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[human5892]

So I'm starting my Junior year in college this Fall, and I still have absolutely no idea what I want to do with my forthcoming English degree. Really, the only things I can think of are what I don't want to do:

- I don't want to teach (not patient enough)
- I don't want to be a journalist (no interest in the field, also lousy pay)
- If at all possible (I emphasize because I realize it may not be), I don't want to go to graduate school (I'm in debt up to my ass as it is, and I'm also damned sick of schooling)

I'm kind of interested in something from more of a marketing perspective (as in, thinking of advertising concepts), and my advisor claims that a job in this field is possible even with an English degree, and not a specific Marketing degree. Other than that, though, I got nothin'.

Is there anyone on here with the same degree who has a cool job?

 

[Nerevar]

In all honesty, the only people I know who have english degrees are all failed _____ who ended up going to law school and making even more money than me.


(fill in the blank with whatever you want, from ESPN lackey to actor / comedian)

 

[White Man]

Lousy pay? If you were looking for bank-breaking payouts, you picked the wrong major.

I've always personally rooted for stuff like Research Librarian, and Library Science. They might not be your things, though. To me, being an English major was just wedging my foot in the door of academia -- it never seemed logical that people (except teachers) go to school ONLY for English. It's one of them there things that you'll realize the usefulness of only when you stack it with another field that complements it.

Also, how decent are you at writing and what if any concentrations have you undertaken?

 

[Jim Bowie]

Write books or become an amazing rapper.

 

[human5892]

Lousy pay? If you were looking for bank-breaking payouts, you picked the wrong major.

I've always personally rooted for stuff like Research Librarian, and Library Science. They might not be your things, though. To me, being an English major was just wedging my foot in the door of academia -- it never seemed logical that people (except teachers) go to school ONLY for English. It's one of them there things that you'll realize the usefulness of only when you stack it with another field that complements it.

Also, how decent are you at writing and what if any concentrations have you undertaken?

Well, I'm not looking to be rich, but from what I understand journos in particular -- unless they happen to be of the rare, break-out sort -- are paid horrendously.

I'm fairly decent at writing and the field in general -- I scored a 5 on both the AP Lit and the AP English exams in high school -- but the actual writing business seems incredibly difficult to successfully break in to, so I'm not sure I want to pursue that. As far as other fields, right now I'm just general English, though as I said I'm considering the Marketing angle, and could theoretically get a minor in that if I really wanted.

 

[White Man]

We have rather different motivations. It was always an art thing for me. I'd urge you to at least try your hand at some sort of freelance writing. Maybe it doesn't pay so well, but it's extremely fulfilling to get published. It's the greatest high you'll ever feel. If it's not your thing, go with marketing, I guess.

 

[reggieandTFE]

You're lucky because you have two years of school left now because you cannot expect to graduate with a non-technical degree and expect employers to jump all over you. What you need to do is pick a field that you can see yourself working in and just get your name out there and your foot in the door. If you want to be strictly a writer (which I don't recommend as a singular career) go intern and/or volunteer at any local publishing houses. If you want to go into advertising do the same thing at some agencies. When you graduate with a non-technical/vocational degree the most important thing that employers will be looking for is your experience and motivation and if you can show that through your volunteer/part-time work, you'll have a much much easier time finding a job.

 

[Belfast]

Thing with English is that you can take it in a lot of directions, but the chance of being successful in any of those directions is somewhat minimized. There's no "guarantee" that you'll be able to make something of yourself, but if you do, then it can be amazing. But its really no worse than other majors that supposedly "make money." How many people do you think in Engineering are going to end up being top engineers? Many will end up becoming grease monkies or programming late into the night with little sleep for mediocre pay. No major will guarantee success.

 

[Iceman]

Well, as a last resort.. because it will simply land you in the largest debt imaginable.. med schools currently love english majors.. of course, you had to have done real well grade-wise and you have to have a good MCAT (All 10's at minimum)

 

[belgurdo]

I've noticed that a lot of people that I've shared English/writing classes with tend to be pursuing education or nursing majors, and my parents have suggested a few times that I should take journalism classes to back up my degree and go write for the local paper. Lib arts degrees seem to be based around being a booster for other degrees rather than as a standalone job aid

 

[Prospero]

I have an advanced degree in English Lit., and I was an English TA at a university up until a couple of years ago. I still keep in touch with a number of my former students.

