Help! English literature degree

[MissJimmysjumpers]

if you had an English literature degree and were really good at languages what could you do next?

DD is looking at A levels in English Lit, history, psychology and french. She recently had a careers chat which involved an English teacher who wanted to look at Russel group universities for English literature with her but no thoughts about what she might do with her degree or career inspiration

this has left DD, who is good at most things but particularly good at English even more confused, any thoughts welcome

I did an English Lit degree and PG in library and information science. I have had an amazing career in Corporate libraries and managing global teams doing research, data procurement, taxonomies and well paid and interesting too. This was a middle ranking Uni for my undergraduate degree and an ex-poly for my PG.

i know others who did English Lit degrees who do a huge range of well paid careers in AI, research, NLP, Corporate Social Responsibility, Civil Service, tuition centre franchise owner etc.

I have an Eng lit degree from Cambridge. My cohort went on to journalism, management consulting, nursing, speech and language therapy, market research, publishing, civil service.
The Cambridge degree encourages you to take a paper in literature in another language as well.
If I had been really strong in languages I would have applied to Reuters to work as an international journalist, I nearly did, but did a postgrad journalism course instead.

I do agree with this, and DH and I did discuss a few years ago that she would need supporting to make good choices while us knowing she might not decide what she wants to do until the other side of a degree.
however DD is now putting some thought into the other side of a degree and while she might not want a firm plan she is interested in where some choices may take her
and the chat with the English literature teacher as really shaken her as she came out of the conversation feeling that English lit from a good university equals teaching, which she feels strongly against for herself

I would argue a STEM subject will give you the ultimate transferable skills.
Humanities degrees are absolutely valued in many arenas but if you want to 100% supercharge your employability and transferability, do STEM

I've worked as a teacher, a bookseller, a solicitor, and I now work in the heritage sector (where I am the odd one out - most of my colleagues studied history/archaeology/history of art).

I strongly believe in doing what you love at uni. There will be very little chance at other points in life where you can really follow your passion in this way with no real consequence.
I am one of the MN Eng Lit grads who is now a chartered accountant. Post uni (in fact post PhD but that’s another matter) I joined a grad scheme and they paid me to do another qualification. Incidentally, the same qualification that all the accounting grads who joined with me also had to do. Some genuinely liked accounting enough to do 3 years of it at uni I’m sure, but more questioned why they didn’t just do what they enjoyed.
Don’t restrict choices due to worry about work outcomes. There are very few actually vocational degrees out there (medicine being an obvious exception). Do what you enjoy.

I did my BA in Eng Lit with French. My first job after graduation was in the research department of an international company. My boss at the time said she liked to recruit English and History graduates because they had the research, reading and writing skills. Speaking another language was also an advantage.

in terms of selecting unis, Eng lit is offered at most places so I would suggest:

• does she want campus or city?
• how far does she want to be from home?
• are there any particular things she needs to prioritise like a year abroad or work placements or a sport?

Then get on UCAS course search, use the filters to look for unis that meet her grades and geographical reqs, and check them for the other q’s above. Once she’s got a shortlist there, it’s essentially about going through and looking for the ones with modules she’s most interested in - so if she’s anti Shakespeare study for example, she could discount any unis with a big focus there.

I think it is important to understand that, particularly for general academic degrees, rarely does 'the degree gets you the job' but rather 'what you did alongside your degree gets you the job'. A 2.1 or above in Eng Lit at a competitive entry uni (plenty in the north) combined with evidence of other activities that demonstrate you are a self-starter, can work co-operatively alongside other people and, for non-STEM students, your basic numerical and digital skills are OK, is what increases chances of getting into a rewarding and interesting career.

With regards keeping quantitative skills in play, bear in mind Psychology A level would tick that box or, if entirely MFL and humanities A levels chosen, Core Maths could be a useful adjunct (assuming Maths is not a particular weakness).

Finally, if time abroad is of interest, there are Management degrees, from the likes of Leeds, Manchester and Lancaster, that allow for an MFL element and potential overseas placements. These have the added advantage of plugging you into the dedicated career service of their respective business schools.

Spanish is great too. She can look at The Bookseller online and start to get a feel for rights, agents and what they do. Everyone speaks English of course but it’s more the cultural awareness and interest that languages will bring and will set her apart. Also book production as so many books are printed internationally and so languages is good for that

It's nice that they have a chat, mind. Lots of schools don't even do this and I'd guess an English teacher might mention teaching (I'd be more worried if a teacher did the anti teacher spiel to a captive audience!)

Is there a careers person she can also speak to at school?

An English degree is a really good degree!

Re this question.

In the broad North, the excellent unis for English are (undisputed champ!) York, Durham, Leeds, Lancaster followed by Manchester, Sheffield and then , a bit further south Warwick and Birmingham. There are lots of excellent unis for English in the North- in fact you have the pick, Oxbridge aside!

