Gift Wogu

Humanities degrees, especially an English major degree have been getting so much hate on the internet. You tell someone you have an English degree and they roll their eyes at you.

I remember being in 3rd year during my undergraduate programme, I went to a friend’s room and her roommate was laughing at us because we were studying English and Literary Studies. I recall her name, Hope. She was a 3rd-year student studying Microbiology and I just came to see my friend who was her roommate and was in her final year, studying English, I did not come to be laughed at. According to Hope, she has never heard success stories of English majors in various careers, and careers for English majors did not exist. She also believed it was impossible to get high-paying jobs with an English degree as career paths for humanities graduates were unavailable.

Quite frankly, this is how people laugh or roll their eyes when they hear someone is studying English, Communications, Journalism, Linguistics, or any other degree that is not tech, finance, or healthcare related. It seems they have no idea what they are doing, are wasting money in school, and have signed a contract with poverty because what are the high-paying jobs for English degree holders?

Growing up, my mum discovered my passion for reading and writing so early that she bought me more fiction titles, bought exercise books for me to scribble my silly stories, and encouraged me to apply for the English and Literary Studies programme when it was time to go to uni. She wasn’t one of those African parents who believed that it had to be medicine, law, engineering, or failure. She believed there were English and Literary Studies careers and wanted me to do what I was good at.

Pursuing an undergraduate degree in English and Literary Studies was one of the best decisions ever, there are so many career paths I have managed to venture into with my bachelor’s degree in English. I’ve spoken about this extensively on YouTube. However, if you are studying any of the degrees that are not considered “useful” on the internet and you’re confused about what you can do, stick around while I give you 10 high-paying jobs you can get with an English degree. This is not the super story Nigerian universities tell you about working anywhere with any degree. No, you cannot be a Doctor with an English degree, let’s not deceive ourselves, please.

Public Relations

The first time I was introduced to public relations I had imposter syndrome because I kept thinking of how to build a career in public relations with an English degree. Working in PR made me fall in love with marketing communications as a whole. It was my first job straight out of uni and I loved working on campaigns and events, writing press releases, working on strategies, crisis management, and so on. An individual with an English, Linguistics, or Communications degree will thrive as a PR specialist or consultant. Your mastery of language shines and is useful in public relations.

They do not teach this in schools. So, what you can do is try to get an internship while you’re still an undergraduate. An internship gives you hands-on experience with this career path and prepares you for the future as a PR consultant. If you are unable to get an internship, you can take online courses on platforms like Coursera, Udemy, Alison, and more.

Freelance Writing

If you’ve been worried about high-paying jobs you can get with a humanities degree or career options after studying English and Literary Studies, you can consider freelance writing. It’s hard to see someone with an English or humanities degree who is a bad writer. I mean, it’s not impossible, but it’s quite hard. A degree in humanities teaches you how to write. Okay, my bad, it doesn’t teach you, but it gives you assessments that require essay writing and if you string words together well, I believe you can write.

I know, you’ll probably be worried that AI will take all the writing jobs, but that’s not true, at least for now. I believe writers will still be in demand and there are various kinds of writing you can do if you want to go into freelancing. I used to actively freelance so you have to take my word for it. You can go into ghost-writing fiction and non-fiction eBooks (watch here on how to write an eBook for beginners), content writing, copywriting, academic writing, and so on. If writing is your thing, find a niche that works for you, but remember speed is important. However, never compromise quality for speed. Watch this video on how to write 10k words in a day if you’re struggling with writing slowly.

Social Media Management

A humanities degree equips you with creativity that helps thrive in social media management which is why graduates with an English degree do well in social media; they are creative and can think. I’ll give you some social media management tips for English graduates that will help you start and thrive as a social media manager. You can manage a company’s social media accounts, create content, write social media copies and captions, do the tags research, learn social media advertising, and so on. To get social media management experience, you can start a social media page and take it seriously. Learn how to edit videos using tools like Power Director, Canva, Adobe Premier Pro, Final Cut, and a host of other tools. You can also use Canva to learn how to create carousels and design thumbnails for your social media platforms.

If you are too shy to create on your personal pages, volunteer to create content for your department in school, apply for internships, volunteer to manage the social media pages of family and friends who have small businesses, or take courses online. The Meta Social Media Marketing course is a good introduction, but you can also take the Google Fundamentals of Digital Marketing course.

Editing

This is not my strength, but graduates of English or any other humanities degree can work as Editors in different capacities. There are editing jobs for humanities graduates. You can work as a copy editor, focusing on the grammar, punctuation, and word choice (using synonyms or changing from passive to active voice), a line editor who goes over a work line by line to be sure it’s spotless, you can work in marketing as a content editor, editing content that goes on to blogs, social media, newsletters, and press releases before publishing.

An editor needs to be meticulous and have an eye for detail. If this is you and you have a degree in humanities, you might want to consider becoming an Editor. To gain work experience, you can apply for internships or volunteer in publishing houses, media houses, public relations agencies, social media agencies, or an advertising agency.

