For those who have a degree in English Lit Or Language ...

cazziebo

After my English & Philosophy degree I did a post grad diploma in IT and went into an IT/Project management role. From there, I joined a telecoms company and worked in a few areas: marketing, HR, sales and training.

Got involved with a dot com start up in 2000 and now run my own consultancy advising SME and family businesses.

I agree with the comments that it's not so much about the degree subject, and more about what you learn from the experience. Not many degrees qualify you to "be" something; you just have to learn as much as you can, and keep learning.

Sanne

I've had a lot of colleagues with English Language or literature degrees working at my last place - an e-leaning company. They did all sorts of jobs from script writers and instructional designers over account managers to project managers and even the HR manager originally studied English. Indeed, half the senior management team held an English language or literature degree.

noelphobic

My son has a combined degree in English and Politics. He used to work for a charity that ran reading groups. He now works for another charity, working with young people, which is relevant to the politics part of his degree.

His original ambition was to be a career civil servant but he was unable to get on their graduate programme and his career has now taken a completely different direction.

KiKi

BA in English Lit.

Went on an HR graduate programme with a company in London, specialising in L&D and talent management. Now a specialist in L&D, talent and assessment, working on large client projects for a specialist HR consultancy. I love it.

Unless you need a specific subject at uni for a specific career, I always think you should study what you love. If you love it, you're more likely to work hard and enjoy it. Employers who don't need specific subjects are often happy that you have a good degree and the broader skillset that goes with that type of research and study.

Former_MSE_Megan

I have a BA in English Language and Literature and now I work at MSE! I'm so glad I studied something I loved rather than a subject with a guaranteed job at the end of it. Good luck with your studies.

InsideInsurance

MSE_Megan wrote: »

I'm so glad I studied something I loved rather than a subject with a guaranteed job at the end of it.

Is there such a thing?

Friend got a 2.1 in English from a red brick uni. Went into the world of magazines and now is editor for a small circulation title. I was surprised how little it pays but he enjoys the job and its amusing when you see him on TV or in news articles giving his expert opinion on the topic of his magazine which is particularly amusing as he is no way close to an expert on the topic and you can tell from the very non-committal (and sometimes incorrect) answers he gives :rotfl:

I_Can_Haz_Job?

MA in English and Scottish Lit with Film Studies (got a Desmond)- went on to PGCE but hated it so dropped out. Accidentally fell into finance industry via temping where I developed and progressed over the next 7 years, went on to work in information security/fraud and now work in charity sector. The main thing with having a degree is not so much to subject but that it shows research skills, seeing something through to the end and so forth. I had a shop job throughout the last year of school and four years of uni so that saw me in good stead when I went to apply for 'proper' jobs.

MrChandlerBing

So reading through this thread it looks like your guidance councilor was right!

You can be a teacher, or you can bum around for a bit and hopefully get lucky with something else

good luck!

phill99

MrChandlerBing wrote: »

So reading through this thread it looks like your guidance councilor was right!

You can be a teacher, or you can bum around for a bit and hopefully get lucky with something else

good luck!

Thats a very stupid thing to say. All of the people who have commented have obviously not been bumming around and appear to have well developed careers.

Evidently you have never studied at degree level.

Former_MSE_Megan

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Is there such a thing?

Friend got a 2.1 in English from a red brick uni. Went into the world of magazines and now is editor for a small circulation title. I was surprised how little it pays but he enjoys the job and its amusing when you see him on TV or in news articles giving his expert opinion on the topic of his magazine which is particularly amusing as he is no way close to an expert on the topic and you can tell from the very non-committal (and sometimes incorrect) answers he gives :rotfl:

Haha maybe not a guaranteed job but there is certainly better chance of employment coming from the Sciences rather than the Arts.