What do people do with their humanities B.A.s?

May 1, 2017 12:00 PM

Anecdata wanted: if you know someone who majored in English, History or similar, what job do they do, and what path did they take to get there?

Lately, I've had occasion to hang out with a bunch of college students majoring in various humanities subjects, all of whom are stressed about jobs this time of year.

The prevailing narrative among both the students and their mentors is that they will go on to get jobs as full-time writers, PR folks, journalists or editors (or "working in publishing"), because that is What Humanities Majors Do, and that moreover, all the aforementioned careers are booming and provide a great, totally realistic way to earn a living these days.

This is confusingly at odds with the conventional wisdom I'd internalized back in college, which was that (a) no academic major (short of nursing/engineering) prepares you for much of anything; that (b) you use college to develop as a person/ prove how smart you are, then hustle your way into whatever industry you like and go from there; and that (c) if anything, you're best off not fixating on the sexiest, most obvious career paths, since those are where competition is strongest and working conditions are worst. My instinct is that these young people are missing out on a huge range of possible employment by mentally limiting themselves to future careers as full-time novelists or editors of boutique magazines (then falling back on teaching or grad school if those don't pan out). But I've realized that I also don't have a lot of concrete counterexamples of humanities majors who do land and prosper in those random-but-practical business/ office/ etc. jobs.

Thus, a two-part question for MeFites who are, or who know any, humanities majors. First, can you share a bit about the career paths those people have followed? What jobs do they take? Where do they end up?

And second, can anybody confirm or disconfirm my instincts about the health of the publishing, writing and journalism employment markets? Can an OK student emerging from a middling school reasonably expect to "make it" as a writer or editor these days, or is it fair to gently nudge them toward other options?

posted by gallusgallus to Work & Money (89 answers total)

I have an English BA from a liberal arts university, and I went straight to law school. I'm now a practicing attorney, though I wanted to be an attorney since high school - I wouldn't recommend the field for humanities majors who don't know what else to do (though that's how a lot of people land in law school).

Of my fellow English majors, exactly one is actively working in publishing, and she got there through a lot of internships that she worked for little or no money. A lot of my classmates landed in management or sales type positions, and a few others eventually went to law school. Others went back to school for nursing degrees or retrained as software engineers.
posted by craven_morhead at 12:07 PM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

I have a humanities degree (quite literally a BA in Humanities) and I have worked in a library for the past 11 years. To be an actualfax librarian, you need an MLIS but there are lots of library jobs that require only a bachelors.
posted by darchildre at 12:08 PM on May 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

I majored in English, then worked in book publishing for about ten years (mostly in production). Now I own and run a yarn shop.
posted by rikschell at 12:11 PM on May 1, 2017 [3 favorites]

I have a BA in liberal arts. Immediately after graduating I worked as a clerk in a library then got my master's in library science to be a librarian.

You are right in thinking the fields of journalism/publishing have terrible employment prospects these days. But I'm not sure there's much use in "nudging" someone interested in those fields in a different direction. You don't mention your relationship with these folks (are you a parent? a friend? a colleague?) but for the most part, this is something young adults will have to figure out on their own.
posted by pantarei70 at 12:12 PM on May 1, 2017 [4 favorites]

Me. I have a history degree (with a second concentration in English)
College Degree->Teaching Certification classes->Teaching High School->Teaching Middle School->Contract work in educational publishing (writing and researching)->Salaried position in Educational Publishing.

If you come out of a middling school and get a job in my industry as a writer or editor, you better live somewhere cheap. The pay will be in the high-20s to mid-30s.
posted by Seamus at 12:13 PM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

I struggle to think of the combination of personal qualities* it would take for a kid to be able to have "reasonable expectation" of success in writing, journalism or media. Super smart, super hard working, super good looking, super charming, super networker maybe? And I think there still PLENTY of people who you'd see ticking most of the boxes beating a retreat to Law School after a few desultory years in New York.

*the people who really can reasonably expect that success are those whose moms or dads can get them enough good jobs and visibility to get established.
posted by MattD at 12:13 PM on May 1, 2017 [5 favorites]

I work with a ton of humanities majors in e-commerce. They do everything from copywriting to project management to people management. No shortage of websites these days, and companies who want websites. Technical writing is also a biggie.
posted by Autumnheart at 12:14 PM on May 1, 2017 [6 favorites]

Humanities degrees are for making you educated, which might result in a career, but not necessarily. I'm a fine arts major and while I could have gone into fine arts, graphic design, museums, teaching, etc., I am now a librarian (was a picture framer/art supplies retail/sold some paintings/was a barista/security guard/mailroom attendant; went back to school for MLIS; got recruited at ALA.) Both of my parents were English majors; my mom went back to school to be a therapist, and my dad went into IT in the early 80's. My sister majored in Women's Studies and now is a retail manager and makes way more money than if she'd gone into academia, the original plan.

My suggestion is that if you're not going into a field that results in a job (med school, engineering, teaching, law) you need to be good at something else and work through school. An English major with no resume and no work skills is going to be in a bad place. An English major who is good at stage managing or nannying or secretarying or something, who consistently worked part time or had an internship, will do fine, eventually.
posted by blnkfrnk at 12:14 PM on May 1, 2017 [4 favorites]

Me. Tech writer and braille transcriber.
posted by Melismata at 12:14 PM on May 1, 2017

I was a history major back in the day and then I became an editor and now I do some editorial stuff and mostly web production stuff.

My friend who was a philosophy major has been a nurse practitioner for a couple of decades. She specializes in treating people with HIV.

My partner was an English major and she did HIV/AIDS policy work for a long time and now does drug reform/harm reduction policy. She went to grad school a few years out of college and got an MPP/MPH.

Another friend was...either a history or a government major, I forget which, and she does HIV policy. She also went to grad school for public policy/public health.

If you are good at your humanities major and have learned how to read, digest, analyze, interpret, and write about your field of interest, you can turn those skills to nearly anything.
posted by rtha at 12:15 PM on May 1, 2017 [4 favorites]

For your combination of middling school / OK grades, if that's a key part of your analysis, you'd have to ask why middling / OK. If it's weak IQ or bad worth ethic, no bueno. If it's someone who is just not concerned with the praise of the world or other people's priorities and s/he is still extremely great at doing the things that excite her/him ... maybe.
posted by MattD at 12:15 PM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

Education 1: literary theory
Education 2: literature
Job: technical editor (programming/IT systems books)
Job: technical writer (large software systems)
Job: extremely technical writer (microprocessor clock network design and simulation)
Education 3: engineering
Education 4: construction management
Job: engineering & construction support
Job: engineering standards development
Job: Independent engineeering consultant
posted by aramaic at 12:16 PM on May 1, 2017

Working in academic publishing (in a non-sexy job), working in various support roles in academia. One went to library school and spent many years looking for a librarian job (but finally got one). For me, going back to school to do science.

It's unlikely they will all make it, but I don't think it's a huge deal to try to live the dream for a few years before deciding maybe things are too out of reach. But if they can get internships and make connections now as undergrads, oh man they really really should!