English as a Second Language Teaching

Notice that I didn’t go straight into teaching because everyone expects that the answer to what can I do with an English degree is teaching. If teaching is what you’d like to do, that’s amazing. Teachers are our heroes and you might want to consider teaching English abroad opportunities. So, if you are down for a bit of adventure, you can apply abroad as an English as a Second Language Teacher.

Most of these schools abroad are desperately in need of an English teacher and when you get the job, they cater for your logistics and everything you need. You get to experience life in another country and live the full eat, pray, and love package on the school’s funds. I mean, you’re working for the money, but it doesn’t matter. Consider working as a teacher abroad if you enjoy teaching and working with young people.

Banking

This might be a bit controversial, but guess whose first corporate experience was in banking? Me! I interned at a top commercial bank as a Risk Management during my 3rd year of uni. I got that internship when I was studying English and Literary Studies.

You see, banks do not need you to have a degree in banking or finance, you need at least a second-class upper degree in any discipline to get into a top commercial bank’s internship or graduate scheme.

I was invited to apply for the graduate scheme as an ex-intern after my internship, but I declined. I also got a job with a commercial bank’s graduate scheme after my compulsory national service, but I changed my mind and didn’t resume. If you love banking and finance, you can still get in. Prepare extensively for the assessments, practice interview questions, and hope for the best. Also, try to graduate with a 2:1 to get into a good scheme.

Management Consulting

Getting into a graduate scheme in management consulting doesn’t require a specific degree. Most of these companies require a specific grade so get that grade up my babies.

To get into management consulting, you need to get a good grade, apply, write the assessments and smash it, go do the assessment centre, interviews and you get your offer letter.

It’s important to note that to grow in this career path, you will have to write professional exams. For instance, if you’re considering the Big 4 (KPMG, EY, PWC, Deloitte), you’d have to write professional accounting exams to get ahead in your career. So, if you love management consulting and you don’t mind pursuing a career in it, you need to start now.

Read extensively, apply for internships while you’re still in school, do your research regarding the interview questions and case studies, read forums, and keep those grades up.

Human Resources

HR roles should be left for those in humanities and social sciences because degrees centre around human beings, society, and culture which are integral parts of human resources.

If you scroll on LinkedIn, you’ll find HR professionals forgetting that the H in HR stands for humans. Some HR professionals are quite mean to job seekers, making the already stressful job-hunting process a more miserable experience. With a degree in humanities, you understand how to use words to explain things, de-escalate situations, and relate to humans better. You also understand the role empathy plays in the workplace.

If you’re drawn to making people have a better experience while passing critical information, you should consider a career in HR. You can start by researching and if you’re convinced you want to go into HR, start looking out for internships, cold emailing companies, following HR professionals, and consider getting certified in HR while actively applying to jobs when you have completed your programme.

Radio Presenting

My second real job in school was as a Radio Presenter. I was Co-hosting the show Cruise Easy on Lion FM with my late friend Emeka, but this job did not fall on my lap. I went for an interview for this role previously and I was rejected, but one thing about me is once I set my mind to something, I follow through.

I knew I loved to talk and if the school Radio Station wasn’t going to give me an opportunity, I was going to create one for myself. I started a YouTube channel in my second year and boy, did I talk on there. Somehow, this channel got to Emeka who was the host of the Cruise Easy show, may his soul rest in peace. He invited me on the show and we had an amazing time; the callers loved the interaction between both of us and Emeka asked if I wanted to join him. Of course, I said yes.

Studying a course in the humanities, especially English and Literary Studies gives you confidence. It prepares you for communication. With courses in Phonetics, Phonology, and Spoken English, you understand language and interact with people a little bit better.

User Experience (UX) Writer

If you’ve been looking for a good way to break into tech as someone with a communications or English degree, you can try UX writing. It involves creating content for a website or product that enables the target audience or user to have a seamless experience while navigating the product and engaging more with it.

It’s not easy to become a UX writer with no experience and it’s not the same as content writing. You need to read about this career path and be sure it’s what you want to venture into. When you’ve made that decision, the first thing to do is take an online course to learn more. I recommend checking out courses on Udemy or Coursera in this regard, choosing and taking a course, taking more courses because learning never ends, building a portfolio while on it, talking about your journey on social media, sharpening your writing skills because what harm can being better really do?

When you’ve done the things I’ve listed above, you might gain hands-on experience by applying for internships or entry-level roles in UX writing. Network on social media platforms like LinkedIn and do not stop building your portfolio.

Dear readers, I hope I have been able to answer your what can I do with an English degree, what careers beyond teaching for English graduates and how to get a job with an English degree questions. I also hope this article has been able to convince you and not confuse you that there are high-paying jobs for English majors, communications, or humanities graduates generally.

If you genuinely like a course, go for it. Don’t fall into the social media pressure of doing a course you do not like because it will supposedly give you more money. Passion helps with learning and you might fail in school if you decide to pursue something you detest and you’re not good at.

Tell us in the comment section if you are doing something related to your degree; if you studied English or a degree in the humanities and we skipped your career path, what do you do for a living and what did you study? What are some of the best jobs for English majors not listed here?