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Careers for English Majors

Ishani Chatterjee Shukla
Who says students of the arts stream can't have lucrative careers? Here is a list of some hot careers for English majors, that sets the record straight...
If you've always idolized Keats, Frost, Shelley, and Wordsworth while greatly admiring the works of Swinburne, Dryden, Yeats, and Milton, you must often have pondered upon getting your own literary works published someday!
There also must have been a lot of friends and well-wishers who tried hard to dissuade you from opting for an English major in college, citing your academic decision to be whimsical, impractical, and detrimental for your career development!
Well, to tell you the truth, you can do much more than become a teacher or a writer with that English degree of yours! Here are some great careers for English majors, some of which may not be as high paying as engineering or management careers, but you can earn a more-than-decent living while having the freedom of being creative at your work!

Journalism

This is a great career opportunity for English majors, and here, they can make optimum use of their writing skills and command over the English language.
Reporting and report writing are challenging tasks, and how you present the news in an appropriate way to the readers/audience is very crucial, requiring good grammatical sense and creative writing skills. Besides, journalism is a greatly coveted career, as there is a lot of excitement, recognition, courage, and glamor attached to it.

Mass Media

An English degree can land you a job in the radio, television, Internet, and movie industry, where you may either get a writing or a speaking/announcing job! Creative writers are always in demand for content development and concept creation, and your English degree acts like an official seal on your individual writing and content creation skills!

Public Relations

PR is about image creation and maintenance of corporate or high-profile clients. English graduates can use their writing skills to develop press releases and compile reports of press conferences for media release in public relations careers.

Editing

One of the most respected and coveted career is that of editing. You can either join as a newspaper editor or you can opt for editing in a publishing house. Your professional and superior knowledge of English puts you in an advantageous position to sift and filter works of writing before they reach the readers.

Technical Writing

English majors are in great demand in the IT industry for writing proposals and grants! The best part is, the pay is very good too! Technical writing is also one of the top careers of this century!

Teacher

This is the most conventional and respected career option for an English major.
As a graduate in English, you can join a school as an English teacher, and with a post graduation and PhD., you can apply for college lectureship! Teaching jobs remain as one of the most in-demand careers ever!

Lawyer

A graduate degree in English solidifies your base for a subsequent law degree, and your command over the language strengthens your argumentative skills in the courtroom, besides giving you that edge when you're developing your case documents as a lawyer.
The success in law is completely dependent upon your individual talent and creativity, besides razor-sharp intellect and ability to play with words!

Librarian

Your love for and understanding of books and authors is a great advantage. Get an additional degree or diploma in library management and this could be your dream job! Imagine, surrounded by great works of authorship every day and getting paid for it.

Corporate Communication

Chic as the profile sounds, this career option can really take you places.
Formal and business communication is an indispensable part of any organization, and English majors can greatly contribute towards handling incoming and outgoing communication, as well as intra-organizational communication with their mastery over the language that the whole world speaks.

Research Analyst

Years of researching works of great authors, compiling abstracts and writing reviews will pay off if you become a research analyst, as you can organize material and ideas, analyze text and decipher their meanings, write articulately, and observe facts critically.
Those were the 10 best careers that you could choose to pursue. They are the answers to all those dire prophets who bemoaned your choice of academic major, and urged you to bury your literary passion in the coffin of so-called pragmatism!