I am a STEM academic but I agree with the majority here that an English degree can lead to a fine career pathway. It’s just not necessarily as well defined as that of, eg an engineer or a computer scientist - at least initially. (FWIW Maths students are in a similar position.)

The most important thing in my view is that DD feels she is steering her own ship. I am not quite sure from your posts, OP, whether English is merely her strength or whether she also loves it? I ask because all the wonderful responses you’re getting could equally well be had if you’d said French was her strength, she was considering doing MFL, and you had concerns. In fact there was a recent thread full of career successes flowing from MFL degrees.

Students who feel in control are more motivated and therefore do better. They also develop fewer of the MH problems that have become sadly endemic to university students.

If DD is uncertain a gap year may be useful. Students tend to be well focused afterwards. All of the initial concerns about being a year behind their friends, etc, quickly fade. Many of those friends will also take gap years, or lose a year to life. And no one at uni will know or care, except that those who have had a gap year are generally more mature with all of the advantages that brings.

Best wishes to DD

If I was her I'd do a literature based MFL degree - that way I'd have all the skills and career options of an English Literature degree, with the added skill of being able to speak a language or two fluently and understanding some other cultures. Plus if you choose the year abroad wisely, it can make you more employable.

Thank you this is really helpful
to answer some questions, English lit is her favourite subject.
She hasn’t got as far as wanted to study at degree level, but it is her first pick for A level. She has a long way to go to decide what is next, but this thread is a good start

I have an English literature degree from an RG University. I am in the advisory arm of a large accountancy firm. We love to recruit arts degree holders. I need erudite communicators with strong research skills.

I mainly get accountancy and economics grads but my better staff have degrees in philosophy, psychology and theology!

I choose staff for what they do around their degree so tell her to look into internships, clubs and societies, correspondence courses,.

So much good advice on here from posters OP. It can be tricky having a YP who has more all round skills so definitely choosing something they really enjoy is key. Also, they change a lot between years 11 and 13 as they mature and explore HE in more detail in preparation for applications.

Like CrocusSnowdrop has suggested, mine did Eng Lit, Spanish, History and Maths (AS) for A levels, moving away from a straight Eng Lit course (would have been too dry for her) to a multi disciplinary language one that included the lit, history, politics, cultural, economic factors etc.

Early days just finishing Y2, but she's on the first rung of a Big 4 consultancy process targeted via a women in business programme, where whilst most applicants would have come from the STEM/business fields, there is room for a humanities students who demonstrate value from their chosen study and wider EC/campus stuff.

Language take up is so much in decline now, especially from UK based students that is she enjoys them as well as being good at them, she should try and incorporate them into her study options and continue her french at A level. It's also so much more interesting than at GCSE level, in my opinion.

Very encouraging post @ZenNudist for YP or their parents out there doubting what some recruiters look for. Thank you.

I would say that the ability to grab opportunities with both hands is probably the biggest thing career-wise. For instance, to take advantage of internships/placements/years in employment etc. that universities may point students in the direction of. A degree can give opportunities, however it's then a question of making the most of them. I didn't particularly do this myself as a student in the 1990s, but working in a RG university now, I can see that there is so much more which is accessible to students.

Eng lit grad here: started as a market researcher (brands, new product development, advertising and comms) and now a user researcher (helping digital interfaces work better for people). My dd is going to study English lit and linguistics next year: If you’d dd likes languages, linguistics might also be of interest (sometimes joint honours, sometimes integrated) and opens up some additional obvious careers like speech and language therapy.

@Piggywaspushed : interested to read you’d see York as the ‘undisputed’ choice for northern uni - it’s my dds first choice for next year :-)

It was slightly tongue in cheek as it is where I went! But it's still considered one of the very best!

@Piggywaspushed : that’s sounds totally fair (I was at Leeds ;-)

Also excellent!

I would argue a STEM subject will give you the ultimate transferable skills.
Humanities degrees are absolutely valued in many arenas but if you want to 100% supercharge your employability and transferability, do STEM

Not everyone can just 'do STEM'. Me trying to 'do STEM' beyond O Level would have been an utter waste of my and my teachers' tiime. I had no interest and no aptitude. Failed O Level Biology, managed a moderate pass in Maths, to everyone's surprise, but would have been completely out of my depth at A Level.

OP, has your dd considered a joint English and MFL degree? But unless she has a burning vocation for any particular career, I think she should choose her degree for love of the subject, and worry about a career later. By the time she's in her third year, there might be options she hasn't yet heard of or considered, or which don't even exist today. (I have a friend who did a chemistry degree, but ended up as a programmer and software analyst, a career which didn't exist when she was an undergraduate.)

Hi, I did English Lit at a RG uni and then joined the military. I loved the degree and found it interesting but didn’t want to teach, it was merely a stepping stone to the next stage in life.