Careers for English Majors

100_careers_for_english_majors

When I tell someone I am an English major, the first question I get is “What do you want to do with that,” usually followed by “Oh, do you want to be a teacher?” I then go on to explain that English majors, specifically PWR majors, learn how to communicate an intended message to a specific audience using effective rhetorical strategies. The skills we learn to communicate are valued in hundreds of jobs, so if you ever get that question, take a look here to see the career options you can pursue.

Let’s take a look at a few:

Exhibit Designer
This one does seem a little strange for an English major because designing is about visual elements. However, in PWR we take the time to learn effective visual strategies. For example, no one is going to read your newsletter if it is formatted like an MLA essay. Therefore, PWR majors understand the importance of visually communicating with an audience and how this affects the way the message is received. Also, as a Exhibit Designer, you usually work with clients, which requires an extensive amount of communication. Lastly, Exhibit Designers must be very detailed oriented, something that PWR majors tend to pay attention to because anything out of place can alter the way the message is received, whether the message is in the form of an e-mail or an art exhibit.

Senator
When English majors write and communicate, they are always aware of who their audience is. They ask themselves “What information does my audience need?”, “How should I deliver my message?”, “How do I arrange the information that needs to be included?”, “How do I establish ethos (credibility)?”, “What is my overall purpose?”, etc. Now, imagine yourself as a Senator communicating and representing your audience of voters. To be a successful Senator, you have to ask yourself many of those questions. Senators are also tasked with researching, writing, evaluating, and passing new laws. This seems obvious as PWR majors do a fair amount of writing, which requires research and evaluation.

Software Engineer
Although it may seem that this career has nothing to do with English, it can actually be beneficial to have a PWR background as a Software Engineer. In order to create software that is successful, you have to understand your audience. You can’t just create a program without understanding how people are going to use it. Also, the program is going to have to be explained in some sort of user manual. The user manual has to be written in a way that the audience understands, and who better to do this than someone who understands professional writing?

Public Relations Manager
As the article states, clients can make or break a company. Therefore, it is important for organizations to have strong communication skills with their clients. Organizations need to show their clients how they are excelling in order to keep clients’ loyalty. This can be done by writing press releases for a new product, updating the organization’s website, posting on social media, and much more. All of these forms of communication are written, and PWR majors can make sure that the information that is written and shared reaches the intended audience in the best medium with the most effective rhetorical strategies. PWR majors can help promote an organization by ensuring that proper communication flow is n effect between an organization and its audience.

What career path are you thinking about, and how can an English major background help you?

This entry was posted in Outside the Classroom. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.