Merf. Thinking is Hard.
jhameia replied to your post:realistically speaking, what can you do with a phd in english?
Not a hella lot. It’s assumed that if you go all the way to your PhD, you’re on track to become a professor. You can also be a teacher, writer, editor. If possible, develop contacts and skills outside academia so you can break into other fields.thanks! but i’m a little confused by the last one - can you give an example? like what field? i’m trying to think of a scenario but i’m not really sure i’m on the right train of thought here. everything i’m thinking of requires too much specialization.
When I was in uni, I was very active in extra-curricular activities: writing for the school newspaper, running events for the Residence society, running the Drama Society’s productions. If the job market was kinder and I was better with job-hunting, I’d be able to find work in admin stuff, events management and similar stuff. (I love academia too much to leave it for now tho.)
Hopefully doing English means you develop skills in language communication and comprehending stuff and translating awkward-sounding shit into something more comprehensible. I know a lot of English majors who went on to become technical writers and marketers, especially for STEM fields.
Since you’re still a sophomore, it gives you plenty of time to figure out other kinds of fields you’d like to get into. English can get pretty inter-disciplinary, which assumes specialization but at the same time, allows you to develop a bunch of useful skills.
What are you thinking of right now? (Keep in mind that anything you think you want to do for the rest of your life right now will probably change later on, but it’ll be a good starting point.)