First of all, the ones with English BAs who didn't get additional schooling are having a hell of a time. One has gone for over a year now without being able to find employment. On the other hand, I know another who took a summer course in publishing after college, and is now working at a fairly large press that does non-fiction books. It's possible the market for humanities degrees will turn around in the future, but with the job market the way it is, I fear you'll be up against it by the time you get out. I'd lean toward advising you to switch your major, if you already know you don't want to go farther than a BA--the hard fact is that without a graduate degree to back it up, an English BA is worth almost nothing on the current market, compared to even history, for example, or politics. It's not like ten years ago, when the economy was booming--back in those days, I got unsolicited phone calls from companies during my senior year, offering me job interviews. That kind of thing is far less likely to happen now.

If you do want to stick with the major, and you're not too fond of school, I think you should strongly consider getting an MLS degree afterward, depending on how in debt you are. An MLS is a pretty easy degree to get, and Library Science is becoming a lucrative field, with high pay, potentially interesting work, and easy hours--the only problem is that graduate students in English who can't find teaching jobs are being driven into it, so that the market for that area may collapse soon, just as it's collapsed for higher education.

 

[brooklyngooner]

I have a BA in English Lit and work in publishing and do very well. Most of the others I know are English majors and are liekwise doing quite well. The idea that you can't make a good living with a degree in English is nonsense. In addition, I know people with additional schooling in the field, PhDs and MFAs, and they make the exact same money doing the exact same thing.

I also worked in marketing as a writer/editor.

If you work in publishing you don't need the publishing course and if you want marketing or publishing you don't need additional schooling. You just have to be prepared to work hard and pay dues.

 

[human5892]

We have rather different motivations. It was always an art thing for me. I'd urge you to at least try your hand at some sort of freelance writing. Maybe it doesn't pay so well, but it's extremely fulfilling to get published. It's the greatest high you'll ever feel. If it's not your thing, go with marketing, I guess.

Well, I enjoy the hell out of writing, and I have some fictional stuff lying around that I did in spare time. I also publish a weekly satirical rag on the Internet, and have been doing so for almost four years now. So there's no question that I love the writing -- it's more that I'm worried about it being a viable career option.

Brooklyngooner: thanks, that's kind of what I was looking for. It seems like you've done well for yourself with the marketing and publishing areas. I was concerned about the availability of those sorts of jobs to me as someone with "only" a BA in English, but now I'm a bit reassured.

ReggieandTFE: good point. I think I'll get to work on seeing about an internship at a local publishing house or marketing corporation.

I love to write, and I'd love to continue writing, but everything I've seen and heard leads me to believe that I will most likely have to supplement it with something else... hence the interest in marketing and other English-related fields.

 

[fart]

janitor

lolz!

 

[brooklyngooner]

Well, I enjoy the hell out of writing, and I have some fictional stuff lying around that I did in spare time. I also publish a weekly satirical rag on the Internet, and have been doing so for almost four years now. So there's no question that I love the writing -- it's more that I'm worried about it being a viable career option.

Brooklyngooner: thanks, that's kind of what I was looking for. It seems like you've done well for yourself with the marketing and publishing areas. I was concerned about the availability of those sorts of jobs to me as someone with "only" a BA in English, but now I'm a bit reassured.

ReggieandTFE: good point. I think I'll get to work on seeing about an internship at a local publishing house or marketing corporation.

Well after I posted I forgot the biggest caveat: you might need to move to NYC. For publishing, almost assuredly. It's simply by far the center of the publishing universe.

And I am not going to lie: the pay sucks at first (although it is better now than it used to be -- my first assistant's job paid $18,000 a year, and now most of those start at $30,000 at least). But if you are a boy in publishing and work hard you can go very far.

As for marketing, I know less about it. I was in it for two and a half years and hated it. But every other editor I knew there had a BA in English and no other education and did very well and constantly got calls for new jobs.

And in publishing, unpaid internships are readily available and really give you a leg up on your competition when the new grads hit the market. Many say they want the publishing life but quit after six months.

 

[human5892]

Well after I posted I forgot the biggest caveat: you might need to move to NYC. For publishing, almost assuredly. It's simply by far the center of the publishing universe.

And I am not going to lie: the pay sucks at first (although it is better now than it used to be -- my first assistant's job paid $18,000 a year, and now most of those start at $30,000 at least). But if you are a boy in publishing and work hard you can go very far.

As for marketing, I know less about it. I was in it for two and a half years and hated it. But every other editor I knew there had a BA in English and no other education and did very well and constantly got calls for new jobs.

And in publishing, unpaid internships are readily available and really give you a leg up on your competition when the new grads hit the market. Many say they want the publishing life but quit after six months.

