Career Opportunities and Exploration

English majors enter the workforce with powerful, in‑demand skills—clear communication, critical thinking, cultural awareness, and the ability to understand and adapt to complex situations. These strengths pay off quickly and continue to grow in value throughout their careers.

In fact, by mid‑career, well‑prepared English majors commonly earn $20,000–$60,000 above the national average. “Contrary to popular belief, English majors ages 25 to 29 had a lower unemployment rate in 2017 than math and computer science majors,” Heather Long wrote in The Washington Post (October 19, 2019). And that trend continues: “The world’s top economists just made the case for why we still need English majors,” reaffirmed in an October 13, 2025 editorial in the Minnesota Star Tribune.

What English majors bring to their professions:

  • Writing, editing for professionalism
  • Understanding media and media forms
  • Reaching out to audiences; teaching, training
  • Understanding cultural differences and perspectives
  • Ability to read at length with comprehension of the whole
  • Ability to evaluate and critique the outputs of Artificial Intelligence
  • Interpretation, ability to work with text
  • Ability to recognize problems that are based in language
  • Facilitating conversations, the advancement of ideas
  • Understanding of human motivations, relationships, personalities, scenarios, point of view
  • Problem solving
  • Project management
  • Critical reasoning
  • Creativity
  • Collaboration

Connect with the SCSU Career Center

Why study English at St. Cloud State? 

  • Every organization, business, industry, or company needs writers
  • Over 96% job placement rate for our graduates with a Communication Arts and Literature teaching license
  • Internships are encouraged
  • Study abroad opportunities worldwide, including Alnwick Castle (England) and Mary Immaculate College (Ireland)
  • Student editing and publication opportunities in The Upper Mississippi Harvest, Kaleidoscope, University Chronicle, and Linguistic Portfolios

St. Cloud State English majors succeed in these fields:

  • Editing and publishing
  • Journalism
  • Arts management
  • Teaching – and teaching beyond the classroom: training, management
  • Social media communications; web communications and web directorship
  • Technical writing
  • Grant writing
  • Public relations
  • Marketing
  • Software sales and design
  • Nonprofit and government work
  • Administration
  • Management
  • Directorships