Where Do English Majors End Up?

Spoiler Alert: It's not serving coffee like memes tell you.

by Franki Hanke

The English major gets a bad rap. Even on the campus of a liberal arts college, it’s still shockingly common to hear quips about ending up as a barista. However, people actually in the major prove the overall perception is outdated.

Interviewing graduates from Hamline’s English program, not a single one would change their degree if they were teleported back in time. Every single person was satisfied with where their degree took them, but there’s intense diversity in where English majors end up.

From technical writing, librarianship, or teaching to marketing, law, software, or medicine, careers for English majors are everywhere.

Some followed the anticipated rhythm: graduate and find a job—like Christina Zauhar, a 2009 graduate. Zauhar met her current boss while in class; he spoke as a guest speaker while she was in law school. Afterward, she introduced herself and mentioned her interest in clerking for Halberg Criminal Defense where he was a partner. While they weren’t currently hiring, she passed on her card and a few months later a clerkship was hers. That position led to the full-time job she has with them now. “The story of how I got my job is a perfect example of how networking works,” Zauhar said.

In much the same way, Carey Nadeau, a 1999 graduate, credits her positions to being upfront about what she wanted to do.

“As a non-confrontational person that’s a challenge, but so, so important,” Nadeau said.

Initially, Nadeau worked in art and arts education nonprofit but switched into the healthcare world as a grant administrator after finding she wanted a change. Her ability to speak up helped her both get her initial job and aid the swap into a new area. Utilizing an English degree in scientific medical industries isn’t uncommon.

Amy Ruuska, a 1994 graduate, now works as a clinical pharmacist at Methodist Hospital, but she wouldn’t change her English degree. Instead, she wishes she’d added a major in biology to complement her eventual doctorate in pharmacy.

“Like the Dixie Chicks’ song, I seemed to take the long way around to arrive at my current job,” Ruuska said. She obtained her EMT certification and worked as a camp nurse for the Girl Scouts which led to a full-time position creating programs for the scouts. “This role also rejuvenated my interest in science, which led to applying to the Doctor of Pharmacy program at the University of Minnesota.”

The idea that some industries don’t need the skills of an English major just doesn’t add up. Even Danielle St. Louis, a 2006 graduate, and Kris Hackney, a 1994 graduate, in marketing and software respectively, utilize their degrees daily even if, at first glance, they might seem like a stretch.

“My world was rocked. I had no idea there were so many career paths for someone with my skill sets,” St. Louis said, upon finding the realm of professional writing.

My English background is 100 percent relevant and prepared me for this career, and even though I never would have imagined this as where I’d end up, this is exactly where I want to be.

In the same way, Hackney didn’t anticipate ending up as Executive Vice President for Customer Experience at a software company when he attended school in the 90s. He now works at Applied Systems in a digital industry that he’s been in for 25 years.

“My ability to write effectively and think critically is so important to my role. Being an English major ultimately taught me to think,” Hackney said.

It is an undervalued and perhaps misunderstood major, like liberal arts in general, perhaps, but I wouldn’t change a thing about that.

Some majors found that they struggled to find a fitting position immediately postgraduation but don’t blame liberal arts or the English Department. They credit it to not complementing their English degree with the right experience to find a job they liked. Laurie Simenson, a 1978 graduate, ended up as a supervisor librarian in Hennepin County, but initially following graduation she worked in offices, cleaned houses, and returned home for a job in a school district she couldn’t stand long term.

I graduated with an English degree and no real marketable skills. Basically, I realized that I was graduating with a lovely degree that, in of itself, would not get me a job.

However, her work experience in the library at Hamline and at home in Buffalo led her into a master’s program in library science. Eventually, she started a life-long career as a librarian that she’s been in now for over 30 years—without a day of boredom. “English was an ideal major for me, and in many ways librarianship was an ideal career for me,” Nienow said, but unlike Simenson, she never struggled to find a position. Eleven days after graduating with her master’s, she had an offer.

In that way, the jokes surrounding English majors and unemployment might be misplaced, but some areas of the humor are correct: some do end up working in education.

Mindy Christianson always planned to be a teacher, as did Dr. Artika Tyner. While Christianson only adjusted the age level she’d teach at, Tyner veered towards law instead when she realized the classroom might not have a wide enough impact for the inequalities she wanted to address.

Now Christianson has a three-block commute to her job teaching college level courses in English and communications in her hometown’s high school, while Tyner works as the Associate Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion at the University of St. Thomas, but they both started in the same place: the English department of Hamline, and they are both happy with where they ended up.

The English major provides a wide framework for learning skills that fit into a multitude of different industries and careers. Ultimately, with so many potential careers, it’s important for those in the program to couple their degree with networking, experience, and additional education that lead them towards the specificity they want. But no matter where that takes them, an English degree is a worthwhile step on the way.

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Franki Hanke is an English major herself and works for the department curating their blog Hamline Lit Link. Full stories on each of the graduates mentioned in the above story appeared in their What Next? series earlier this semester. To read their tales in full, visit https://tinyurl.com/hamlinelitlink.