Hmmm...a move to NY may or may not be doable for me. In the future, probably, but definitely not for now. If I'm going to get an internship in publishing (or marketing), it's going to have to be local.

As for the pay, even $20,000 a year would seem like luxury to me compared to what I'm living off of now, so no worries there -- just as long as there's room to improve with a bit of hard work.

 

[Prospero]

I have a BA in English Lit and work in publishing and do very well. Most of the others I know are English majors and are liekwise doing quite well.

I'm guessing that you're in the NYC area, where the job market for publishing is far better than it is anywhere else in the US. Still, though, your anecdotal experience and mine don't coincide. Did you graduate recently, or in the late '90s or 2000 or so?

In addition, I know people with additional schooling in the field, PhDs and MFAs, and they make the exact same money doing the exact same thing.

With an MFA, maybe--with a Ph.D. in English, however, if they're not making at least double what the average BA is making, it may be because they haven't marketed themselves correctly. (I'm not going to talk about what my salary or my job is on GAF, but I'm definitely making more than what you'd make with a BA. On the other hand, I'm not in publishing--if you're going into publishing, there's no real point in getting an English Ph.D.)

Edit: ah. Brooklygoner's second post cleared things up a bit.

 

[Belfast]

Also, I don't know about your school, but my university also includes other fields under the English banner, such as classes dealing with movie production and drama and cultural cross-over stuff that can be combined with other majors like Anthro or History. I've taken a lot of classes dealing with Japanese/Asian culture in supplement to my English degree. That may seem like silly, OMG ANIME FAN KAKKOI!!! bullshit, but I was talking to one of the head professors of the Asian Studies department (and he's incredibly smart) and he said these skills might be useful in certain fields which could be booming in a few years.

There is *definitely* a growing socio-economic relationship between the east and the west. It goes beyond anime and the like, though if you enjoy those sorts of things, going this route may not be a bad idea. However, look at all the people in the US wearing club shirts with random kanji-esque characters, the popularity of mainstream movies and television shows which feature asian sensibilities (Kill Bill, The Matrix, hell, Iron Chef, and Most Extreme Elimination Challenge). I mean, the economic relationship has been buiilding since the 80s (well, the 40s and 50s if you want to really go back to the way WWII affected Japan), but the cultural one has been growing rapidly in the past few years. Suffice it to say, you can take this in two directions: TV shows, movies, and publishing companies need writers/translators for these sorts of things, and from the economic side, they need marketers and publicists and advertising specialists. All of these things has some tangental relationship to your normal English degree - the ability to be creative, appeal to people, and make connections. As time marches on, companies are going to be looking for more and more people to be able to bridge the east with the west, and this sort of socio-economic-cultural mixing is taking place on a much deeper level than the Yu-Gi-Oh!/Pokemon phenomenon. This is going to be a field to watch out for and something I may end up getting into myself.

 

[human5892]

Also, I don't know about your school, but my university also includes other fields under the English banner, such as classes dealing with movie production and drama and cultural cross-over stuff that can be combined with other majors like Anthro or History.

Man, that's awesome. If my school offered something with movie production, this thread would never have been created.

Unfortunately, my college is a fairly stupid place, when you get right down to it.

 

[brooklyngooner]

Hmmm...a move to NY may or may not be doable for me. In the future, probably, but definitely not for now. If I'm going to get an internship in publishing (or marketing), it's going to have to be local.

As for the pay, even $20,000 a year would seem like luxury to me compared to what I'm living off of now, so no worries there -- just as long as there's room to improve with a bit of hard work.

Well, remember the cost of living in NYC is very high, so that money won't go very far. It's definitely a tough go at first, but yes if you work at it you can do quite well.

And a local internship is fine...try for one at a literary agency. There should be one nearby you as they're all over the country, and you can offer your services for free for even just six-eight hours a week for a couple of months. It will give you a good idea of how publishing works, and it's great for a resume should you decide you'd like to give the field a go.

I can also tell you that a PhD or any other graduate degree is often looked on as frivolous in publishing and marketing; it certainly won't give you a leg up, and I can tell you that at my marketing job I was in on the hiring process for new editors and they actively tossed aside graduate degree applications because among other things, their salary demands were unrealistic -- some wanted six-figure positions straight out of the program with no practical experience. Academia simply isn't the real world.

