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English Majors!!!

jJoEd77

jJoEd77

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so I want to major in english. i love literature and writing so it seems to be the obvious choice. although, i dont want to be a teacher or write for a living.

anyone out there who majored in english that could give me some alternate ideas? maybe explain their own careers?
 
As an English major... if you want to do editing or publishing, you might want to at least minor in journalism. It's kind of hard to use your BA in English for anything outside of writing or teaching.
 
There are lots of potential careers in English. You could be an Editor or something.

But I have to say this, you'd better like writing essays (or at least tolerate writing lots of them) if you want to make it through the program. I spent a year as an English major, and quickly found that I did not. I love writing, but typically I write short stories and novels and stuff. The whole structured critical analysis thing kind of struck me as tedious and draining. I mean, on the other hand, I learned a lot... it was just too formal, for me.
 
I once knew an English Major who became a dentist. So....you never know what life has in store! :)
 
I knew a guy in college who loved literature and majored in English, but then became a surgeon. I kidded him that with the English degree, we was better suited to write VD pamphlets.

If you read and write well, that will always be an asset. Often times, companies just want to see that you graduated from a college and don't necessarily care what the degree was in. I knew some one that was hired after college specifically because she didnt have a business degree.
 
As an English professor: go for it. It's rare, outside of medicine and law, that people use their degrees in exactly the way they intended. And English actually opens you up to all sorts of things, including, for instance, the law, as well as journalism, editing, etc. Most jobs will require that you are a good writer and English will certainly prepare you for that. As well, you get to do something you love, which is what will matter most. Doing something you don't like because you think it will be 'useful' isn't a great recipe for success. Good luck.
 
Yooper said:
A Prairie Home Companion regularly does hilarious bits regarding the career path of English Majors.
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dood you could go to law school with an english major...

Or you could be a technical editor!

and then there's always the children you could teach!
 
An English degree is invaluable if you decide in a career in law - there is nothing better than receiving a perfectly drafted, well structured legal document. On the other hand, the courts, clients and opponents will rip you to shreds for a poorly drafted one.

It seems basic, but many lawyers have severe difficulties drafting coherent letters and/or documents.
 
OK, I gotta bitch here... how the hell do you get these jobs? I was denied entry-level positions for "lack of experience," and was told by my university's career placement center that if I wanted to edit, I should just switch to journalism.
 
I'll echo symbolicform and tell you to not worry about what job your degree prepares you to perform. It's much more rare than people think, taking your college major and turning it into a career.

However, I took one of the beaten paths for English majors and became an administrative assistant. And while that's certainly not a prestige job, it can be used as a gateway to prestige jobs. You'll be prepared to absorb all the inner workings of whatever departmental or individual function that you support, and when it comes time to hire a higher position, you're standing there will a lot of experiential knowledge that an outsider won't have.

See, one of the things you learn while studying English literature is to see human situations in an analytical frame: discussing the possible motivations of various fictional characters will help you understand the probable motivations of the nonfictional characters you're going to meet in your career. And being able to analyze people is a seriously invaluable business skill.

It's also intellectually enriching, which is an asset in any business. English majors touch on so many different topics, you get a grounding in every topic that has ever been featured in a great novel...religion, science, finance, history, it's all there.
 
TaigaStar said:
OK, I gotta bitch here... how the hell do you get these jobs? I was denied entry-level positions for "lack of experience," and was told by my university's career placement center that if I wanted to edit, I should just switch to journalism.
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Get some 'sperience, Lucy. Volunteer, work at a non-profit, intern somewhere. Make social connections among your faculty, teach English in Korea, I don't know.

My first job out of college was working for the teacher's union that represented the faculty at my part-time teaching-assistant job at the community college. The teacher I assisted talked to the teacher who was the president of the Union, and I was in (it helped that I was the only one with a degree who applied). Actually, my teaching-assistant experience has stood me in good stead several times over the years (I worked in the business computers department as well as the remedial English tutoring program).

Anyway, a degree is nice, but a resume needs some activity on it... so like I said, volunteer, assist, do something active with the knowledge you've gained so that you can put it on your resume and show you have experience.
 
Studying literature and writing teaches you how to think (not what to think) and develops your communication skills - both written and verbal.

In my career, I've met a number of people who majored in business who have limited critical thinking skills and poor communication skills.

Majoring in business can be interesting, but the best way to learn about running a business it to work for one - or start your own.

When I owned my own retail business, I was discussing Walmart with one of my best friends who insisted they built their reputation on service. WTF? When I asked if he had ever been to a Walmart (as I suspected he had not), he said "No, but we studied it in my MBA program."

I got my degree in English back in 1990, and my entire career has been sales.
 
StillWaters24592 said:
When I owned my own retail business, I was discussing Walmart with one of my best friends who insisted they built their reputation on service. WTF? When I asked if he had ever been to a Walmart (as I suspected he had not), he said "No, but we studied it in my MBA program."
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Sorry, but your friend is right. WalMart has excellent service. Particularly compared to other stores in their category (not fair to compare them to Nordstrom or Neiman-Marcus). And that is indeed one of the ways they built up their business in the early days.

For a long time they had a "no questions asked" return policy. There are always employees out on the floor that you can ask where something is. And I've (almost) never encountered a rude employee there. The stores are well-lit and well-organized.

If your local WalMart isn't like that, complain to national headquarters. I can assure you they'll be very interested to hear about it.
 
SonOfSlobone said:
Sorry, but your friend is right. WalMart has excellent service. Particularly compared to other stores in their category (not fair to compare them to Nordstrom or Neiman-Marcus). And that is indeed one of the ways they built up their business in the early days.

For a long time they had a "no questions asked" return policy. There are always employees out on the floor that you can ask where something is. And I've (almost) never encountered a rude employee there. The stores are well-lit and well-organized.

If your local WalMart isn't like that, complain to national headquarters. I can assure you they'll be very interested to hear about it.
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SoS is right. I'm old enough to remember when Walmart was beginning their big expansion push back in the Stone Age. Their primary National competition was Woolco and KMart. What dumps! Woolco liquidated in the early 80's and KMart never has recovered...I still believe KMart/Sears Holdings is very near the end of their run.

There were also a bunch of regional chains and very few of them survive to this day.

WM's 'no questions asked' return policy was revolutionary at the time; I was working retail then and remember when we adopted that policy because of the competition. You should have heard the groans and screams. The 'Greeter' idea is still something that WM does better than anyone else.

For all the WM haters out there (and there are reasons to hate them), bottom line is they had and continue to have a better business model than the other discounters out there.

And yes, I know several English Majors that work for Walmart. :D
 
^^^It's true, there aren't a lot of positions that advertise for English majors. But if you went to a reasonably good school, got reasonably good grades, and can get recommendations from your professors, you could promote yourself into an excellent job.

There's also no reason you can't take some courses in other fields on the side, like computer science. Employers are very impressed when someone has dual skills.
 
jaycee style said:
that's word, I went into PLU for english, came out and jumped on the forklift
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Write to publications or publishing houses you're interested in, or who work in fields which pique your interest and enquire about their recruitment processes, applications and whether they run internship or trainee programs.

A friend of mine quit her job as a lawyer to take on an almost no pay internship for six months. She's now employed as a journalist for the newspaper she interned at.

It's very competitive.
 
You could even write scripts for porn that is sensible and worth hearing.
The sensual use of language seems to have become a lost art, and since you
enjoy being on JUB you would be performing a pupblic service.

Shep+
 
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