Job Idea Gallery for English Majors

Interested in learning about jobs for English majors? There are a number of professions that are appropriate for people who choose to major in English in college.

Many people choose to major in English because they want to become professional writers. There are many different types of writing jobs, ranging from producing web content to writing books. Some writing jobs are staff positions, like corporate blogging jobs, while others are freelance opportunities.

If you have excellent grammar skills, are conscientious, and pay attention to detail, you might find that working as an editor is a good choice for you. Both online and traditional publishing companies hire editors to proofread articles, manuscripts, and other types of documents. As with writing jobs, there are both freelance and staff opportunities.

Print and broadcast journalism jobs are popular choices for English majors. Newspapers, magazines, and televisions stations may be open to hiring people with degrees in English to handle investigative or features reporting, fact checking, proofreading, copy editing duties, and more.

Public relations firms often consider a degree in English to be an excellent background for professional publicists. After all, the key to successfully generating publicity lies with being able to craft well written, grammatically correct news releases.

Having a degree in English can be a great background to work in advertising, especially as a copywriter. If you like the idea of coming up with catchy phrases and creating prose that sells rather than writing detailed articles, going into advertising might be the right option for you.

Teaching is a popular career for English majors. If you find teaching in a K-12 school to be an appealing career choice, check with the board of education in your state to find out what additional courses you may need to take in order to receive a teaching certificate. If you'd rather teach at a college level, you will need to earn a Master's degree or Ph.D.

When you are looking for a job, make sure that your resume is carefully crafted to highlight your academic experience as well as your experience.

Rather than listing every English class that you've ever taken, highlight your experience. If you don't have any experience, take steps to correct that. Look for an internship or volunteer opportunities that will allow you to polish the skills that employers looking to hire English majors will be looking for.

When you're ready to start applying for jobs, use top job search websites to look for the types of openings that interest you.