Career Options for English Majors

As an English major, you can do more than spout Shakespearean quotes. Ideally, you should possess excellent writing and critical thinking skills, and an analytical and problem-solving mind.

This means you can explore job roles that are out of the traditional roles for English majors. 

Career Options for English Majors

As an English major, you can cast your net in almost any and every industry, for all the world needs a writer and a critical thinker. You may be able to fish out roles like a communication specialist or a project manager.

Here’s a list to get you thinking.

Writer

All the writing and reading that you have to go through as an English major can help you grow as a writer. You are lucky because there is a lot of demand for people to put the words in the content that is required in the digital space. 

This opens up a whole lot of writing opportunities: SEO writer and specialist, social media manager, memoirist, blogger, technical writer, content writer, ebook author, and journalist.

Print media is still alive and you can write for newspapers and magazines, or pen a novel and short stories. If you enjoy creative writing, you could work as a copywriter at an ad agency and grow to be a creative director. 

A content strategist is another career path that could be a step up from writing and editing.

Editor

There is a need for quality content and editors are the folks who can do it best. As an editor, you will need to use your critical thinking skills and communication skills to bring out a better copy.

You can work as a copy or content editor in both print and digital companies, and in a publishing house. At publishing houses, the role of an editor is more diverse – you can even work as a commissioning editor and managing editor.

PR Executive

If you are good at both verbal and written communication, you can work with PR agencies as a public relations specialist. The job will involve interacting with a diverse crowd including media companies and involves maintaining strong relationships with clients and the media. 

You will also get to write PR releases and web copy and to manage social media accounts to craft the image of your clients.

Teacher

An innate curiosity and love for exploring through words may help you be a good teacher or professor. You could take on the job of a creative writing instructor, or teach linguistics and literature.

A certificate in language teaching (TESOL, TEFL, etc.) and a graduate degree in education can help if you want to make teaching your career. You could look toward Teach for America, Peace Corps, and Urban Teaching Corps.

Other jobs that an English major can dive into include: 

  • B2B content marketer
  • Politician and lobbyist
  • Sales, marketing researcher
  • E-commerce analyst
  • Brand strategist
  • Communications officer
  • Corporate communications
  • Event Planner
  • Writer for television or radio
  • Radio jockey
  • Reporter on television
  • Librarian
  • Fundraiser, speaker or trainer
  • Media planner, and policy analyst.

If you are so inclined, you could even go on to mix up careers like Zadie Smith who is a published author and creative writing instructor. You could be a bespectacled journo by day and a crime-fighter with super powers by night. The possibilities are endless.

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