately.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by Amzzyy
Hello. I was just wondering what jobs you can get as an english graduate. I've heard that you can't do many things but I want to study it at university. Are there many job opportunities for English graduates?
The summer after I graduated with an English BA (2010) I got a job in medical e-learning where all my colleagues were graphic designers, computer science people (one with a PhD in it), one learning design expert, and a lot of doctors. That isn't to say that there are jobs growing on trees for people with humanities degrees, but my point is that if you do an English degree there really is a very wide range of things you can do. It's not a vocational degree like law or medicine so you need to have an open and flexible conception of what you might do afterwards.
With a degree like English employers are unlikely to be desperately concerned about the specific subject you studied at university, and more concerned about the skills you learned and the experience you picked up on the side. While at university it's a good idea to aim to both do well (a 2.1 or a first) on the degree and to pick up other experience which you can put on your CV (paid work, voluntary work, student society stuff &c). If there is a particular sector you'd like to work in then try to pick up experience and connections in that sector; if not, then find something constructive and instructive to do, and be prepared to use your English-student skills in argument to spin that experience as a positive to potential employers when you graduate.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by QHF
The summer after I graduated with an English BA (2010) I got a job in medical e-learning where all my colleagues were graphic designers, computer science people (one with a PhD in it), one learning design expert, and a lot of doctors. That isn't to say that there are jobs growing on trees for people with humanities degrees, but my point is that if you do an English degree there really is a very wide range of things you can do. It's not a vocational degree like law or medicine so you need to have an open and flexible conception of what you might do afterwards.
With a degree like English employers are unlikely to be desperately concerned about the specific subject you studied at university, and more concerned about the skills you learned and the experience you picked up on the side. While at university it's a good idea to aim to both do well (a 2.1 or a first) on the degree and to pick up other experience which you can put on your CV (paid work, voluntary work, student society stuff &c). If there is a particular sector you'd like to work in then try to pick up experience and connections in that sector; if not, then find something constructive and instructive to do, and be prepared to use your English-student skills in argument to spin that experience as a positive to potential employers when you graduate.
With a degree like English employers are unlikely to be desperately concerned about the specific subject you studied at university, and more concerned about the skills you learned and the experience you picked up on the side. While at university it's a good idea to aim to both do well (a 2.1 or a first) on the degree and to pick up other experience which you can put on your CV (paid work, voluntary work, student society stuff &c). If there is a particular sector you'd like to work in then try to pick up experience and connections in that sector; if not, then find something constructive and instructive to do, and be prepared to use your English-student skills in argument to spin that experience as a positive to potential employers when you graduate.
Ok thanks. That gives me a confidence boost.
Yeah, you can do many, many things with an English degree - it's just that they don't jump out at you in quite the same way as they do if you studied something vocational. Three people in my friendship group did English and one of us is a buyer for Sunseeker, one is an editor at Harper Collins and one is an actuary for a pensions consultancy. Diverse, right?
Don't let people tell you that it's useless. When you think about it, most graduates don't get jobs directly related to their degree field, so how useful was a chemistry degree to a person who went on to do, say, accounting? The one downer is that there will be employers who prefer science degrees as they are considered to have more academic clout (not that anyone told me that when I was applying!). That being said, English is a perfectly respectable arts degrees, and you'll probably find that most graduate jobs don't specify a degree subject.
Don't let people tell you that it's useless. When you think about it, most graduates don't get jobs directly related to their degree field, so how useful was a chemistry degree to a person who went on to do, say, accounting? The one downer is that there will be employers who prefer science degrees as they are considered to have more academic clout (not that anyone told me that when I was applying!). That being said, English is a perfectly respectable arts degrees, and you'll probably find that most graduate jobs don't specify a degree subject.
Original post by Amzzyy
Ok thanks. That gives me a confidence boost.
No problem! I think the key thing is understanding that your degree isn't so much a conveyor belt to a particular job as it is a signal to a wide range of potential employers that you can work reasonably hard at something and stick it out for three years, especially if you get a first or a good 2.1. Combine that with experience in other activities and you can make yourself look pretty employable.
It's also worth remembering that while science and technology and vocational subjects are great, you might struggle to do well studying one if your heart isn't in it -- it's probably better to have a 2.1 in English and the ability to talk with enthusiasm about your degree than it is to have a 2.2 in maths and a lingering sense of disappointment.
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