I would caution you that if you consider the graduate degree route to boost future salary that you carefully consider every aspect. I know too many who are kicking themselves for their English-related grad work who simply aren't seeing the benefits for the ridiculous debt they've acquired. In my case, it was a concious decision. However, if you want to do it purely for the knowledge and enjoyment, then by all means do so.

 

[human5892]

Well, remember the cost of living in NYC is very high, so that money won't go very far. It's definitely a tough go at first, but yes if you work at it you can do quite well.

And a local internship is fine...try for one at a literary agency. There should be one nearby you as they're all over the country, and you can offer your services for free for even just six-eight hours a week for a couple of months. It will give you a good idea of how publishing works, and it's great for a resume should you decide you'd like to give the field a go.

I can also tell you that a PhD or any other graduate degree is often looked on as frivolous in publishing and marketing; it certainly won't give you a leg up, and I can tell you that at my marketing job I was in on the hiring process for new editors and they actively tossed aside graduate degree applications because among other things, their salary demands were unrealistic -- some wanted six-figure positions straight out of the program with no practical experience. Academia simply isn't the real world.

I would caution you that if you consider the graduate degree route to boost future salary that you carefully consider every aspect. I know too many who are kicking themselves for their English-related grad work who simply aren't seeing the benefits for the ridiculous debt they've acquired. In my case, it was a concious decision. However, if you want to do it purely for the knowledge and enjoyment, then by all means do so.

Wow, thanks for all the advice. Your comments on graduate degrees were particularly enlightening; I had always just sort of naturally assumed that there would be an automatic big pay-off for all of the work graduate degrees entail, but clearly in some fields -- quite possibly, the fields I'm going to be getting into -- that's not the case.

I might consider it later in life to further my knowledge/for my own interest, but at this point I'm growing very weary of school, and am eager to start a "real" job and start working off some of my debt.

 

[brooklyngooner]

Wow, thanks for all the advice. Your comments on graduate degrees were particularly enlightening; I had always just sort of naturally assumed that there would be an automatic big pay-off for all of the work graduate degrees entail, but clearly in some fields -- quite possibly, the fields I'm going to be getting into -- that's not the case.

I might consider it later in life to further my knowledge/for my own interest, but at this point I'm growing very weary of school, and am eager to start a "real" job and start working off some of my debt.

I hope I don't come across as cynical about graduate degrees in theory; I'm not. Just more a caution that there isn't an automatic big payoff.

And too that I'm talking about a rather specific (but massive) area, NYC. You should by all means listen to others from other parts of the country who can give you insight into their experiences elsewhere.

 

[Prospero]

I would go so far as to say that under no circumstances should you get a graduate degree in English unless you're being paid to do it, since the university sees you as an investment--even if you get a scholarship, the university will recoup its costs in the TA work they get out of you.

 

[fennec fox]

If it's any consolation, my roommate has a masters in English and he's currently designing a console game coming out next year.

 

[Shouta]

I was considering an English major but I really have been waning on that decision as of late. Poor grades in English courses (yay for biased fuckwad teachers!) and a more grounded look at things I want to do are sort of pointing me in other directions. Honestly, I'd love to do translation (editing preferably as opposed to primary translation work. I already do both but I'm better at editing ;p) and interpretation work but I'm also afraid that's a hard market to break into and that employers might be looking for translators with an English degree as well.

 

[Belfast]

If it's any consolation, my roommate has a masters in English and he's currently designing a console game coming out next year.

Sweet! I don't have any unrealistic expectations about getting into the game production field, but I'd be lying if, like a lot of other people here, it wasn't ever a dream for me to work on a game. However, I eventually decided the programming route was NOT for me and, thus, my dreams were eternally crushed (well, actually, I just lost interest in the whole idea). Still, its nice to know that if I pursue that route again, its a possibility even for an English major to get involved. After all, with the emphasis on story and production values in recent games, people who can write good scripts or keep a plot together are becoming more and more necessary.

 

[Tommie Hu$tle]

Technical writer. You have no idea how badly the engineering and the hard sciences need a good writer.

 

[Shouta]

I've been looking into technical writing but what are employers looking for in a technical writer?

 

[border]

Do you need any sort of background aside from English BA to go into techinical writing?

 

[Shouta]

That was what I was wondering. Drinky Crow got me interested in Technical Writing but I need to know more about what employers want and etc.

 

[NotMSRP]

Try getting a double major or a minor to complement your major.

 

[Tommie Hu$tle]

Try getting a double major or a minor to complement your major.

That too. As a non technical writer I couldn't tell you but, I'm sure there are a gang of software comapnies that need someone to produce those manuals for their products.