<p>I, too, was an English major. I really did not think about career options in school, but instead chose to study what I enjoyed. My first job out of college was for a wholesale tour operator. I was hired as a reservationist. Because I was articulate and hard working, I was promoted to an assistant position anywhere I wanted within the company. I chose to work in their in-house marketing department. There I learned PR, advertising and brochure production hands-on. I stayed about three years and went on to work for a major cruise line in their marketing communications department. I was mainly responsible for direct mail and brochure production--from copy, straight through design, production and distribution. It was a creative, exciting and challenging position. Seven years later, when I resigned my AVP postion (to stay home with my then-newborn baby), I was making roughly $60M a year...and that was 17 years ago. (Better than many of my accountant friends.)</p>
<p>After a year at home, I went to graduate school in order to start my second career. I got my masters in elementary ed and reading. Once again my English degree came in handy, as I was able to get triple certifed in NY--as an elementary, reading and English teacher (without taking any additional English classes.) Currently I teach reading part-time in a very highly-rated suburban school district on LI. When my youngest daughter gets older, I am thinking about going to work full-time...as an English teacher! And yes, full-time teachers do make $100+ with seniority.</p>
<p>My daughter is thinking of majoring in English and I fully support her!</p>
<p>Non-profits!
They won't meet the approval of someone like your uncle, but offer a great opportunity to work in a field you could love and find rewarding on many levels. People who write well will always be in demand, and you'd have the benefit of working for something you believe in, with people who are commmitted, bright and interested in the world around them.
What you might not make off the bat in salary is often compensated by excellent benefits. For some of the larger, national groups, salaries can be plenty decent.
(Many years ago!) I was scared off by the very low starting salaries in publishing, so took a job writing a monthly report at an investment firm -- all numbers work -- hated it. Stumbled onto an entry level position at local office of a national (now international) land protection group and loved it. It's not all just about science and fundraising, either - there's room for lawyers, government liaisons, and personnel in public outreach, publishing, consulting, investing, etc. - you name it.</p>
<p>In most cases a liberal arts B.A does not lead immediately to a high salary. You will have to do something post grad to earn a high salary. So get your BA in English if that's what you love and develop excellent writing skills. Then consider your options for a further degree as others here have indicated--except pre-med or engineering, you could do almost anything as a second act.</p>
<p>Lots of English majors end up in tech--as technical writers, editors, web designers, systems analysts, functional designers, project managers.</p>
<p>Businesses are always on the lookout for people with great writing and presentation skills--you can be more attractive and marketable with an English degree if you have math through calculus, at least macro and micro economics, and some basic computer skills which you can pick up at community colleges very inexpensively during summers or after you get your degree if you don't have room in your schedule during your undergrad years.</p>
<p>By basic computer skills, I don't mean knowing how to use Office. I mean knowing how to set up a web page, or knowing the basics of networking. Find an aspect of technology that appeals to you (troubleshooting? building and maintaining a website? setting up hardware?) and learn how to do it; you can get an entry level job at many companies with this basic practical skill and then go from there.</p>
<p>Another good basic foot in the door skill if you like numbers and organizing things is accounting.</p>
<p>Garrison Keillor was an English major. I don't know how much he earns but after his film etc, I bet he does pretty well.</p>
<p>However, it's true that the majority of English majors do not have "making money" as their first priority--that's why they're the kind of people whose company I most enjoy-- and the average yearly earnings of all former English majors is probably lower than for enginering students or business students.</p>
<p>"^lots of docs do medicine. The pre-med requirements do not get in the way of a humanities major (my former physician H was a philosophy major.)"</p>
<p>Yup, I kind of made up my own liberal arts "major" in college (we wound up calling me a "general arts" major when I graduated). I took all the med school requirements, and a menu of whatever else I wanted, heavily weighted towards literature with only a few credits short of English major requirements.</p>
<p>Best thing i could have done before med school. I never again would get the opportunity to feed my passion for literature and the arts, as well as a smattering of economics, history, philosophy, geography, etc......</p>
<p>Bottom line is an English major can lead to mostly anything.</p>
<p>^tried to correct myself before, but of course I meant: "lots of docs do English." Which G-mom kindly refrained from pointing out. :) This English major obvious needs to proofread her work!</p>
<p>Actually, your post also could have referred to the choice of general field, i.e. medicine vs. surgery vs. OB-GYN, etc.</p>
<p>It raises a very interesting question for me, in fact. Of all the English/humanities based college majors who do become physicians, do most of them go into medicine (internal or family practice or a sub)? I'm betting yes, but I'll bet the surgeons and others in the audience will chime in otherwise!</p>
<p>If one really loves the study of literature, then grad school might be a real consideration. Many provide stipends and rarely is anything more fun. Then of course one can add college professor to the great list of suggestion others have made.</p>