Me and all my humanities major friends were not smug about our job prospects (terrified, rather) but we got a lot of condescending, misleading advice. While it's very true that having rich parents and connections will get you a job much faster and more reliably, people telling me I was too poor to pursue my calling was really annoying and ultimately unhelpful, since their practical suggestions were irrelevant to my skills anyway.
posted by stoneandstar at 12:16 PM on May 1, 2017 [4 favorites]

I have a BA and an MA in English, and I work for a state legislature drafting bills (it's writing, and publishing, but certainly not in any way that I anticipated). Before that I worked in gov't contracting (writing proposals), and before that I worked a bit for very small publishers and also offices that produce a lot of reports (like environmental consulting).
posted by JanetLand at 12:17 PM on May 1, 2017

Degree: English
Job: Accounting

It was mostly experience at the job I had through college that let me into this field. Did having a BA help me get interviews or make me look like a better job candidate? Probably, maybe. I think the conventional wisdom you've internalized is more or less correct.
posted by prize bull octorok at 12:18 PM on May 1, 2017

I was a philosophy major in college, and excelled at logical and persuasive writing. I landed in an entry-level development job at a homeless shelter after college, and now am a nonprofit management consultant twelve years out. A lot of my work entails helping fundraisers write convincing appeals, proposals, and letters to their donors. I also do a lot of work with data analysis and implementation, which keeps me intellectually challenged and very busy.
posted by juniperesque at 12:19 PM on May 1, 2017

I have a BA in literature. I worked as a technical writer for several years before going back to school to get my MLIS. I'm now a product manager for a vendor who specializes in research and reference tracking services for law firm libraries. My boss, our director of client services, was a history major.

Two good friends of mine were also English majors, and both have been HS English teachers for 10+ years.
posted by anderjen at 12:20 PM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

BA in English. Graduated in 2005. First job was proofreading websites against textbook content that had been converted to website content. Went on to become a project manager, business analyst, and account manager for tech companies. Once I had my foot in the door with a proofreading gig at tech companies, it was easy to move into other roles because these companies are always looking for smart, hardworking people. I got that first job from a friend who graduated a year before me.

I did have a friend who went into publishing in New York, but now works for a university in their donor support program. Couldn't make enough from publishing to stay in NYC.
posted by CMcG at 12:20 PM on May 1, 2017

I majored in "Humanities" writ large, not even a specific field, just Humanities. Then I got two MAs in Philosophy and almost finished a PhD. Now I'm a software developer. No advice on how to get from A to B there, can't even really understand how I did it.
posted by dis_integration at 12:23 PM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

I have a BFA in fine art. I worked as a temp/office manager/legal secretary while trying to be first an artist, then a writer. Acquired an MS in Elementary Education in the 90s, and then a Ph.D. I recently retired from teaching. Taught science and then English (and was English department chair) in an elite private school, where I did not need the MS or the PhD. Never taught art. Now I'm at a university supervising student teachers in preschool, which I have also not taught.

Does what you do in school have a huge amount to do with what you do for a living? Not in my experience. School is where you go to get past certain gatekeepers who have the power to keep you out for their own reasons.
posted by Peach at 12:23 PM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

I have a friend with a BA in English. He works at his alma mater in a secretarial position, but he is currently preparing to go back for an Education degree so he can teach elementary school. He is 29 and graduated with his B.A. at 23-24ish.
posted by possibilityleft at 12:24 PM on May 1, 2017

One of my best friends graduated with a history degree in the late 90s. She started working in journalism (small alternative newspaper) right out of college, but she had journalism/publishing experience while she was in college that probably helped her get that job. She moved on to marketing in an art museum and now she's the Marketing Director for Downtown A City*, Inc.

*city name redacted
posted by cooker girl at 12:24 PM on May 1, 2017

BA Women's Studies, I'm a non profit manager. Prior to this I worked several junior positions and contracts in non profits, and in the offices of the legislature as a transcriber of debates.
posted by chapps at 12:24 PM on May 1, 2017

I've worked in nonprofit fundraising for over 10 years, primarily corporate and foundation relations. This entails a lot of:

Research and writing -- identifying prospects, and creating concept drafts, proposals, reports

Conversation and presentation skills -- cultivation or stewardship meetings/calls with funders, cultivating prospects, delivering presentations to some funders or upper management

Critical thinking -- what programs will or won't work, which are fund-able, what holes does our pitch have in it that a funder will identify and how do we fix them, or OMG our project is broken and the funder will hate us what do we do?

I got here because of experience I had through college, where I worked part time in entry level roles in my university's development office. I think my liberal arts education helped me with many of the skills I described above.
posted by AndrewInDC at 12:27 PM on May 1, 2017

Thinking quickly through my friends...

The English majors are: a theater producer, a TEFL teacher, a writer/director for a games (mobile apps and physical card type games) company, a playwright, a voiceover actor, an interior designer.

The philosophy majors are: a journalist, a graphic designer and an adjunct professor.

The history or art history majors are: a sign language interpreter, an events planner, an auction house...person, a marketing manager for a music label, and a museum admin (me!)

I also know a geography major who works for a music label and a theology major who is a primary school teacher. Oh, and a friend who did a "war studies" degree who now works in tech.

This is all in the UK which probably skews more towards "a degree is to show that you can work hard and to learn" versus "a degree is to train you for a specific job"...for a number of reasons.
posted by cpatterson at 12:28 PM on May 1, 2017

BA in Russian language and lit. Did some downwardly mobile jobs (bookstore, record store), started a PhD program, realized I was not cut out for academia, got my MSW. Except for a terrible midlife crisis year in nonprofit marketing, I've been a social worker ever since, which is suddenly over a dozen years.

If they count marketing as writing (as I tried to!) and are willing to talk in an interview about how great they are at social media, they might be able to get those jobs.

I'm going to say it is fairly difficult to get other writing jobs unless you went to the right schools and got the right connections, but it's possible I just never figured out how to do it.
posted by Smearcase at 12:34 PM on May 1, 2017

We have two close friends who started with a BA in English. One followed teaching posts across the country for about a decade--getting a PhD in the process--before landing a tenured gig teaching African American lit and fiction writing at an east coast public university. He just finished his first book in a very academic discipline. The other has been working as a staff writer for a non-profit organization for the last ten years or so. They write new content, proof and edit content others make, and are generally very harried and constantly engaged with the process (but loving their work).

FWIW, there's a lot of room for staff writers in the non-profit world. My org posts jobs openings all the time for writers with (1) social media experience and (2) familiarity with / a portfolio of science writing projects aimed at a public/lay audience.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 12:35 PM on May 1, 2017

English BA + MLIS

I do technical writing, training, and user documentation for an educational software startup.

I am consistently shocked by how poorly most people write and how grateful and appreciative they are of my editing/re-phrasing skillz.
posted by sazerac at 12:36 PM on May 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm going to be the wet blanket, I guess.

