by Lou Belcher

Created on: December 11, 2009

English majors have many skills that can translate to a variety of jobs. If you are willing to take in a bit of technical training as well as your formal English education classes, you will increase the number of jobs available to you. Here are some of the possibilities:

1. English majors often become teachers if they take the requisite course credits to qualify for a teaching certificate. Just because you are an English major does not make you a teacher. You must also take classes in how to be a teacher and complete student teaching. It is, however, a good career path for English majors. Once within the curriculum, English majors can concentrate on becoming a teacher for any age group. In the lower grades they will teach general English skills and when teaching older students they can concentrate on specific classic authors, etc.

2. Tutoring is often another job for English majors. If students are having difficulty with reading or in later grades, with literature, a tutor is often needed. Through tutoring, English majors can also work with writers, either individually or in groups, to build self-editing skills, etc.

3. Another tutoring avenue often filled by English majors is to help people who have moved here from other countries and don’t speak English. They help them read, write and speak English on a functional level.

4. Freelance writing is often a chosen profession of English majors. To obtain a job as a journalist you must have a specific journalism degree.  However, to become a freelance writer, you can create your own job and submit articles to magazines or write books and pursue publication.

5. English major are well-suited to become freelance content writers also. These are writers who submit articles to a pool where businesses purchase them. This works much the same as stock photography agencies work.

6. Freelance editing is also a good job for English majors. English majors naturally know the ins and outs of writing, including punctuation and rules of grammar. With some formal training or in some cases self-training, English majors can translate their skills into becoming good editors. This puts them in a position to edit a book or to edit articles for other writers.

Obviously, there are many jobs appropriate to English majors. To create a job for yourself, you only need to have the willingness to gain the specific skills necessary to use the knowledge of the English curriculum in a specific position.  

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