What jobs could I get with an English Literature degree?

If someone studied law they could get a solicitor/lawyer sort of job, if a person studied dentistry, they could be a dentist, psychology, clincal psychologist and so on.

So what jobs could I get with an English Lit degree other than journalism? Thanks in advance!

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

an_end_has_a_start

i didnt think it mattered what your degree was in, unless it was something that required specialist knowledge such as medicine and lawyer.

in a lot of jobs, a degree is a degree, maybe i'm wrong. someone do correct me if i am

Morrisons...

Pretty much any job. A surprisingly high number of english grads go into finance for example. For the vast majority of subjects, it really is not the case that different subjects lead to different jobs. I'm really sick of this actually. Oh, you do English - going to be a teacher then? No, **** off.

Reply 4

Jessaay!

With an english literature degree, you're competent for many things really.
The only thing is that you may not enjoy the job and you don't necessarily have a definite career ahead. I love English Literature to pieces but I want to be a doctor, as I'd love that career and ultimately, that's what im going to have to do for most of my life. I think I'd only enjoy the attainment of a Literature degree rather than the aftermath.

But aye, there are quite a lot of things.

Reply 5

Jayjayjay

If you do want to go into journalism a degree in Media/English/Journalism will only get you so far unfortunately...
But as mentioned a degree English Literature can lead to many things and often it is about having a degree as opposed to its actual content.

Reply 6

hobnob

There are plenty of things you can do with an English degree, actually, it's just that there are very few things you can only do with an English degree.

Reply 7

peanutbutternjelly

I plan to be a probably starving and constantly searching for work writer/actress. Anyone want to join? :P
On a more serious note, I do think English is pretty open-ended and could lead to a variety of careers.

...

Part of me does want to live the writer/actress life though!

Reply 8

*pitseleh*

^ If I die without ever having a book published, I will be seriously annoyed with myself: it's one of the very few things I really want to achieve in life. I don't even care how successful it is: I just want to be proud of it, and I want to see it on a shelf in a bookshop. After that, even if it isn't very successful, I will feel contented. :smile:

So in other words, yes - I'll hopefully be going down the writer route for a time. I do plan on doing something a bit more financially-rewarding as well, though. :wink:

Reply 9

TimeLady

This reminds me of the start of Avenue Q: What can i do with a BA in English?

You can do lots of things with an English degree. Anything based around communication, such as in the wider media, is quite an interesting area.

Reply 10

t kay13

*pitseleh*

QUOTE]

I completely agree with you here

Reply 11

liss31d

TimeLady

Haha that song in Avenue Q is so funny! "What do you do with a BA in English? What is my life going to be? Four years of college and plenty of knowledge have earned me this useless degree! I can't pay the bills yet, 'cause I have no skills yet, the world is a big scary plaaaaace!!!" :biggrin:

Hehe doesn't sway me, I still want to take English :wink:

Reply 12

Zoecb

Anything really, apart from sciencey things.

Media, Advertising, Publishing/publications, theatre, businessy things... anything.

Reply 13

foxo

Whilst it's true that you can go into a fair amount of graduate jobs, it's not usually a lucrative degree and despite being a competitive course, the graduate prospects are below average in comparison to other degrees. Glasgow is in the top 20 for English in The Guardian and The Times but I still intend to take joint honours with either French or even Economics to balance things out. I love English; but I don't want to study for four years only to find myself working in a call centre as I am at the moment.

Reply 14

jamieee

clockworkapples

. Oh, you do English - going to be a teacher then? No, **** off.

haha if i had a pound for every time i heard this i wouldnt actually need to get a job.. or do a degree lol

Reply 15

peanutbutternjelly

jamieee

haha if i had a pound for every time i heard this i wouldnt actually need to get a job.. or do a degree lol

Hahaha same here!

Reply 16

Ygraine

A place on an English literature postgrad course?

Reply 17

hobnob

Ygraine

A place on an English literature postgrad course?

That's not really a job, though. :wink:

Alas no

You can do quite a lot with an English Literature degree. A lot of students who take English Literature as a degree are often people who want to be writers themselves but that doesn’t mean that it stops you from getting into other careers. But I think if your going to take a degree in English Lit then you should take it because you enjoy it and its something you want to use because otherwise it might turn out to be pointless. it’s a highly respected subject but obviously its going to limit you to some careers such as law and medicine because they require you to train in those fields but the majority of students who take English Lit have some idea to what careers they want. You mentioned that you take medicine to be a doctor but that’s quite a specific field where English Lit tends to be a little more broader with what you can get into.

You could be a journalist, teacher, lecturer, publisher, reporter, researcher and careers within the media and IT. I’m sure there’s many other careers you can get into but there just a few to name.