10 Jobs Your English Degree Makes You Perfect For

English degrees are well respected by employers due to the range of transferable skills that you acquire throughout your study. As an English graduate, you have an analytical way of thinking and viewing the world that makes you a great fit for a variety of different job roles.

This means that there is a great amount of flexibility in what career you could end up in. I have listed 10 jobs that an English degree would make you a good fit for but you do not need to limit yourself to just these roles.

Do not limit yourself and restrict your applications to only these job roles. If you see something that you feel that you would enjoy, feel free to apply. 

What transferable skills do I gain from an English degree? 

• Communication (written and verbal)
• The ability to work independently
• Time management
• Organisation
• Research and planning
• Creative thinking
• Effective construction of an argument
• Critical analysis
• Situational judgement
• Presentation skills 
• Working as part of a team
• IT Skills such as understanding of how to use Microsoft Office

Here are the 10 Jobs you can apply for after graduating with an English Degree:

1. English Teacher

The average salary of an English teacher in the UK:

Newly Qualified Teacher: £25,714 - £32,157 (UK) 

Qualified Teacher: Up to £42,604

I am sure you have probably already heard this one! I know I have. Every time I have spoken to someone about what to do with my career this is the first option that always popped up. This is a great career choice if you want to get your PGCE and go on and show what you know to the next generation and hopefully teach them a thing or two.

Not to mention the great holiday entitlement! You could even teach English as a foreign language, allowing you to travel to other countries. There are plenty of opportunities to go to countries such as China to teach English that will even pay for your flights and accommodation.

For this, you need to be confident enough to stand up and present your lessons in front of a group of children, so this job is not for everyone. If it is not for you, that is ok! There are plenty more opportunities listed below.

2. Content Writer 

The average salary of a content writer in the UK: £29,000 (UK)

The internet is used for everything now, so a great option is to become a content writer to share articles about the things that you are passionate about. These articles could hopefully be helpful to someone else that comes along and happens to read it (hopefully this article will be helpful to some of you!)

From my own experience in my Sociomix Content Writing Internship, I am finding that Content Writing suits me and my personality much better than teaching ever would have. If you are passionate about writing, then this is a perfect career option for you.

The role involves a high amount of research to write the best content that you can but if you put in the work then seeing the end product will be extremely rewarding. Placements and internships are really helpful in showing your passion for a subject and helping to develop skills to get you into full-time work. 

3. Copy Writer

The average salary of a copywriter in the UK:

Junior Copywriter: £20,000 - £25,000 (UK)

Middleweight Copywriter: £25,000 - £50,000 (UK) 

Senior Copywriter/Creative: Up to £90,000 (UK) 

Copy Writing requires a bit of a creative flair. You need to be able to write for advertising, in a way that will draw in people with an interest in a certain product or idea. We are in a world that revolves around marketing so if this is a career path that interests you, you will never be short of work.

If you think you can persuade people with your words, then give it a try. For any creative type of role, you should try to build up an online portfolio so that you can showcase what you can do. You can try volunteering to help any local companies or to write for a school paper.

For these kinds of creative job roles, it is really helpful to build up a portfolio of your writing to show a company what you can do. Seeing examples of your work is a requirement for a lot of creative roles so if you regularly write on a blog, for example, this showcases your commitment and skills. 

4. Proofreader

The average salary of a proofreader in the UK: £32,500 (UK)

As a Proofreader, you need to pay a high amount of attention to detail. You will be doing lots of reading, I guess that is implied in the title! You will need to check any written documents that you are given to make sure everything is properly spelled and grammatically correct.

You are the quality controller of the written word so everything will need to pass through you before it can be made available to the general public. A great perk of this job is that it is often something that you can do at home so you can earn money without even having to go out the front door. You can be a freelance Proofreader working for yourself and hiring out your services or choose to work for a specific company.

5. Private Tutor

The average salary of a private tutor in the UK: £51,353 (UK)

Unlike a role as a teacher, being a private tutor would mean that you would only be dealing with one student at a time in a one-on-one session. Standard sessions are usually an hour long and with tutoring, you can make sure that the student you are helping gets all of your attention and you can be there to personally help with anything they are struggling with.

