Yes, yes, it’s the butt off all humanities major jokes. But I’m still planning on doing this because it’s basically required if I’m going to ever get a job proofreading, and it’s a subject I’m into. So my question is, if there are many jobs in English that require you to have an English degree, why is it that so many English majors have a hard time getting employment in their field, or they end up flipping burgers after college? Is it the employers, the major itself, or the one trying to get the job? What do the ones who successfully get employment in their field do to ensure they get a job in the field of English?
Besides getting the degree? I actually think getting to know someone (network) that can actually offer you a job is one of the biggest factors. There are still publishing houses, and they need editors, but print media is dying. My sister majored in English, really talented too. She never got a job where she used it. She went back to school, and is now a lawyer, the English Major came in real handy during law school, but she wouldn’t move to the bigger cities,where the jobs where either.
I say just get the degree, and you’ll figure it out from there. A lot of jobs just require a degree, regardless of the major, and most likely you will have some sort of job after college, you are not going to starve.
Don’t let the Repubs convince you that all is STEM. We would not have civilization w/o the humanities. Fact is not everyone speaks the language of science which is math. English can be applied in script-writing, publishing, technical manual writing, tourism, creative writing if you’re good, even the regular govt. A degree is a license to think. Nothing more nothing less. If we didn’t have Shakespeare, we would not have humor. If we did not humor, we would not have Shakespeare.
You can look at the typical fields that English majors might pursue: journalism/media/publishing, communications/marketing, advertising, government/PR, literary arts, film/drama, library/archival work. Entry-level jobs in these fields are typically in low supply, or the pay is relatively low which creates high turnover. English grads don’t normally target a particular field for employment, either, like other majors would, and this creates scattered objectives leading to even more turnover. So I’d say it’s a combination of the job market/employers and the grads themselves. The actual major is what it is. It does a great job building practical communication skills. The downside is that those basic skills can be learned, for the most part, in a variety of other majors. That amounts to an oversupply of labour in those fields above, and instead of focusing on and dominating those fields, many English grads simply move on to greener pastures.
You’ll be ahead of the game if you can start out with some concrete career goals and form some realistic expectations regarding pay/advancement.