I have a BA in English/Anthrolpology and my husband has a BA in a self-designed "Interdisciplinary Arts" major. We both graduated in the late 90s which is just as people were beginning to realize that actually the world is just lousy with college graduates these days and just having "a degree, to show that you can finish what you start" doesn't really get you much any more. Neither one of us knows how to hustle in the slightest and internships were not really a thing when we were going to school outside of some very particular contexts. We both graduated with no job experience in anything beyond, like, waiting tables and working at truck stops. And we're both very typical humanities types with not much aptitude for technical stuff. (I'm better at it than him but there has been no "just pick up some coding, it'll be great on your resume!" option for us--I know front end web stuff circa 1998 and any ability I have to write code is Arduino hobbyist level, not something I'd put on a resume, and my husband just hands his electronics to me the instant something isn't working right, he has no aptitude at all.)

Lack of hustle and lack of internship/prior work experience doomed both of us. We both wound up going to graduate school for teaching (him for English teaching, me for Social Studies) after several years of not being able to break out of basic office administration. Neither of us teach these days, but the Masters degrees are, in both of our cases, what enabled us to bust out of the treadmill we were on and distinguish ourselves. These days he's a specialized proof-reader/document QA working at a multinational law firm, and I'm an educational technologist at a university. We both do a lot of writing. He obviously does a shit-ton of reading. Our background in the humanities is important, but the paths that led us to these gigs ran directly through our Masters degrees.
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:43 PM on May 1, 2017 [4 favorites]

So, I have a PhD in English, and I work in UX and design strategy. I think that a humanities education prepares me very well for this line of work.

I went into (and came out of) the PhD expecting to be a professor, but reality had other ideas. I became a researcher for an IT research and consulting firm that liked to hire people who didn't necessarily have IT backgrounds but were good researchers and writers. I then moved over to a job where I was what in the language I work in now in charge of content (creation, editing, strategy). Then I moved over to be a "business analyst," which I put in scare quotes because I don't think my role resembled what BAs do elsewhere beyond the fact that I gathered user and business requirements.

In that last role, I focused a lot on the web and got into UX. I found that it was a really strong fit with my humanities background: it requires a lot of empathy, a lot of what I might call close reading and analysis, and a lot of storytelling.

Now I'm a UX strategist. It's a great fit for me, I think, and more than any job I've had before I feel comfortable that this is a fit for me. In my interview I went on a 10-minute tangent about how Moby-Dick relates to user experience strategy, and my manager-to-be didn't just tolerate it but encouraged me to say more. That's when I figured I had found my niche. But a lot of my job is communicating, listening to people, interpreting things, and figuring out how to convey a message effectively.

I don't have much of a technical background, either. I learned HTML back in the mid-90s and picked up CSS some time after that. When I was a BA I started learning to code a bit because I found it interesting, and I've always been interested in design. But really my job is about figuring out the best way to communicate using an interactive medium. It's pretty cool.
posted by synecdoche at 12:53 PM on May 1, 2017

Oh, and for what it's worth, I do a bit of writing on the side and bill pretty well for it (about double my salary, which seems about right given that I don't get any benefits, etc, for the freelance stuff). I don't do a lot but it brings in some extra scratch now and then. I got into that when I was unemployed for a bit, during which time I also did UX reviews of websites (which was not unlike editing).
posted by synecdoche at 12:55 PM on May 1, 2017

I guess you could say that I'm one of the few who have beaten the odds. I have a BA in English ('03) and an MA in Writing & Publishing ('05) from a non-NYC school. While getting my MA, I had a paid summer internship in publishing that led directly to a full-time job as an editorial assistant with the same company. My hometown is a nexus for Christian publishing, so I was able to stay in the industry even when I moved back home; I spent five years working for the publishing arm of my church's denomination before moving over to a Christian publishing house that was gobbled up by one of the Big 5. I'm now a senior editor there, though at my company that is more of a production role rather than an acquisitions role.

So it can be done. What scares me, though, is that there are not a lot of book publishing jobs available here aside from where I've already worked. Another major publisher just closed its regional office here to merge with their NYC branch; some of the other Christian publishers either require denominational affiliation or are just plain too conservative for my taste.

What's frustrating is that the industry needs to attract people from diverse backgrounds, but it is increasingly difficult to get a foothold unless you can afford to intern or move to a publishing center or fund a master's program. So I would be especially hesitant to steer a person of color away from publishing, because their voices are desperately needed. (In fact, I've been doing a lot of interior work in the past couple of years trying to figure out an appropriate way that I, an introverted white woman, can sell publishing as a career to young people of color; it's especially tricky because I currently neither hire nor acquire, so I don't have a whole lot of say in whom we work with.)
posted by timestep at 12:56 PM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

BA: English Literature
MS: Information Science

Career: software product management and UX. It totally fails the Lloyd Dobler test. I make software that runs factories...easier to use. On the plus side, hopefully I help people work safely and not die in plant explosions, so yay for me I guess? Anyway, things I almost did include English PhD and academic librarian.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 1:01 PM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

BA: English
MS: Information Science

Career: Librarian
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 1:03 PM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh and I'm surrounded by engineers but we really really need more people who understand the unique power of narrative. So please take your comp lit degree and your film studies and come work with me!
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 1:03 PM on May 1, 2017

I have a BA in philosophy.

I worked for a bit as a commercial real estate appraiser (well, not certified, but effectively ghostwriting reports).

I work in development and alumni relations for a university.

I have spent a lot of time, before and in between those jobs, making sandwiches in grocery stores.
posted by papayaninja at 1:03 PM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

I majored in English literature. Then I did a one-year post-grad journalism programme and I was a journalist for eight years.

So I can only speak to your question about journalism, and yes it's shrinking, and it can be tough. However, I was writing about business for a small group of niche, online, subscriber-only publications. That particular set-up is one of the few media business models that is healthy and growing, from my point of view. But it's a fairly small part of the market.

It was a great company and I could have had a long-term career there with good pay and conditions. In the end though, I switched from journalism to communications after I had a baby.

This is super common, especially among women, who often get to a point with journalism where the hours and the pay and the sexism are no longer a trade they're willing to make. (Those issues are not universal and weren't my issues.) It often happens once there is a baby or a mortgage in the picture, and stability and a clear career path become the top priorities.

You mentioned PR; women like me (and plenty of men) often switch to PR or comms. I don't know what you call it in the US, but comms is just a type of in-house PR that encompasses a bunch of other stuff too. As well as writing press releases and liaising with journalists, there's internal writing and editing, social media, etc etc. Depending on the size of the organisation one person might do all these things, or they might be specialist roles or teams.

At least where I am, comms is a huge market, which would be ideal for a humanities jobseeker with decent writing skills. For those people not attracted to PR, comms is often a more palatable choice. I work in nonprofit comms, and there's quite a lot of that around, as well as public sector comms. I'm in a capital city, which helps.

Having said that, as a journalist I had lots of contact with PR folks, and that's a great career for writers and communicators as well. And it has the scope to be extremely lucrative.

Re. average students, yes I think it's totally possible to be an average student and still do well in one of these two, and have a fulfilling and reasonably well paid career - provided that you have an aptitude for it and learn fast once you get started.

I couldn't necessarily say the same for journalism, just because if circumstances are against you - location, market etc. - it's going to be a struggle no matter how good you are.
posted by reshet at 1:10 PM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

Former history major here! My career progression went Americorps*VISTA --> Content Developer/Office Manager at a funky tech startup --> Digital Marketing Manager at a college, although I am also in grad school right now for an MLIS.

