1. BrandyTimmons

    BrandyTimmons Member

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    Degree in English

    Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by BrandyTimmons, Nov 25, 2015.

    I'd like to go back to school and get a degree in English. Does anyone know if I can teach with this?
     
  2. thirdwind

    thirdwind Member Contest Administrator Reviewer Contributor

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    Teach what? High school? College? For the latter, you will almost always need an MA and/or PhD.
     
  3. DueNorth

    DueNorth Senior Member

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    Teach what and where? Requirements vary state to state--if you are going to stay in TX, check TX teacher licensing requirements. In many states you need a degree in Education to teach, with specialization in English to teach English. Requirements are generally less for private schools. Of course if you want to teach college you would need an advanced degree.
     
  4. BrandyTimmons

    BrandyTimmons Member

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    Hmmm. I wonder if there are other options for work with a degree in English. Teaching is just what I could think of.
     
  5. thirdwind

    thirdwind Member Contest Administrator Reviewer Contributor

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    A lot of employers are more concerned with skill set than your actual degree. So there are several jobs you could potentially apply for with an English degree. A lot of the English majors I know/knew branched out and didn't really end up doing anything related to the degree. Some went into marketing, others into business analysis, several work at non-profits, and a couple became technical writers.
     
  6. DueNorth

    DueNorth Senior Member

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    Barista--is the first thing that comes to mind. All kidding aside, a degree in English is not a very marketable degree. In spite of what Thirdwind suggested, we are in an age of specialization. For jobs in technical writing, you would be competing with people with degrees in Technical Writing, and for jobs in Marketing with people with degrees in Marketing, etc. My advice, if you are going to invest the time, effort, and dollars in a college degree do it in a program where you have a high degree of certainty of employability at a living wage. There are many English majors who return to school to get trained for a job to make a living (and I love English majors--this is about practicality). Or, get that degree in Education with specialty in English.
     
  7. Tenderiser

    Tenderiser Not a man or BayView

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    My experience concurs with what @thirdwind says. I'm sure there are statistics showing that the majority of people end up in jobs unrelated, at least directly, to their degree, unless it's something very specialised like medicine or dentistry. I work in marketing and contrary to what @DueNorth said, nobody in my team (including the head of marketing) has a marketing degree.

    I studied animal behaviour and I'm now a bid writer - a highly specialised job.
     
  8. norafluff

    norafluff New Member

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    I am a current English major, so I have done research into this matter for job possibilities. However, my plan has always been to get whatever bachelor's degree that suits my fancy because it's the master's degree in library science that I am after. I only needed something to bide my time until then, so I can get away with just about anything for that time.

    You can take a certification program to become a full-time teacher following an English degree, or you could possibly take a certification test if that works in your state. Even before then, you could become a substitute with an associate's degree or an equivalent number of credit without having an actual degree yet. I have considered subbing myself since I plan to work with children anyway.

    There is also the possibility of tutoring. Alone or combined with babysitting, you can make decent money if you find enough clients. Personally, I would suggest supplementing this with an online tutoring service. You can make $10-12/hr at maybe 10 hours per week, depending on if you tutor by appointment or sit waiting for on-demands.

    Library jobs would also fit an English degree well, if you're into that kind of work. You will split your time between working with items and working with people, as opposed to primarily working with people in education and tutoring, and typically it is not a sit-down, stay-put kind of job if that matters to you.

    If you really want to teach, there are English Education programs. It is essentially the same as an English degree plus certification training. It would prepare you to teach from the get-go. Typically, English programs require a minor while English Education programs do not, so they should end up requiring about the same amount of time to complete.

    I hope this information has been helpful. I agree with above posts stating that your degree may not exactly determine what field you end up in. Welcome to Whose Job Is It Anyway, where the need for a specific major is made up and it's just the degree that matters.
     
    BrandyTimmons likes this.

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