Working with an Arts degree

I'm currently trying to find work and am finding it more and more difficult to find people looking for individuals with English degrees. I don't want my degree to go to waste, so I thought I'd ask people here what sort of courses might compliment my BA and make me more desirable to employers.
I've been looking at diplomas and courses in media and journalism; would it be a wise choice to invest in the media side of things, or are there other, more viable options that I might not have thought of?

starlit

What did you major in in your English degree? Any subjects you were good at and did well in that you could specialise in? By doing a diploma, higher diploma, postgraduate diploma or Masters? If you decide to do a Masters do it in something specific, that you know enough about or like to specialise in, career prospects are good and that its a career area you like to follow. Doing a general English Masters might not be the best thing as in this recession BA graduates are very much affected in looking for work compared to their Bachelors of Business, Engineering or Science graduates...though all in the same boat as to regards to looking for work though.

Media, communications or journalism might be wise areas to follow. Gradually go through courses to find your niche and what you are good at and what career you like to pursue. Have you looked into teaching here or abroad?

All depends what you really like to do and what career you want.

Definitely go for a course that will complement your degree as what you missed in your degree in terms of what skills employers are looking for best to weigh up what you don't have and what you can gain and build up from what you have learnt already with what you can learn and gain from a course that develop skills you don't have or like to improved on. Make sure there is a market for these skills though. Though not every course you do will be recession proof no course is guaranteed that even the best of them!

Look into every possible option available to you and do a lot of research before embarking on a new course! You'll reap the benefits of having done one to balance out your skills especially opens up more doors for interviews any ways!

Good luck!

closifer

kyedhen.female wrote: »

I'm currently trying to find work and am finding it more and more difficult to find people looking for individuals with English degrees. I don't want my degree to go to waste, so I thought I'd ask people here what sort of courses might compliment my BA and make me more desirable to employers.
I've been looking at diplomas and courses in media and journalism; would it be a wise choice to invest in the media side of things, or are there other, more viable options that I might not have thought of?

Arts is definitely more of a gateway degree than anything else ( i have an arts degree in media and english) so I think you are wise to consider going on and doing something a little more specific.

Journalism is a pretty difficult area to break into - especially at present as radio stations and newspapers are struggling to attract advertising revenue. If its something you feel passionately that you would like to get into -then by all means do the diploma but as a graduate with a media degree and M.A - i would just warn you that it will not be easy and the competition is fierce. You will either need to be REALLY good or REALLY lucky to break in at this point in time IMO.

If you have any interest in travelling - doing a diploma in TEFL would compliment your degree and you would be very employble in numerous countries.

meganj

Would you consider something additional in PR/Marketing OP?

I know a friend of mine has an English degree (so do I but I'm not as dedicated) and she really wanted the degree to have some use, she now works in a PR department drafting public statements and things like that. She also did some work maintaining online media presence (ie facebooking) and that involved (limited) use of her language skills.

It's not ideal I know but it might at least allow for a bit of creativity.

eviltimeban

It depends what you want to do. Normally, "media" jobs are hard to come by and pay very little, as everybody wants to do them. I have a degree in philosophy and archaeology, and while I soon realised that there weren't many jobs available for philosophers, I most definitely did not want a job going on digs, so after college I did a course via Fas and the Fitzwilliam Institute in sales and direct marketing. That got me into that whole area, up to and including business development, etc.

The good thing about that course is that they paid you a weekly wage, so you were studying and getting paid, then they arranged placement in a company where you could get experience (and still get paid by Fas).

That was in 1996 though so things may be different nowadays! :-/

scoopmine

Some great info here for myself I am a final year humanities student. Focusing on religion, english and media. Doing teaching twice a week but doubting if I want to be a teacher as I abit burned out with religion. Interested in sales and marketing so I will be taking a year out when I finish perhaps going for SU president to help the CV and its something I would love to do. Sorry for jumping in!