What can I do with an English degree?

Visiting with prospective students who are discerning their next steps in college is a highlight of my job as an English professor. It gets even more fun when they decide to join us at UNW, particularly in the English program, and I get a front row seat to how they’ll blossom over the coming years, growing in wisdom and understanding and vision for their lives.

While each conversation is unique, there’s one question that I know will come up at some point, and it will sound something like this: What can I do with an English degree?

It’s a good question, and I’m ready with one big answer: with an English degree you can do ANYTHING.

What do I mean by that? I mean that a degree in English can open doors in nearly every industry.

With an English degree, you’ll be well-equipped to pursue careers in fields such as editing & publishing, marketing & communications, content creation, copywriting, copyediting, grant or technical writing, freelance work (be your own boss!), and so much more!

You can find these in public service, the private sector, business, nonprofit, education, law, health and human services, ministry, creative fields, etc.

You’ll also be ready to pursue graduate school if that’s your interest.

But listing out possible career fields only scratches the surface of what you might do with your English degree. Odds are, you’ll change jobs plenty of times in your career. Older generations may have settled into 30+ year careers at the same company right out of college, but those days are over. Even if you’re with the same organization for decades, workers are switching roles and receiving new responsibilities on a regular basis.

And what about the jobs that don’t exist yet but will 5, 10, 15+ years from now? What about the opportunities that you haven’t had the chance to imagine? Will you be ready for those adventures?

With an English major, you will be ready for the many plot twists that come your way.

Students of English learn to ask great questions and pursue meaningful answers. They can communicate clearly with diverse groups of people, imagine creative possibilities, and think critically about complex situations.

English majors develop the capacity to hold a big picture perspective alongside careful attention to detail. This will help them (and their future teams) turn goals into realities. They aren’t satisfied with the surface level, and they don’t assume that the first idea or first impression is the best one. They keep working to find a better solution and a deeper idea.

English majors understand how the power of narrative is around us everywhere we go. They can apply that to contexts as varied as combatting human-trafficking, producing large-scale events, or interviewing people about their lives (those are snapshots from my own resume before I became an English professor).

What you do will change throughout your life, likely many times over. An English degree will help you adapt to those changes. You’ll learn to lead with curiosity and discernment. You’ll be ready to embrace opportunities that you never imagined.

When you study English (or any of the humanities!), you are exploring what it means to be human, how to be a better human, and simultaneously opening yourself up to the wide landscape of adventure and possibilities that life will send your way.

So, yes, with an English major you really can do ANYTHING.

Words are all around you. Think of English majors as people who are preparing to be the caretakers of words—one of the most powerful resources that humans have—wherever words can be found (which is everywhere).

So, students who choose to pursue an English major are stepping up and saying, “Words are full of power to hurt or to heal. They can tear down or create. I accept the responsibility to spend my life crafting words for healing in all the contexts that I God calls me to enter: my home, my church, my community, and my world.”

Here at UNW English, we’d love to help you prepare for all those callings upon your life.