Other history majors I know (the ones that didn't go to law or library school) work as UX Designers, Technical Writers, Project Managers, Business Analysts, Insurance Agents, Government Workers and I know two history majors who later went back to school to become nurses.

Of the English or other language majors I know, there's a Psychiatrist, Corporate Archivist, Product Ontologist, Government Contractor, Marketing Copywriter, Customer Service Manager, couple of folks who went on for their MFAs, and a buuuunch of people who went back to grad school to study higher education management or something like it, and now they work in college administration.

Also, rather than grad school, I wouldn't count out the idea of adding on a certification or technical skill component if it can be done relatively cheaply and can enhance the value of their bachelors degree or provide a lucrative day job while they side hustle with writing if that's what they REALLY want to do. I know a couple of folks who have done this with some success.

One of my friends majored in Creative Writing and went back to massage school so she could have a reliable day job to supplement her fiction writing. And this is not so much humanities, but one of my friends from college who majored in Music enrolled in a band instrument repair technical program after college, and is now a professional band instrument repair technician specializing in brass and woodwinds.
posted by helloimjennsco at 1:12 PM on May 1, 2017

I majored in history, and I now work in software support. Among humanities-major college friends, one is a project manager at Best Buy, one ran a homeless shelter until she moved to NYC with her ex-husband, and another is a high-ranking official with the North Carolina Department of Forestry.

Pretty much everything you said in your original post is correct. No non-vocational major prepares you for much of anything, hustling your way into whatever industry you like and going from there is probably the best career plan, and working conditions in high-profile industries are terrible.

You can do just about anything with a humanities degree. The key is having the creativity to see that. And if they don't have that creativity, maybe they didn't get the most out of their humanistic education.
posted by kevinbelt at 1:13 PM on May 1, 2017

BA in Spanish and French
HDip in Computer Science (equivalent to a graduate diploma)
MSc in Multimedia Technology.

I worked as in multimedia localisation, then moved into corporate e-learning localisation & translation management, going from engineering to team leader to project management roles along the way. I'm now working as a PM in an educational publishing company with a mixture of software and content development projects.

Like many people here, my primary degree didn't qualify me for a specific job but gave me skills that I could apply in combination with something else: IT in my case.
posted by irishalto at 1:21 PM on May 1, 2017

BA in English Lit and since graduating I have worked as a Town Planner (and have the relevant post-grad diploma as well). Plenty of writing in it and a degree of analysis etc, lots of communication with the public and other professionals, politicians and so on. Planning is a broad church and doesn't necessarily require a first degree in planning itself. I still haven't decided what I want to do when I grow up, but it certainly isn't /wasn't being a planner.
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 1:21 PM on May 1, 2017

I have a BA in studio art, and am a dozen years into a software engineering career. I have friends in tech who are former medievalists, etc, or who have no degree at all.
posted by colin_l at 1:22 PM on May 1, 2017

I have a BA in History. I thought I was going to be a lawyer. Instead I got an MLIS and work in the legal industry as a corporate research analyst at a big law firm.
posted by rdnnyc at 1:36 PM on May 1, 2017

"I am consistently shocked by how poorly most people write and how grateful and appreciative they are of my editing/re-phrasing skillz." - sazerac

Just wanted to second this! A lot of people find communicating in writing, persuasively and with clarity and precision, a really daunting and mysterious thing. If you can do this, you have yourself a highly marketable skill.
posted by reshet at 1:38 PM on May 1, 2017 [5 favorites]

BA/BMus, M Music.

I went into training and development, first as a trainer, then as an instructional designer, then as a Learning Program Manager, and then as a Director of Learning.

Since I lost my director job in the downturn, I became a consultant, specializing in instructional design at first, and broadening out to include change management, strategic planning, project management, succession planning, and organizational design.

Technical writing and editing, as well as marketing, public relations, and corporate communications are good career baths for those with solid writing background.

In addition to good writing skills, I would say that the other competencies needed to be successful in these field include being organized, have a strong analytical/prioritization capability, and being proactive.
posted by dancing_angel at 1:42 PM on May 1, 2017

Most urban planning degree programs are Master's. So, most urban planners have a Bachelor's in something else. I have heard that humanities/liberal arts degrees play well for that career. Source: That was my career plan before life got in the way. I used to talk to urban planners a lot.

I gave up a scholarship and dropped out of college at a young age in part because I personally knew two people with Bachelor's degrees (and more schooling beyond -- one ended up just short of a second bachelor's that he never finished, the other was a couple of quarters short of a master's) in their thirties who were delivering newspapers for a living. One was still living with his mother. The other was basically a total dirt bag, mooching off of his wife (who later left him).

So, I figured out at an early age that a college degree is not some slam dunk "Your career is in the bag!" like people around me appeared to think. I homeschooled my sons for some years and I used to collect names of very successful college drop outs, like Madonna and Bill Gates.

I have an AA in Humanities, two (very different) certificates and I am a few classes short of a BS (this has been true for years, so this degree is likely to remain unfinished). I was a homemaker and military wife for a lot of years. I then had a corporate job, which I left for health reasons. I currently do freelance writing.

Because I have a strong humanities background, I don't feel defined by how I come up with enough money to keep body and soul together. It is just one detail of a much more complicated thing. When I moderated/participated in a homeschooling list, I often talked about a homeschooling humanities education as "an education in how to live with the unavoidable, inconvenient reality that you are human (and so are other people)."

Liberal Arts are so named because, historically, they were viewed as empowering and freeing. The "liberal" part referred to liberating or freeing. It was about how to think about life, the universe and everything and how to get sh*t done. You might find it interesting to read up on The Clemente Course, which uses a humanities education to teach people who are very poor in order to empower them to solve their lives. IIRC, the founder, Earl Shorris, started this program at least in part because of the time he spent doing outreach in prisons (or something along those lines).

The book about how and why he founded it is a powerful story.

A Liberal Arts education is not one intended to make you rich. It is intended to make you free, which is a more valuable thing. It can also lead to material wealth, but some people who are free can't be arsed to care about such things.
posted by Michele in California at 1:56 PM on May 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

Like several of the above commenters, I have an English B.A. and I am a librarian. I went straight from college to library school, then got a job doing entry level work in a law firm library, then worked my way up to research librarian and now senior research librarian (or 'research analyst' which means librarian these days *eyeroll*) with a focus in two different practice groups. I was always interested in law but I knew being a lawyer was not for me (too many people).

I would say that the most useful skills I got from my undergrad degree were an ability to read closely and analyze what I was reading, and good communication skills.

I'm not sure I'd recommend library school these days unless someone has some tech abilities or some very specialized base of knowledge, but the broader legal research field at a non-lawyer level seems to be growing at the moment. I considered technical writing as a career path as well.
posted by marginaliana at 2:01 PM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

I really enjoy seeing my tribe of BA English-to-MLIS/Librarian career path show up in the responses to this question. (Especially since I was told many times with across-the-board certainty that librarianship was going to be flush with job openings, and that librarianship was full of people holding on to their positions and in no way would there be any boom in openings and it was a dying field anyway because of the Internet. Hello, fellow masochists!) I think I even had a career book for English majors as I was preparing to graduate ('03), with the recommendation to become a librarian. Not sure how long ago that book was published, ha ha ha.

