One of the most common career paths for graduates with an Associate’s Degree in Liberal Arts is to continue on to a Bachelor’s Degree in English. However, to earn while studying, some LA.AA graduates become writing tutors, copy-editors, or digital media specialists; these entry-level careers often provide valuable insight to future career choices.
With a Bachelor’s Degree in English, graduates often choose one of many divergent paths:
Education: K-12 teaching, which requires additional education courses and certification; corporate training; library assistant; international teaching and tutoring (sometimes online).
Publishing or Journalism: proofreading, copy-editing, reviewing manuscripts for a publisher, editorial assistant, junior reporter, fact-checker, literary agent
Business: program policy associate, professional or technical writing, marketing, corporate library assistant, corporate communications specialist, executive assistant, business relationship specialist, marketing coordinator, publications editor, finance and grants administrator, grant-writer, global publicity intern. The three most common undergraduate majors of CEOs are English, History, and Philosophy.
Government work: intelligence analyst, proofreading, copy-editing, communications specialists, entry-level technical writing, speechwriting, public relations
Law: English is one of the majors that most often leads to law school and a future career in the legal system or politics.
Medicine: Students can major in both English and Biology before entering medical school. Medical doctors who studied English often attribute superior patient care and diagnostic ability to the close reading, analytical, and empathic skills they learned through studying literature.
Entertainment: Actors, musicians, comedians, social media influencers, film directors, broadcast news analysts, and cultural critics often start as English majors.
Creative Writing: novelists, poets, playwrights, screenwriters, writers of creative non-fiction, lyricists, bloggers, and other writers often pursue an MFA (Masters of Fine Arts).
A Master’s Degree in English or Comparative Literature can lead to higher-level employment in the above fields and qualifies graduates to teach at the community college level. An editorial assistant may become a senior editor, and a fact-checker can become a senior reporter.
To teach at a college or university, a Ph.D. is required, along with a history of presentation and creative/scholarly publication. Most doctoral candidates choose between a specialization in Composition and Rhetoric Studies or Literary Studies.