What are you doing to do with that major?
It’s a perspective as old as the English major itself: skepticism about the utility of studying English and, more broadly, the humanities. As STEM fields have solidified their dominance in our economy, the skepticism seems only to grow—despite the fact that our own STEM-field colleagues consistently bemoan a lack of writing and analytic skills in their own students and urge them to take more humanities courses.
The Association of Departments of English convened a task force to study this question with real data and real stories—not simply vague cultural narratives or recruiting anecdotes. The result is a new document: "Report on English Majors’ Career Preparation and Outcomes." This report, compiled by a committee of impressive scholars and practitioners, provides compelling evidence that English majors and minors not only find jobs and excel financially, but also enjoy fulfilling careers and lives, debunking some of the most persistent myths surrounding their career prospects.
One of the key highlights of this report is the recognition of innovative efforts led by forward-thinking departments to address student concerns about job prospects. These efforts are exemplary models that we can integrate into our own career preparation initiatives within our department. And the good news is that we’re already doing a number of the recommended items. Just this year, we rolled out one-credit Professional Development courses in each of our undergraduate major programs, and we brought countless professionals to campus to speak to our students about what they’ve done with their English degrees.
There’s no denying that English majors face mounting pressure to translate their degrees into tangible professional opportunities and financial security. This is just as true, we should note, of computer science majors, in light of the recent mass layoffs in the tech industry, notably at Google and Apple. As humanities departments, across the US and UK especially, grapple with student concerns about job prospects and college debt, we must prioritize career preparation as an ethical obligation to our students, not merely as a recruitment strategy.
This imperative extends across all demographics and identities. By placing students' ambitions and ideas at the forefront of what we do, we affirm that career preparation is not an addendum but a fundamental aspect of our educational mission. Further, the report urges us to tap alumni networks as a powerful resource for career guidance and mentorship. Many of our alums, of course, are parents of current and potential students in the humanities, and in these exchanges, we need to underscore the importance of disseminating authoritative data on salaries and career outcomes to them, thereby empowering informed decision-making. Finally, we need to lean on our faculty and advisors to help students recognize and articulate the valuable skills acquired through the English major, helping them understand how they fit relative to the demands of the job market.
We celebrate the diverse and impressive career outcomes of our students, and we recognize and support career preparation efforts as integral components of what we do as a department. We should work toward a very near future in which a degree from our department clearly signals a great deal to employers, graduate and professional schools, and the larger world.
—Gayle Rogers