I wanted to hear about experiences with English majors. If anyone here had a child that majored in it and what they ultimately wound up doing.
Thanks
My older D majored in English. She is now doing technical call support for an automobile logistics software provider. She answers questions when dealerships or parts suppliers can’t get the software to do what they want.
Thanks. Was she happy with the English degree? Did she have a minor?
My daughter the 2009 English major is a program officer with a charitable foundation in New York. The foundation – which is funded by a number of current and former hedge-fund managers – addresses issues of at-risk children, adolescents, and young adults in the New York City area. This is her third post-college job; she previously worked on education reform issues at a much larger foundation, and taught English in a NYC public high school (in Teach For America).
Her English-major friends include a PhD candidate (in English), several journalists, a person who works for the publishing division of a significant art museum, another person who does new-media publishing for a large professional organization of academics, and a law student (after 5 years as a journalist in Washington).
I was an English major, and went on to law school. I was very happy with my major.
I went to grad school for secondary education and now I’m an English teacher. My English major boyfriend became a journalist.
One family member was an English major, with a concentration in Shakespeare. She’s now a 3rd year medical student. Her sister did comparative literature and is now in a fully funded PhD program at one of the nation’s top universities.
I majored in English and went into TV news/production/corporate communications.
Two of my daughter’s friends who were English majors are now in law school/attorney. Another is in marketing for a large corporation. I just spoke with the daughter of a friend who majored in English as an undergraduate, then did a year of culinary school and now does PR – including a regular TV show on public TV - for one of the most successful restauranteurs in the area.
The beauty of English (besides being a wonderful major if you love literature) is that it can open many doors – the trick is to learn where to find them and how to knock on them 
I work in communications for a government contractor. There are many people in my group who used to be journalists, and some of them were English majors. They say that they are here because there are fewer job opportunities for journalists now than there used to be.
So if you’re planning an English major and thinking of a journalism career, it would be worthwhile to do some research on the journalism job market.
My English major sister-in-law has driven a school bus, been a children’s librarian, a journalist for a regional paper, a nursery school teacher, a high school teacher (private school), a substitute teacher (public school), a member of the zoning board and a state legislator.
The other sil, has worked in the administrative side of performing arts, run a tour for a band, president of the PTA and been on the campaign committee of their local mayor, though she’s mostly a SAHM.
Thanks all. My Junior in HS is thinking about an English major. I know she has plenty of time to choose -but was wondering what most people wound up doing.
She enjoyed the major (minored in Studio Arts) and wanted to edit Manga but decided she didn’t want to move to the coasts where majority of that type of work is done.
I was an English major from a small LAC. Have a graduate degree in library science and worked at a very large public library prior to children; worked p/t when my children were middle school age as a program coordinator for a non-profit, and later have worked in public schools in the same sort of capacity. My English-major friends work as theatre directors, technical writers, and one is a book editor in NYC. None of us had minors.
My niece is a new grad , and works as a communications assistant for a small company, writing press releases, materials information sheets, social media content… She worked in college as a writer for her LACs alumni magazine. She minored in Spanish.
Thanks again. I don’t think my D has any idea about what she wants to do. She just knows she loves to read and write.
Is Technical writing hard to get into? Is there certain classes or minor that help with that?
Whether technical writing is available as a major focus or even a completely separate major depends on the offerings at her particular university, but it’s normally under the English Department. English degrees are (aside, perhaps, from those with a technical writing emphasis) generalist degrees. That is, they’re not preparing students for a specific career field (like degrees in, e.g., education or engineering), and possibly as a result salaries straight out of college aren’t that great—but ten years later, holders of English degrees tend to do pretty well for themselves.
Source: I’m faculty in an English Department, and we’ve learned to track these sorts of things, if for no other reason than to explain ourselves to the legislature.
Thanks. Good to know.
Someone interested in technical writing may want to include additional electives in technical subjects, particularly those s/he is interested in writing about.
Not English, but I majored in Comparative Literature. I worked in a law firm, single-handedly managing their law library, then get my Masters in Library and Information Science. I worked as a reference librarian for a few years, but quit when my daughter was a toddler and haven’t worked since.
My husband is a lawyer and a couple of his colleagues were English majors, before going on to law school.
My D was an English major and she is now working for Google as an Account Rep ( technical marketing position). She did take a few CS classes in college. Google is her second job out of college. Her first position was a very similar job at a lesser known tech company doing dating mining. My youngest S is a junior in college and he is an English major. He is going to graduate with a CS minor which will be his back up plan. He would like a career as a television writer.
Before changing course and going to medical school at the advanced age of 37 I taught English literature and technical writing at the university level. I have also worked as a technical writer/editor. While finishing my PhD thesis at the University of Washington I took classes in technical writing and editing, which were taught in the College of Engineering. When advising undergraduate English majors I used to recommend that they use some of their electives to take basic business, accounting, or economics classes, but I don’t think any of them ever did. For students interested in a career in technical writing I would recommend joining the local chapter of the Society for Technical Communication. The members, many of them English majors themselves, enjoy meeting and mentoring students.