What can I do with an English degree?

English graduates enter a broad range of professions, including education, marketing, journalism and public relations. Their analytical and communication skills are potentially in demand in management roles both in business and the public sector.

This guide should help you think about the skills you have, the jobs they can be applied to, and the options available.

Skills for your CV

Specific skills you will have gained include:

• critical and evaluative thinking
• self-management
• excellent written communication
• oral communication and interpersonal skills
• research and analysis skills
• ability to work independently

Though pay levels for English graduates may not be as high as those in other areas, many of the career opportunities it opens up can be particularly rewarding. Typical roles include publishing, academia or working with heritage and culture.

English graduates are suitable for many roles in the business sector, where their ability to sift the evidence and present arguments will help them to succeed. What is more, their interpersonal skills should set them up well for a role in management. Employers in areas such as finance and IT often have vacancies such as customer-facing roles that are not technical, or where it is not a requirement for applicants to have a numerate degree: these are among the options open to English graduates.

Job roles and career areas you could work in

With some additional training, English graduates could consider jobs in teaching, journalism or acting, and the following roles:

• advertising account executive
• advertising copywriter
• arts administrator
• public relations (PR) officer
• broadcasting presenter
• intelligence
• marketing executive job description

What do English graduates go on to do?

Here’s what English graduates who finished their degrees in 2017 were doing six months after graduating, according to the What do graduates do? report published in 2018.

Destination	Percentage
Full-time employment in the UK	40.1
Part-time employment in the UK	14.3
Working overseas	2.7
Working and studying	7.8
Further study	24.7
Unemployed	5.4
Other	5.1

Source: What do graduates do? 2018

Key areas of employment for fresh English graduates

These are the top five areas of work taken up by 2017 English graduates six months after graduation, according to the 2018 What do graduates do? report.

Areas of employment	Percentage
Retail, catering, waiting and bar staff	19.2
Marketing, PR and sales professionals	16.4
Clerical, secretarial and numerical clerks	11.2
Education professionals	9.5
Arts, design and media professionals	9.1

Source: What do graduates do? 2018

Other careers pursued by English graduates included business, HR and finance (8.9%), management (3.3) and legal, social and welfare professions (3.8%).

The proportion of English graduates working in retail, catering, bar and waiting jobs is perhaps in part a reflection of this group’s willingness to take on jobs in the short-term while working towards longer-term career goals – it’s worth remembering that English graduates are less likely to be unemployed than graduates of several other degree subjects, including IT graduates (9.4% of whom were unemployed) and mathematics (7.5% unemployed).

Secretarial and clerical positions (taken by 11.2% of English graduates) can offer a way into competitive industries such as publishing, so it may be that English graduates are pragmatic about playing a long game with regards to their overall career goals.

What salaries could graduates who studied English earn?

Want to know what graduates in your degree discipline typically earn in different locations? The Pay Index has provided targetjobs with a handy graduate salary tool showing just that.

Famous people with English degrees

If none of these options appeal to you, there are plenty of other paths available. Consider the following famous people, who all had English degrees:

• Emma Watson – as bookish as her character Hermione in the Harry Potter films, she studied at Brown University in the US.
• Jeremy Paxman – now known as the presenter of University Challenge , Jeremy’s own student days were spent at the University of Cambridge.
• Philip Pullman – studied at the University of Oxford, and later created a parallel version of the city in his fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials .
• Reneé Zellweger – the Bridget Jones actress studied at the University of Texas.
• Hannah Murray – otherwise known as Gilly in Game of Thrones and Cassie in Skins .
• Stephen Fry – the QI presenter studied at the University of Cambridge and even appeared on University Challenge while he was a student.