My actual path, though, has been:
BA English
Job 1A: Library clerk (pt)
Job 1B: Video store clerk (pt)
Job 1C: Grocery clerk/stocker (pt)
Various full time library assistant jobs
MS: Library science
A couple library assistant jobs
Librarian and archivist jobs

I write on the side, but I don't make a living at it. I do remember feeling I would find something (job-wise), which seems like a pretty arrogant mindset these days, and should have even then. It might be something you just have to go through.
posted by pepper bird at 2:08 PM on May 1, 2017

Journalism - BA and MLIS.

I have had a lot of different jobs: paralegal, indexer at Lexis Nexis, office admin at the Girl Scouts (I ate a lot of cookies! I'm not even kidding. lol.), interlibrary loan tech at a local university, legal transcriber

Last year, I got my medical coding certification and now I'm a medical coder.
posted by ilovewinter at 2:23 PM on May 1, 2017

English major (Creative writing, BFA + an ABT abandoned MFA) — I went into editing and graphic design, and am now an art director. I'm the only graduate of my writing program that's had a book reach #1 on the NYT list… for my coloring skills (it was a graphic novel). Not sure if that makes me a success or failure.
posted by culfinglin at 2:32 PM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

I graduated from Alabama in 1992 with an English degree and a creative writing minor.

I've made my career in software development, first coding but mostly as an analyst guy/person who speaks nerd AND English.

The whole reason I mentioned my grad year, though, is to call out that this career with that degree may or may not still be possible.
posted by uberchet at 3:00 PM on May 1, 2017

I majored in Comparative Literature, wrote my thesis on hypochondria in Early Modern literature, and went straight to medical school. While in medical school, I took a sabbatical of sorts to obtain a Masters in a literature-related field, with more of an emphasis on teaching.

I'm a bit of an odd duck, because this is not the typical career path for either doctors or humanities majors (although there is a growing number of us!) but I do think that being a non-science major has been incredibly helpful both in terms of day-to-day doctoring and in terms of career advancement. I was repeatedly told by faculty in medical school and residency that I write excellent notes and communicate very well, which as anyone who has taught medical students (or heck, been to a doctor lately) knows, is an elusive art.
posted by basalganglia at 3:03 PM on May 1, 2017 [3 favorites]

People I know who majored in the humanities whose careers I can think of off the top of my head, went on to do the following:

Engineering management, publishing management, artistic management at a music venue, professional musician, novelist, magazine editor, PR, lawyer, professor, paralegal, journalist, researcher at a nonprofit, non-profit fundraising, television production, screenwriting, speechwriting, software internationalization.

One common thread I see is that people often go into the field where they had a summer internship or on-campus job or were very active in an extracurricular or hobby. Picking a good internship/job /extracurricular that you care about, and investing time in it, is really important for college students. Everybody I know who does PR or publishing now, for example, also did it in college via internships, extracurriculars, or on-campus jobs. Waiting until you get your degree and then trying to break into the industries seems much harder. The people I know who did an intentional job search like this where they went into a field they already had a bunch of exposure to also seem to be generally happier in their careers than the people who just "fell into" a job they could get.
posted by phoenixy at 3:12 PM on May 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

This almost everyone I know, and we all mostly fell into our jobs by temping in a general admin position and getting promoted into an area that's more specialised. A few us have also gotten into what they're doing because the field is easy to enter (low paying initially, but moved up - social work), or got a grad degree (the librarian). Ironically, the one person I know who IS a journalist worked in finance/tech for years and years and was able to fund himself a very nice Masters in Jounalism in his late thirties. Here we go:

Violinist (conservatory trained) > violin teacher > admin > business papers > poached by software company
English > Academic librarian (who wants to change fields)
Creative Writing > Barback > Waiter/Bartender > Restaurant Manager
Not sure, history? > Master's in Urban Planning > City Dpt of Affordable Housing
Studio Art > Art therapy > Runs private art therapy practice
Art > Teaching credential > science teacher
Education > Teaching (burned out) > Paralegal degree > Paralegal (for years, loves it)
Music > Education > school music teacher
English/History > Social work (burned out) > Postman
Studio Art > admin temp > started taking library classes at community college > info access govt job

The last two are myself and my husband. In between some of these things we worked on some small farms and loved it, so our long-term goal is to be farmers!
posted by jrobin276 at 3:27 PM on May 1, 2017

I have a B.A. in English. I worked in educational publishing right out of college but decided it was too business-oriented for my skills and interests. Then I did PR for a non-profit for a couple of years. Eventually I settled into teaching high school English; now I'm the department chairperson and when I finish my graduate degree this spring I'll be on track to become a school administrator. I also have a lucrative side business tutoring SATs. Business there is so good that I could leave education if I wanted to, but I like the job security, pension, etc.
posted by katie at 3:49 PM on May 1, 2017

BA in English Lit & Language
MA in English Lit & Crit Theory

Career: Knitwear designer, writer & teacher.

My work uses a lot of skills I picked up from my degrees (technical writing, general writing skills, research tools, problem solving) as well as knowledge (why the idea of tradition is problematic, the philosophical implications of making, the idea of authenticity). I run my own business and travel across Europe talking about handknitting. I dip in & out of academia frequently but also write articles for knitting magazines. Right now I'm working on a book of knitting patterns inspired by the invention of the printing press.

Friends with similar degrees now work as mid-level management at a university, translators, subtitlers, copy writers, opera singers, communication & PR, high school teachers, and career advisers.
posted by kariebookish at 3:56 PM on May 1, 2017

BA in English, creative writing emphasis

Would've gone to library school out of college but didn't have an extra $75 or whatever laying around to take the GRE.

Could've gone into grantwriting/fundraising but I kind of hated it.

Instead, I was crazy lucky to be an admin assistant in a small enough organization at exactly the right time that knowing a smidgen of HTML got me bootstrapped towards a webdev career. I have no idea if that's really doable that way anymore. (Content strategy is somewhere you could go now with my old degree.)

Other parts of that job that I could've headed towards: IT support, event management. And honestly, I was a pretty kick-ass admin, which while not (always? usually?) requiring a BA, can be a pretty solid way to make a living.

The 2 people I know of with my degree where I have a good idea what they ended up doing, one became a graphic designer (and had some other training in this area) and the other became a professor of both sciences and writing (long story, apparently).

I will also chime in on this: I am consistently shocked by how poorly most people write and how grateful and appreciative they are of my editing/re-phrasing skillz. This turns out to be a consistent factor in my career progression thus far. I told my mom that the one thing I knew I was getting out of my degree was the ability to craft a solid sentence, and that was 100% true AND useful.
posted by epersonae at 4:08 PM on May 1, 2017

I teach History at a state university. Here are a few of the things our B.A. alumni have done:

Law school, then a career in international trade leading to a stint as Under Secretary for International Trade in the US Commerce Department.

Education courses, then teaching high school history and social studies. (In Massachusetts, secondary teachers need a B.A. or B.S. in the subject they teach, not in Education.)

Law school, then litigation, then mediation.

