Department of English

Careers

The English department is committed to empowering graduates to pursue meaningful lives and productive careers.

Top 5 Industries For Rollins English Majors

Overview

Students (and their parents) often wonder "what can I do with a degree in English?" While the obvious answers are teaching, writing, and graduate school, the range of possible careers is much broader. English majors/minors and writing minors have hundreds of career opportunities when they graduate.

The problem is often in selecting from the large number of choices.
English majors will graduate from Rollins with extensive practice in skills widely valued by employers, including the ability to communicate ideas effectively in both writing and speech, the skill to analyze complex problems and synthesize diverse solutions, familiarity with unfamiliar cultures and historical eras, and practice working cooperatively. The continued proliferation of information and technology will only continue to make these skills a vital component of your resume.

The difficulty is not in finding a job but choosing from so many opportunities. In contrast to tailored majors/minors that only train their students for a specific kind of work, a graduate with an English major/minor or writing minor has developed a large set of transferable skills coveted by employers in many areas.

Students who want to narrow down this range of possibilities should explore careers through work and internship opportunities during the undergraduate years. Students should also talk to friends, family, recent graduates, faculty advisors and the Office of Career Services to help focus their approach to the job search. Our majors have become college professors, award-winning teachers, and bestselling authors, but they have also become CEOs of major corporations, attorneys, celebrity chefs, physicians, entrepreneurs, political consultants, actors, and cattle ranchers.

Alumni Profiles

In the Rollins English Department, we tend to take the long view of our college’s mission to foster meaningful lives and productive careers. Shakespeare was uncannily prescient when he described the seven acts of a man’s life. Labor statistics suggest that men and women these days have at least seven different careers through their lifetimes. In the department, we understand that the life you lead in your 40s and 50s might be unrecognizable to you in your 20s; a careful study of literature and writing prepares individuals to approach these changes with flexibility.

Stephanie Glance '86
After playing basketball, softball, and volleyball as a Tar, English major Stephanie Glance found her calling as Head Coach for Columbia University’s NCAA Division I women's basketball team.
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Eddie Huang '04
English alum Eddie Huang boasts a diverse resume that includes author, clothing designer, lawyer, chef, and television personality. Huang's first memoir, Fresh Off the Boat, which includes scenes from his life at Rollins, was developed into a sitcom for ABC in 2015.
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Cary Hall '11
In her first five years after graduating from Rollins, Cary Hall has lived in Prague, Madrid, and Seoul. In each new city she has taught English as a second language, for both high school students and for corporate clients like Exxon Mobil, DHL, and Dannon.

Jessica Kaufman '15
After winning the award for Outstanding Graduating Senior in the Hamilton Holt School, Jessica Kaufman went on to the Treasure Valley in Idaho to work with Teach for America.
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Alumni by the Numbers

Top 10 industries of Rollins English alumni (1985-2015):

Higher Education
K-12 Education
Retail Sales & Services
Legal Services
Health Care
Publishing
Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations
Real Estate
Hospitality and Travel
Financial Services

Top Job Functions described by Rollins English Alumni

Media and Communication
Education
Entrepreneurship
Sales
Marketing

Source: LinkedIn