If you have an English lit degree, what job do you do?

[OrlandoInTheWilderness]

As title! If you have a degree in English lit, what job are you currently doing and how useful have you found it to be?
Thanks!

I'm an author and editor, working from home.

I'm currently finishing a PhD in comparative literature which will allow me to do academic teaching as well.

Arts Project Manager.

Writer. My thesis in Sensation Novels of the 1860s turned out to be more useful than I imagined it would at the time...

I'm an author and editor too, currently working freelance from home (hello @posterBezalelle)!

Oh @HerculesJohn that sounds like an interesting thesis!

Thank you everyone. Really diverse answers there!

@humsnet I'm doing an access course in September and deciding which route to go down.

Language and literature degree- primary school teacher, charity worker, sports coach, tutor, sports development officer. It can take you any direction you like! I use the writing/ speed reading/ editing skills all the time. Old Scots less so but still enjoyed it!

I'm a senior manager in a public sector project management function

Pro photographer, mostly commercial & branding with a sideline in fine art portraits :) previously I worked in marketing and degree was helpful to a point.

Most of what I gained from uni was friendship and independence.

School Business Manager

Ability to string a sentence together, argue a case, skim read and absorb salient points are all useful skills!

Corporate strategy...started as a retail buyer, then a bit of time in management consultant, now in house strategy at a big retailer. Love my job and important skills for strategy work are a curious mind, ability to sift a lot of information and decide what’s important and what’s not...once you’ve come up with the strategy you then need to tell a compelling story around it so everyone buys into it and agrees to do it! All the ‘soft skills’ I gained from my English Lit degree were very relevant.

I went to Oxford, to a small college where six of us did English Lit. Three of us are now English teachers, one works for a publishing company, one is an author and the other works for Channel 4 producing Bake Off. She wins, I reckon...

HR director. It's very transferable and I've been able to work flexibly at times in my life when I've needed to.

Dp has an English degree. He's an English teacher

Former civil servant working in policy. Now a freelance writer. The ability to put together structured reports has been the most useful, but I guess you could say that of almost all degrees.

I retrained as a social worker in Denmark. Danish is quite similar to Shakespeares english so that helped to learn the language. Also you reference law in the same way as lines in plays. Ive always been good at selecting the right text to support my argument too. There is definitely an overlap of skills.

Project/events manager type role in a university outreach team

researcher/report writer for the civil service atm, so yes, it is useful - but other arts-based subjects probably would have been just as good. But prior to this worked in an archive and as a police civilian investigator - all three within ten years of graduating, so it's true what they say about 'transferable skills,' rather than the degree itself! Also hoping to get a book published soonish...although tbh the degree almost put me off that for a bit rather than encouraged it....there was a good year after graduating where I was literature-d out and couldn't be bothered to read anything more complicated than Harry Potter!

Librarian here

Why do you ask, OP? Is it for you or for your DC you’re wondering? I think there’s massive value in studying something you love in depth, and arts subjects at degree level will give you extremely useful transferable skills.

I work in governance in a university. My friend with an eng lit degree is in HR. My work involves interpretation of often abstruse concepts and fair bit of writing, I don't suppose I use the rest. But I have never been out of work and have always been able to earn a reasonable crust.

Im an accountant specialising in something a bit niche and woolly that intersects with corporate finance, legal disputes, accounts prep and tax. I love it.

I had A at A level maths which must have been enough to get me in.

I have to write lots of reports so being articulate was a big plus. Being able to research and analyse a body of evidence vital and hold lots of different views in my mind before coming to my own conclusion, kind of like all the work I did with literary criticism.

Mind you Im 41 and for the past decade have only interviewed accounting/ finance/ business students, economists, mathematicians, law students and the odd physicist at grad level.

Back in the day the big 4 (well, 5) professional service firms recruited a lot of people with arts/humanities and other degrees but not so much now.

Its great I got to do something I love at uni and be able to get a well paid career. I dont think the job market works like that now.

Creative advertising agency - narrative analysis and writing tone is very useful!

What do you do with a BA in English?

Social worker