Often people may need tutoring if they have fallen behind or are specifically struggling with a certain subject so this is an area where you can make a difference to an individual that you may not be able to help as much in a classroom environment.

6. Editorial Assistant

The average salary of an editorial assistant in the UK:

Starting salary: £15,000 - £23,000

Experienced salary: £23,000 - £40,000 dependent on the size of the publishing house

As an Editorial Assistant, you would need to help out in all aspects of publication. In this role, you will be there to support publishing teams by performing a variety of different tasks. These may include but not to be limited to proofing documents and making any changes or edits that need to be made, writing content that could be used as part of a publication, and undertaking some administrative duties as needed.

An Editorial Assistant combines some of the key features of other roles to provide you with a dynamic role. You will need to be able to work under pressure and to deadlines and be adaptable to do well in this role. This is typically an entry-level job in the editorial industry and a foot in the door for you to be able to make your way up to a more senior position.

7. Writer

It is not possible to provide an exact figure for the writer role as it is completely dependent on what type of writing is your focus. Writers do typically have a low salary, even for those who spend more than 50% of their time writing.

Most writers do not get their income solely from writing which is something you need to take into account before following this path. You will probably need another job alongside this to sustain yourself. 

Do you have ideas that you want to write down and share? Maybe you had an idea for a short story that you always wanted to write. Well, if you do it and do it well then you could make a career out of it.

Whether you are writing poetry or a novel there is always an opening for new ideas and new stories to be published. You could write children’s stories or even write scripts. These could be for film, radio, theatre... the list goes on! If this is what you enjoy doing and want to continue then you could follow your dreams in any one of these forms of writing.

8. Social Media Manager

The average salary of a social media marketer in the UK:

Junior Social Media Manager: £19,000 - £25,000

Experienced Social Media Manager: £30,000 - £40,000

Substantially experienced Social Media Manager: £60,000

While this is not a role that is as directly related to your degree as others in the list, it is still one that your degree would be extremely helpful for. Most people these days use social media daily so I assume most of you will have at least some experience of using it.

A Social Media Manager would be responsible for creating and posting content. This means that you would have to write and create posts that are engaging and suitable for each different social media platform, for example, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. These are all very different social sites so you would need to engage with your audience in a different way for each one.

As someone who has studied English and is adept at using the English language, you would have a major advantage when it comes to this role as you already have proof that you can write well and in a multitude of different ways. You would just need to adapt your skills to suit an online audience.

9. Web Content Manager 

The average salary of a web content manager in the UK:

Starting salary: £20,000- £25,000

Experienced Web Content Manager: £25,000- £40,000

Senior Web Content Manager: £40,000- £50,000

As a Web Content Manager, you would mainly be responsible for overseeing the work of other writers. You will need skills in project management and be able to produce schedules to oversee others' time management. Your job is to examine online content and websites to make sure that they are running smoothly and that everything is easy to use and find.

You will need to make sure that content is up to date, accurate, and well structured. You could be responsible for managing a wide variety of different content, so it is up to you to familiarise yourself with that content if this sounds like a job role that you could potentially be interested in. You may need some further training to familiarise yourself with the ins and outs of this role but your English degree already gives you an edge.

10. Forensic Linguist 

The average salary of a forensic linguist in the UK:

Starting salary: £25,000

Experienced Forensic Linguist: £35,000

Again, further training in law would be required for this role but this one sounds quite intriguing. Forensic Linguists are there to offer their expert opinions in legal matters. They do this by analysis of the linguistics of both verbal and written evidence of victim and suspect statements. You need a great understanding of how people choose to express their thoughts and feelings through words.

As an English Graduate, you will have spent plenty of time analysing the written word, this job allows you to use this in a real-life application. You would be an essential part of deciphering the correct meaning behind each statement and be able to see how your work would help to determine the outcome of a real-life court case.

It would be helpful for you to go on to do a Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) if you would like to pursue this career. This is a year-long conversion course aimed at anyone with a 2:2 grade or above in a non Law degree. This would be very helpful to bring you up to date with relevant knowledge to help you with this role. 

To conclude, with your degree and transferable skills backing you, there's no limit to what you could accomplish as long as you make sure you take the steps to get it. It may take some extra work to get you to where you want to be but in the end, it is worth having an English degree.