M.A. in History while considering whether a Ph.D. was the right path, then after deciding no, telecommunications systems management.

M.A.s in Journalism and English, then work as a journalist, tour guide at the World's Fair, and part-time college teaching, then state representative, Lieutenant Governor, Governor, Deputy Secretary of Education, and US Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

Our alumni regularly praise their history studies for teaching them how to research a problem, read a lot of complicated material, write clearly and persuasively, and understand different points of view. Those are skills that are useful in many careers.
posted by brianogilvie at 4:16 PM on May 1, 2017

I know a guy with a history degree who is a stage manager for a theater. I'm not exactly sure how he got into that or what he originally wanted to do with his life.
posted by AFABulous at 4:37 PM on May 1, 2017

I work in finance and I know of a few humanities majors (think History, English, Art History, etc.) who became traders or investment managers. To be fair, they went to Ivies, probably played a sport, and probably did finance internships, so most likely they wanted to work in finance all along, but went to an Ivy and majored in whatever.
posted by pravit at 4:59 PM on May 1, 2017

Another librarian, here. My undergrad was in Film Studies, although I never had any interest in getting into the film industry. I went back to school to get my MLIS a year after I graduated (a year I spent goofing off in my university town and working at Subway), and after I graduated I made a meagre living for a few years as a freelance writer and in various entry-level libary-related jobs. After about seven years I got a permanent part-time job with the Toronto Public Library and these days I'm a permanent full-time public librarian.
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:04 PM on May 1, 2017

My son graduated with a history degree last year. He is working for the state tourism department - partly promoting history.
posted by COD at 5:08 PM on May 1, 2017

BA in journalism with an English minor, and an MA in publishing (yep, that's a thing). I did a brief stint in radio and have been in publishing for a little over ten years, in marketing. I wish I'd taken a few marketing or business classes, but for the most part my degrees prepared me well for my career path.

Publishing is competitive but there is always demand outside of the editorial track - marketing, production, project management, sales all employ at least as many people as there are editors but aren't thought of by new job seekers often. (they also generally have better hours and in terms of marketing and sales at least, tend to pay better and have better (shorter) hours than editorial). Also indie publishing (not big NYC houses) or other types of publishing (academic, educational, religious, trade) have lots and lots of jobs with much more secure forecasts.

So I agree with looking just to the side of what's sexy, but I think the publishing industry is pretty strong right now. I hire interns and entry level people and I am looking for drive (but not necessarily leaders*), willingness to work as part of a team, excellent writing skills, and attention to detail. A humanities degree should teach all of those skills and they are transferable to so many professions.

* a recent NYT article talked about employers looking for followers and it's so true: I want someone who can follow some direction in an entry level hire. I don't need demonstrated leadership skills in all my interns. And I definitely don't want only independent achievers on my team. Today's college grads must have this leadership thing drilled into them, and it's unfortunate - they have no actual leadership experience for the most part but are so used to thinking of themselves as leaders that they have a hard time being team players. I don't think anyone should list follower on their resume but emphasizing teamwork is something I am looking for right now.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 5:16 PM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

So you have an Arts degree!. A choose your own adventure article from New Trail (University of Alberta Alumni magazine).
posted by saturdaymornings at 5:19 PM on May 1, 2017

My brother has a BA in English and is a software engineer for Cisco (by way of lots of work experience and graduating from college in the mid '90s when that was what was required). I have the dreaded St. John's College BA in Liberal Arts and then went AmeriCorps --> Grad School (MS) --> More Grad School (PhD) --> Biology professor. Of my fellow Johnnies, several are writers with books out (mostly nonfiction), lots work in offices in various administrative/data management/etc. roles, one is a magazine editor, several are computer folks (some with MS degrees and some without), several run/work at breweries/vineyards/organic farms, some are K-12 teachers, and an awful lot went to grad school in everything from nursing to philosophy to English to other science folks.
posted by hydropsyche at 5:36 PM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

B.A. in mass communications, buyer for us dept of defense. In fact most of my smartest happiest most successful coworkers are liberal arts types. Federal government employs lots of people and pays ok.
posted by fixedgear at 5:42 PM on May 1, 2017

BA in lit analysis and craft. Bartender. I make a decent living but do not have kids, which I think is a big part of the whole lifelong earning potential question.

I use storytelling and critical thinking skills that were at least part of my studies every day at work, I always have fun, but it can be rough on the hips, knees, and feet. I'm probably an outlier, as I have a family history in the F and B biz, been doing it since my 20's, and live in a resort area.
posted by vrakatar at 6:04 PM on May 1, 2017

BA in English, MPA. I currently work as a budget analyst, via theater, publishing internships and freelance gigs, and paralegal work. I found I did much better in my career once I started applying for jobs where my writing and editing abilities were an extra asset, not the #1 requirement. It's easier to stand out as a budget analyst who happens to have great writing skills than as one of a trillion English majors applying for an editorial position. (Assuming you have the other skills for a quantitative job, of course, or at least a demonstrated eagerness to learn. For those not interested/inclined to quantitative work, I know a lot of successful humanities-degree lawyers, though I think law is a dicey choice these days.)
posted by ferret branca at 6:06 PM on May 1, 2017

My BA was in literary and critical theory. I worked in publishing in New York (edit. asst. somewhere big, managing editor somewhere tiny, prod. editor somewhere else big), then got sick of making very little cash, moved into project management in advertising, discovered UX when it was really taking off, moved to design, got into data vis, learned to code, did some weird art and tech programs, went to art/tech grad school, and now I am an engineer at a company you have definitely heard of.

Most of those career switches took some combination of luck and being the sort of person who gets bored easily and likes to learn. But none of them has involved worked so very different from what I learned doing theory: how to create systems and apply them.
posted by dame at 6:17 PM on May 1, 2017

I majored in women's studies and history in college. I pretty much went straight into a career as a political organizer (lots of entry level jobs there for recent grads bc there's a lot of gruntwork) and then eventually transitioned into a career doing digital advocacy and fundraising for nonprofits (basically, the non-profit sector version of digital marketing). There are a LOT of humanities people in the non-profit sector as a whole because a lot of the jobs require those kinds of skills and traits. But you definitely have to expect to do a lot of internships and/or gruntwork recent-grad type jobs.

There are also a lot of humanities people in the digital marketing field on the private sector side. Though in general with digital marketing work, people will do better if they have some level of facility with numbers and can do some quantitative analysis.
posted by lunasol at 6:43 PM on May 1, 2017

I was a history major and I am now a project manager in advertising. My degree trained me to read closely, dissect documents, and write well. I'm naturally good at getting things done.

