Hi, everyone. I’m an International student from China who is accepted by a Top 20 LAC. I’m passionate about English literature and Creative Writing(specially fictions). Among my fellow International students from China I’m indeed a rare breed. I had been studying in America for 3 years in a private day school and living by myself for most of the time. I loved studying here and my love for literature propels me to reach for higher education. While I’m full of expectation about my upcoming college life, the concern about my career prospect looms: can I find a job as an international student with a English degree?
My performance on AP literature and other English classes back in my high school impressed my teacher and classmates, so I’m pretty confident about my speech and writing when compared with native students. However, according to what I read on other threads, the result of applying for h1b is very unpredictable, and for this reason many corporations has become reluctant to hire International Students.
Considering such situation, my plan to major in English is under questions. Do you think it is possible for media industry, like Washington Posts or New Yorker, to sponsor a writer or journalist’s H1B? Though writing is unrestrained by geographical location, I’d be much appreciative for a “cultured” working environment like New York. If not, I may plan to pursue an English Literature PHD.
My daughter had the same dilemma (except for her not being Chinese). She wanted to major in English and then grad school for creative writing, or novel writing so she could write the next great American novel. She can still do that but we talked about redirecting her to something to pay the bills while she figured out her next move. She chose Journalism. At her school, that encompasses magazine writing, strategic communications, advertising, digital media and a lot of other careers that would utilize her liberal arts and writing skills. That doesn’t close any doors on the novel or grad school but it gives her a stopover to “rest” before more school and not starve. I’m sorry I can’t help with the H1B question. Good luck.
I dunno, most jobs you could get with a degree in journalism you could also get with a degree in English.
Can you get a job with a degree in English? Of course. Might it be more difficult for you to get a job with a degree in English, especially as an international student? Depends on what you’re comparing it to. Right now, there’s more demand in the market for engineering, math/statistics, and computer science majors of course, but then of course not everyone can or wants to major in those (nor would we want them to, lest we have an overabundance of software developers and no one to manage the other parts of the tech sector, let alone all the other sectors). Most times, coming from a top 20 school is the more important factor in where and whether you get a job than your actual major itself.
Of course it is possible for media companies to sponsor employees for an H1-B visa. The real question is how likely that possibility is. As you mentioned, the landscape is unpredictable - and because of the extra work involved, often the sticking point is how much the company really wants you as an employee. I think it’d be…unusual for a company like The Washington Post or The New Yorker to hire a fresh college graduate as a full-time journalist right out of school…everyone wants to write for those kinds of publications, and they could fill their ranks with journalists with years of experience from other periodicals. But don’t let that discourage you, because there are HUNDREDS of publications in cities like New York and DC. The New York magazine and newspaper publishing industry alone is gigantic.
And of course there are other jobs you can do too, outside of being a journalist or writer.
I definitely wouldn’t plan to pursue a PhD in English literature as a ‘back-up’, unless you are really passionate about having a career as a scholar of English literature (and not as a journalist, writer, communications specialist, etc.)