How does one gain employment with a BA in English?

Put simply, one doesn't.

This isn't to say that people with English degrees are unemployable. In fact, an English degree is one of the most versatile undergraduate educations, as English majors possess the communication skill sets that nearly all corporations in today's society crave.

However, the caveat to this is that because an English degree can apply to such an enormous swath of the job market, English majors can have difficulty zeroing in on a particular field.

English majors are well-served to improve their marketability by engaging in co- and extracurricular activities that develop job skills. Examples of these include working on the college newspaper, literary magazine, advertising club, etc. Also, snagging an internship at a local magazine, publishing house, or public relations agency can have a wondrous effect on an English grad's rsum.

The main knock on the English degree is that it does not offer a practical education for succeeding in the business world. Many English majors have nightmares of HR managers reading their rsum and asking: "Okay, so you can recite lines from King Lear, but what good will that do my company?"

The simple solution to this problem is to develop these practical skills outside of the classrooms, with extracurriculars and internships. Potential employers will be much more inclined to overlook the nebulous skill sets of an English grad if they can observe that the candidate has practical experience in the field.

For example, I was just hired as an editor at Summit Business Media, a national corporation that produces books and magazines for the corporate sector. During the course of my job interview, the interviewers focused exclusively on my experience at my college newspaper (of which I was the editor), and my internship at the Cincinnati Enquirer. If one is worried about the lack of practical knowledge an English degree provides, one should seed the practical knowledge themselves.

When combined with practical experience outside of the classroom, an English degree becomes a much more marketable education.

Many English majors are increasingly turning towards work in the corporate sector, because the verbal and written communication skills that English majors possess remain in top demand at nearly every company in America.

Specific jobs English majors can fill include sales and marketing, grant and contract writing or editing, technical writing, and writing advertising or public relations copy.

"A lot of our students have hooked up with private businesses," said Ernest Suarez, a chairman of the English department at The Catholic University of America in an interview with CNN. "Businesses tell us they like to hire English majors because they feel that they can think. They've got the writing and analytical skills they need. The rest they can be trained to learn."

Clearly, companies are not as averse to hiring English graduates as most people seem to think. By developing one's rsum through extracurriculars and internships, English majors can make themselves viable-even coveted-players in the job market.

Learn more about this author, Patrick Stevenson.
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