My best friend was an English major and she's been a technical writer/copy writer and now she's a content strategist at an advertising agency.
posted by Medieval Maven at 7:06 PM on May 1, 2017

I went to library school after my English BA. These days, I'm a public library administrator.
Better anecdote: a dear friend who cobbled together a major in--I swear I'm not making this up--the Comparative History of Ideas was kicking around doing tech support for a real estate MLS company at the same time I was deciding not to do the same. Nowadays, he's the CEO of that company.
posted by willpie at 7:15 PM on May 1, 2017

I got lucky. I graduated with a double major in English/art history from an small, upscale private college in 1991. I failed to get accepted into any of the MFA programs that I applied to, which in hindsight was the best thing that could have happened to me. Instead I took a summer course in publishing, which then networked me into my first job with a small magazine/book publisher. I worked there for thirteen years, starting as an editorial assistant and moving up until I maxed out as managing editor, before chronic office dysfunction finally made me quit. I'm currently a production editor at a university press; I've been working there for the last ten years and expect to keep on working there for the foreseeable future. This is mostly a project management type role with a bit of copyediting/proofreading thrown into the mix, but that suits me just fine--I'd be a terrible acquisitions editor.

I had a lot of skills and talents to offer and I put in a lot of hard work, but I also had a lot of pieces come together in exactly the right ways, not least my course's job placement department, without which I probably would've been sunk, being painfully shy and socially awkward and a complete fail at networking. I was also helped by the fact that, of my publishing class, I was the only one who *didn't* want to work at a major publishing house or magazine in New York! I was terrified of the idea of working in NYC. (So of course, four months after I got hired, my job moved into the city. *snerk*) This all was years ago, so I can't really speak to the current state of humanities grad hiring, but I think it's not a bad idea to encourage your students to think creatively about their job options and to be open to a variety of possibilities. Either that, or they should be prepared to hustle their asses off (or find someone else to do it for them), because the problem with jobs that everyone in your field is aiming for is that, well, you're up against all those everyones.
posted by velvet_n_purrs at 7:17 PM on May 1, 2017

Ok so my degree is in Creative Writing. And my first jobs out of college were Librarian, PR, and Publishing, which all came as a result of my degree. The past twelve years, however, I've worked in real estate. Let me tell you though, in my real estate job I do a TON of persuasive writing. So maybe it's not OBVIOUSLY related to my major, but I feel like I'm good at my job in part because I learned how to write to soothe and explain and inform.
posted by silverstatue at 7:56 PM on May 1, 2017

B.A. in English and Film Theory, got an MBA 16 years later, now I'm a logistics project manager. I like analytics, order, and structure, so that's how all my things fit together I guess.

Wife has a B.A. in English with a minor in computer science and is now a technical writer.
posted by komlord at 8:03 PM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm 47. Here are what some of my friends who were humanities majors are doing now, with the caveat that I may be lumping a few social-science majors in here too. I'm a prof, so duh I know lots of profs; these are people I know from HS or college and not professional acquaintances.

*Several attorneys
*English MA then AOL and now AWS ops manager

*Real estate agent, then sales-ish stuff for a bill-processor (like for vending machines) company, now sales-ish stuff for an agricultural genomics sounding company. He gets paid to go to weed conventions.

*Reporter and now sales-ish stuff for a city's tourism development parastatal
*Documentary filmmaker
*High school teacher (in drama and media)
*US State Dept
*Other federal government
*Nonprofit manager/consultant(/owner?)
*MLS then legal librarian and now doing consulting and webbish stuff related to running
*FNMA/GNMA
*Orthodox priest -- wait, this guy has a chem degree but I'm gonna leave him in anyway
*Real estate agent
*Another documentary filmmaker
*Sales-ish stuff for Coke
*Vague corporate stuff then MBA and AFAIK now consulting
*Sports writer
*Manager of some kind in health care
*Radiological oncologist... I think
*ADR stuff for Funimation
*Store owner and manager
*Library worker
*Restaurant owner
*Business owners
*History prof
*Peace studies prof
*Political philosophy prof
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:13 PM on May 1, 2017

I have a BA in English. I did a variety of reception, office management, and administrative assistant jobs for 5 or 6 years, and then went back to school. I just graduated with an MSc in Nursing. (PS: Nurses actually do a lot of writing!)
posted by snorkmaiden at 9:27 PM on May 1, 2017

I am a former reporter who got laid off and is now a very entrenched (i.e. I don't qualify for any other jobs any more, apparently) clerical worker. I am pretty much the terrible poster child for what happens to you as a humanities major. I did not bother with a graduate degree because I knew I wasn't good enough for a free ride and I'd never be able to pay off the debt as a clerical worker, plus I read a lot of horror stories about how master's degrees ruled you out for a lot of jobs because you would need a lot more money to pay off the degree debt. (Plus to be honest, I don't care about grad school.)

I think people mostly just seem to fall into jobs, from what I've seen. I certainly did. I know a lot of clerical workers or pissed-off teachers or pissed-off ex-teachers, one wannabe teacher who could never get a job and ended up running a game store (I think she's the happiest of the lot), and if anyone has computer programming skills, they're golden. My former reporter associates have either moved on (last I heard, teaching) out of the field or are still scrambling to stay in writing because almost all of them have been laid off. Most are freelancing, one managed to get rehired back in her old job and then had her work cut in half.

I agree entirely with your assessment: don't expect to get writing jobs, instead just try to get any job you can at all.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:28 PM on May 1, 2017

I have a BA in History and a MA in Medieval History. I work in libraries. My brother has a BA in History and a MA in Classics and is a civil servant. By sister has a BA in Anthropology and is a billing analysis for a large company.
posted by toerinishuman at 1:00 AM on May 2, 2017

...don't expect to get writing jobs, instead just try to get any job you can at all.

That's what I did and it turned out pretty well.

BA: English, with a minor in Finance*
MA: English

After graduation, I got "any job" in a new city with a not-for-profit business league/association. I loved working with volunteers; 15 years and several promotions later, I was running the joint. Nine years after that, I happily and gratefully retired.

I would say the two biggest takeaways from my education were 1.) learning how to write well, since most of my communications were with remote leaders, and 2.) learning the skill of critical analysis, which turns out to work pretty well with any problem, not just literature. The MA also gave me an edge when I applied for the ceo position: in a field like mine, what I studied mattered less than that I earned an advanced degree at all.
posted by Short Attention Sp at 5:42 AM on May 2, 2017

I was just talking with a friend of mine about how the fact that most humanities students think of their future career paths as being based on “publishing” or “writing” is largely based on the fact that most colleges/universities do a semi-terrible job of teaching students what jobs actually exist in the world. I never learned about interesting career paths from academic mentors or career counseling— I only ever learned about them by getting jobs or meeting people with interesting jobs. You can’t hope to get a job you don’t know exists! So a lot of people graduate thinking “publishing”, but their longterm careers will end up being in grant writing, or marketing, or project management, or event planning, or research— but those types of jobs are rarely on the radar of undergrads. A humanities degree often requires harnessing lots of disparate sources of information and turning them into a coherent whole within a limited amount of time, and regardless of the subject, that process is actually highly in demand in most industries. It just isn't called "humanities", and it usually isn't about books (if the job pays).

