If you love words, and reading words, and using words, you might really enjoy getting your bachelors or masters degree through a college who has a good English program. However, when you’re going back to school as an adult, your chief concern is probably getting a degree that translates into a good stable job. Following your heart is less important when you have mouths to feed.
It might seem like going through an English program might feel less applicable to the real world and the career market than the sciences — such as nursing or engineering. In reality though, English program graduates develop skills that make their career options far more versatile than many other degrees. A few career options you have after going through a college level English program include:
- Human Resources
Many English majors go into the field because of their affinity for communication. Communicating is a key part of working in the Human Resources field. As a human resources professional, you would use your English education to mediate interpersonal issues. You would use your writing skills to create job descriptions and recruit potential talent. You would help management express themselves in performance reviews and success planning. As long as there are humans in the job field, there will always be a place for human resources. Your degree in English would make you successful in the human resources field. - Marketing
Marketing boils down to the art of persuasion. As an English major, you develop the valuable skill of communicating ideas in a way that draws the reader in. This concept is incredibly valuable in selling ideas and concepts in the marketing field.
When you work in the marketing industry, your English degree will be put to good use created vivid marketing proposals that get clients on-board with your campaign vision. Your savvy use of words will be valuable in persuading people to that the product you are representing is something they want. Most English majors are right-brained, creative thinkers; the marketing industry is always looking for professionals who are imaginative and capable of creating new and exciting ways to communicate ideas. - Nonprofit
Let’s say that you want to use your English degree to make the world a better place. Perhaps if you were in the medical field, you could work for Doctor’s Without Borders. If you were an engineer, you could create revolutionary ways to bring clean water to people in need. However, there is one thing that every single nonprofit needs more of: funding. As an English major, you can offer an incredibly valuable and needed skill to the nonprofit industry. Your way with words will be put to good use writing grants, reaching out to potential donors, and managing correspondence with sources of income for the nonprofit.
While you may not be the one who personally administers medication to children in developing countries (or any other valuable cause), no good cause can succeed without the fundraisers (often English majors) who bring the funds in to support it. - Training and Development
Regardless of what industry you’re in, there must be documentation to communicate processes and procedures to new employees. Your ability to take abstract concepts and turn it into understandable documentation is a skill that is important to the training and development industry. This is a skill that every single industry needs.
In other words, if you love the idea of medicine, but not the reality of blood and guts, you can still use your English major in the medical field, creating training material. - Regulatory Affairs
Regulatory affairs is what keeps order in our society. No matter what industry you’re in, there are rules that need to be followed in order to maintain safety and efficiency. The food industry has health and safety regulations. The utility industry has reliability regulations. The education industry has curriculum regulations. All of the regulations must be documented and followed up. In other words, our society maintains order through words.
If you love the English language but fear that majoring in it is for people who want to wait tables to fund their novel-writing dreams, we hope this article has shown you the real-life value of an English degree.