English Careers

Studying English prepares you to excel in a wide variety of careers. Our curriculum offers job-specific training and helps you develop fundamental skills that are applicable to any job and that never become obsolete. 

What English Majors Bring to the Job Market

  • wide-ranging cultural and psychological insight  
  • creativity   
  • digital/media literacy   
  • nuanced analysis of complex texts and issues  
  • clear, persuasive, and empathetic oral and written communication   
  • intellectually and ethically rigorous research    
  • collaboration  
  • human-centered, values-driven decision-making  
  • ability to learn quickly on the job 
  • completing substantial independent projects 
  • confronting a future with generative AI  
    • producing writing that is innovative, compelling, and authentic 
    • critically evaluating AI output 
    • strategically determining productive, ethical uses of AI 
  • teaching / education (including a secondary education concentration)   
  • internships for credit with a wide range of employers  
  • professional writing courses, covering topics such as:  
    • business writing 
    • technical communication  
    • AI literacy and prompt engineering
    • grant writing
    • editing and publishing  
    • job application preparation  
    • pre-law preparation   

These skills closely match the “career-readiness competencies” identified by The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) as the most important skills for graduates to succeed in the workforce. 

Career Prep

English majors develop skills and habits of mind that are highly valued by employers in many fields: venture capitalists, Silicon Valley CEOs, philanthropic leaders and business journalists all repeatedly articulate [that] humanities skills are indispensably foundational to innovation, design, and development.'

How to Get Career-ready as an English Major

  • Familiarize yourself with the kinds of help the Career Center can provide.   
  • Check out the Career Center’s page of resources for English majors.   
  • Try out online tools (such as those offered by the Career Center or the O*NET Interest Profiler) that match your personality and skills with possible careers. 
  • Take English courses that expose you to the full variety of the department’s offerings.   
  • Talk to your major advisor about your plans for the future.   
  • Get to know your professors and seek out faculty who could serve as mentors.   
  • Consider a minor that will complement your English major (or if you are a non-English major, consider an English double major or minor).   
  • Attend departmental, CLA, or university-wide career events. The English department periodically offers “Career Pathways” events where TU English alums talk about how their English training relates to their current work.  
  • Get involved with your fellow majors through clubs and activities such as The Literary Nook, The Towson Literary Reading Series and other events organized by faculty and students.  
  • Develop a list of your technical and transferable skills and how they could be applied to different kinds of work. Enrolling in ENGL 317: Writing for Business and Industry or ENGL 318: Technical and Scientific Writing will help. 
  • Consider an internship (ENGL 497 or 498) to gain relevant experience or to explore job options.  Many internships are paid now, and you can still receive course credit while being financially compensated. 
  • Take advantage of extracurricular opportunities to do research, writing, or editing/publishing. Join the Discourse Collective to work on Discourse. 
  • Apply for an undergraduate research grant.
  • Enroll in ENGL 414 or 415: Editing the Literary Magazine to work on Grub Street.
  • Enroll in ENGL 401: Grant and Advocacy Writing to work with GIVE (Grantwriting in Valued Environments).  
  • Present at an undergraduate conference on or off-campus.    
  • Start putting your CV/resume together, and consider a course (ENGL 317) or workshop in resume writing at the Career Center.  

 The Career Center’s “Career Road Maps” page offers timelines (for both 4-year and transfer students) of recommended career planning activities and links to important resources. Check this out as soon as possible; there are helpful things you can do even in your first year at Towson. 

“ In a time when humanities degrees are decreasing in popularity and public perception, I value my English degree because it gave me freedom of choice for my future career. When I chose not to pursue teaching (initially the only career path I saw for myself), I soon found that my English major could take me to law school, to other higher degrees, to marketing and business, to journalism, or to technical writing. ”

TU English Alum