As for me: BA in English, MFA in Creative Writing, PhD in English. And to undermine everything I’ve been saying here, I work in publishing— but my path to doing so was based on careers in a lot of the areas I’ve mentioned above.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 6:35 AM on May 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

Can't believe I forgot to mention my husband in my post above, who was a philosophy major. He worked as a political campaign fundraiser for 12 years, and then transitioned to non-profit development (fundraising) and communications. Currently he's an executive director for a small national non-profit.
posted by anderjen at 9:08 AM on May 2, 2017

I have a BA in English & History. I work as a Facility Coordinator - its a lot of purchase orders, handling vendors, invoice processing, and budget work. I have yet to take an accounting course. I just got here via a series of temp to full time positions in various finance-related fields. I let the computer do the mathy bits. I don't know if English or History as subjects help me at all (though I am still a history nerd), but the skills I learned at uni including how to do research and focus on details definitely help a lot.
(also I'm the office unofficial go-to for spelling, grammar, & email writing for my engineer co-workers who are wicked smart but not so good with words).
posted by sandraregina at 9:58 AM on May 2, 2017

I have a BA in English. Up until my senior year of college I thought I wanted to be a high school English teacher and most of my classes focused on literature. When my confidence about that path started wavering, I also took a business and technical writing class, and discovered I was pretty good at that. I started out of college doing technical writing - instruction and training manuals, etc. I did a lot of working with IT guys and translating what they told me into English that our support people could understand.

I worked for a large financial services and insurance company doing a lot of technical writing, then internal process documentation, then training materials. At the time most of that was in print. From there I learned about creating online training and knowledge management, which then led me to a position writing for their corporate website. There I learned a lot about web content, information architecture and user experience, and got a job as director of web communications at a local private university. Now I'm back at that big company and I'm in charge of the strategy, user interface and content for their associate intranet.

So while English is still a big part of what I do, I've learned new skills along the way to get me to my current focus on web content.
posted by thejanna at 10:26 AM on May 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Degree in cultural anthropology, got an AmeriCorps hybrid development/case management position with vague hopes of doing more nonprofit social services work down the line. That position was abusive, quit, had a series of existential crises, floundered for a bunch of years doing everything from retail to generic office work to child care. Went back to school for a second degree in nursing, graduated last year, now a working RN with dreams of becoming a nurse practitioner in a few years.

As a humanities/social sciences student I never, ever thought about going into nursing because I had lofty ideas about the life of the mind that nursing didn't seem to fit into. When I went back to talk to the alumni career counselor at my first school when I was first considering nursing she tried to steer me towards public health or policy work because "it seems like a much better fit." (Note; I went to a snooty liberal arts college that has internalized bullshit about less "intellectual" careers to work through.) But I'd never be able to write the detailed progress notes that I do, or be able to analyze the ways that race, class, gender, etc affect my patients health outcomes, without my social science background. Nursing takes its own kind of intelligence and problem solving, and frankly I'm still a little pissed at my first college for having such a narrow vision of intellect.

Tl;dr if the students you're talking to want to pursue journalism, academia, etc that's great, but if they dream of careers that aren't stereotypically what "intellectuals" do that is also valid and please don't try to crush those dreams.
posted by ActionPopulated at 10:45 AM on May 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

BA in English Literature, no grad degrees at all but my BA was from a top tier school. I "work in publishing" but in an unglamorous field (education) in an unglamorous cheap-ish city. I cold-wrote the highest-ranking person I could find at a publishing house in my area and luckily they thought that was charming, and not absurd. They gave me a paid internship that I could only afford by living with my folks, which turned into an entry level job.

I do not think this thing exists anymore.

My friends from school who do "work in publishing" for real, like, who have big important positions at publishers and newspapers and write novels and shit, are, all of them, from extremely wealthy and well-connected families. They are also legitimate geniuses who work harder in a day than I have in ten years. I do not think one of these factors alone suffices; you legit need both. I don't know any layabout rich kids in nepotism jobs, and I don't know any incandescently brilliant, hardworking scrappers from the South Side who clawed their way into Simon and Schuster.

My English major friends from school who did not have those advantages mostly went to law school or work in university administration or academia. But we all have jobs. Granted, some of us have two or three of them.

I don't know if I'd have been given a shot to get where I'm at (which is objectively fine but not particularly impressive to anyone, most particularly my 17 year old self) if I hadn't gone to a Very Good Fancy School That People Knew and if I hadn't the tenacity of a barnacle. I'm a decent writer but not a genius, and I've mostly managed to have a career by dint of simply refusing not to, ha.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 11:05 AM on May 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

The people I know with a humanities degree work for universities (administration and libraries), NASA, and hospitals (as doctors and nurses). I have a BA in English (MA in Higher Education, work for a large public university) and I don't know anyone from college working in publishing or journalism. My wife (BA in American Studies, MA in Communication Studies, and MPAff) works for a government organization in their communications office and does a great deal of writing and editing though, so there are many places to utilize those skills.

I noticed someone upthread say that many students have no idea what kinds of jobs even exist. I work with college students and this is absolutely true. If the college these students attend offers career exploration, they should take advantage of it. As far as I can tell, most students come into college with the idea that there are five jobs (lawyer, doctor, engineer, teacher, and "business") and have a very difficult time thinking beyond those options (actual thing a student has said to me, "Well, I picked engineering because I don't want to be a doctor or lawyer."). It's possible these students have other areas of interest or possible career paths they would be happy pursuing and just aren't aware of their options or how to get there.
posted by vakker at 7:33 PM on May 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

There's already a lot here, but I guess one more can't hurt.

I have a BA in History from the early 2000s. After graduation, I drifted for a while, with entry-level stuff at a university press, teaching young kids, and doing a bunch of odd jobs, lawn mowing, apartment maintenance, and office peon bullshit. Looking back, I think a lot of those things might have become something like a career path: I came close to diving into academia, if a particular relationship hadn't ended I'd probably have stayed involved in the democratic education community, and it's not hard to imagine some path where I learned trade skills and wound up as a contractor or a facilities guy somewhere.

Instead of doing any of that, I followed the thread of some entry-level craigslist tech gigs, one of which mutated from a 20-hour-a-week "build some PCs, deal with some printers, hack some PHP" thing into a full-time dev job at a pretty interesting place. By the time I left there years later, I'd become someone who knew how to make software, had some management experience, had touched a lot of the moving parts of a working business, etc.

I don't think any of this has much to do with my degree. I spent my adolescence immersed in computers and mostly took a break from them while I did the coursework for my major. Later those skills turned into the thing I could make better than minimum wage with before anything else did. I also don't think the major hurt any. Writing and research and the careful reconstruction of factual models from scattered evidence are big parts of what I do. There are very definitely elements of a formal comp sci education I miss having, but I've mostly had a better experience working with (and hiring) people from other backgrounds as actual programmers.

I can't really speak much to publishing or journalism as such. The class of writing job I'm most familiar with is what I think of as content-monkeying for various tiers of website. I've done this for both $12 an hour and ~$80k a year. If you have to choose, $80k is vastly preferable, but I don't have a lot of love for either version. These jobs do exist right now, though, and draw heavily on skills I'd like to hope a humanities major emphasizes. I am honestly not sure whether content marketing qualifies as "making it" as a writer or editor. It probably depends a lot on how invested you are in the merits of the writing itself.
posted by brennen at 11:06 PM on May 2, 2017

My partner got an MFA in poetry and published her thesis, which was short-listed for a Governor General's Award.

Then she got an MSW and now she works with suicidal youth.
posted by klanawa at 11:23 AM on May 4, 2017