I began my undergrad at community college in 2013 spring and I graduated from high school in 2012 spring. I was 18 and I didn’t know what to do, actually I still don’t know what to do and I’m 21. I started with Nursing because my mom wanted me to do that and everyone was telling me how great it was. Unfortunately, I do not have a “science brain” and I questioned whether I would be an effective nurse. Also, I got a D on my first Anatomy class and took it again but withdrew from it. After that I chose to pursue an English degree because the only thing I wanted out of college was to improve my written communication. I transferred to a local university but before I began my first semester there some of my relatives came over and basically implied that I was insane to pursue a liberal arts degree. I got really emotional about it which caused me to change my major to Accounting. I never took classes for this and after this semester I realized that my personality doesn’t suite the corporate world. I also dropped out of my Accounting class because my professor was treating the class like an intermediate class and it was an introduction class. Basically she made it harder than it was supposed to be and five other people also dropped out of her class. Anyway, I switched my major back to English but now I’m having a crisis because I feel like I won’t be able to find internships or get a job. I’m not even minoring or double majoring in anything else, I’m only getting an English Language and Literature degree because if I do anything else with it I will be in school longer.
Most English majors are gainfully employed after college. The unemployment rate in that major is a bit higher than it would be in accounting or nursing, of course, but that’s because those majors lead directly into a specific kind of job. A humanities major is a more generalist degree that prepares you for a lot of different kinds of jobs, but you have to be pretty creative in thinking about where your skills will fit. But most English majors are gainfully employed right after graduation.
Really, the way to get jobs is to do internships, and the way to get internships is to pound the pavement a little bit. Connect with your college’s career services office and see what kind of internship help they give you, and start doing some Internet searches on summer internships around the country that you can go to and that interest you. Don’t think narrowly - English could be good in management, advertising, marketing, technical writing, law,* medical writing and administration, grant writing, and academic staff work.
*Not necessarily being a lawyer, but law support like being a paralegal. The paralegal career has transformed in the last 10-15 years - now most paralegal ads want someone with a bachelor’s degree and a certificate from a paralegal training program. It’s actually better paid now than it used to be, too. On average they make in the $50-55K range.