English is a major that teaches you to think, to adapt, and to engage. In an age of shortened attention spans, it teaches you to focus on complexity and meaning. In an age of AI, it teaches you to formulate and express your own perspective. In the midst of all-absorbing mainstream discourses, it trains you to grapple with different histories, different cultures, and different contexts. English classes teach critical thinking, creative problem-solving, writing expertise, and the ability to make sense of difference. Our small class sizes, meanwhile, cultivate important collaboration and communication skills. 

A degree in English will surround you with students who are interested in the arts, history, politics, and languages as well as allow you to build close relationships with our dynamic faculty members. With active student groups such as Sigma Tau Delta and the Shakespeare Club, student-based publications such as the literary journal Glass Mountain and the literary conference Boldface, and the single highest concentration of Phi Beta Kappa inductees of any other major in the University of Houston's inaugural class, the English department is a centerpiece of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. 

Employers want YOU! 

According to the American Association of Colleges and Universities, 80% of executives and 90% of hiring managers say they want employees with good communications skills; 76% and 78% say they want people with specifically written communication skills; and 78% and 84% say they want employees with critical thinking and analytic reasoning skills.

Contrary to popular stereotypes, English and other humanities majors do very well on the job market. According to the Humanities Indicators Project, 61% of individuals with a terminal humanities BA in 2021 were employed in “management, professional, and related occupations,” a category that encompasses management, business and financial operations, arts design and media, office and administrative support, and sales. 

Check out this article from CNBC, describing increasing demand for English majors. In it, “Robert Goldstein, the chief operating officer of BlackRock, the world's biggest money manager, said the firm was adjusting its hiring strategy for recent grads. ‘We have more and more conviction that we need people who majored in history, in English, and things that have nothing to do with finance or technology,’ Goldstein said.” The article goes on to state that increased “demand for liberal arts degrees is due in part to the rise of artificial intelligence, which drives the need for creative thinking and so-called soft skills.” 

Check out this job ad from Anthropic, designer of one of the most advanced LLMs publicly available: “We want to understand your personal interest in Anthropic without mediation through an AI system, and we also want to evaluate your non-AI-assisted communication skills.” In the article that features this ad, the author goes on to state that the recent “increase in digital optimization has left employers scrambling for human skills. Anthropic’s policy mirrors the growing need for soft skills, as AI isn’t capable of authentic communication, storytelling, and emotional intelligence. These qualities are top of mind for companies—even when hiring their next top executive.” 

Check out this list of CEOs who express their need for humanities majors in their corporate offices. Among them, Michael Eisner, former CEO of Disney, states, “I think maybe the best education, or the best foundation for business, is probably reading Shakespeare, rather than some MBA program out of some great business school. I think I’d rather have an English major than an economics major.” 

Looking for specific career path ideas? Check out this list of career paths for English Majors. 

Graduate School

Humanities majors also excel in a variety of graduate fields beyond the humanities. According to the National Humanities Alliance, Humanities majors exceed the average of all majors in their scores on the LSAT, MCAT, and GMAT. They have a higher rate of medical- and law-school acceptance, and among humanities BAs with an advanced degree, a full 87% were involved in “management, professional, and related” fields.

Ultimately, the best reason to invest in an English degree is that it teaches you substantial skills that don’t rise and fall with particular job markets. The ability to deal with complexity, to understand context, to think creatively will never become outmoded, and it will benefit you in pursuing graduate school or in heading straight into the job market. In the words of one UT Austin alum, “Students spend four years in college and forty years in the labor market. A lot of economic and technological change happens in that time. What students learn in a Liberal Arts education is uniquely suited to serve them well throughout their working lives.”

Who can you talk with about using your English degree?

• Director of Undergraduate Studies: Prof. Sebastian Lecourt (sjlecour@cental.uh.edu) can help connect you with career-related literature, English alumni, potential internship opportunities, and career coaches in the Office of Career Engagement.
• Academic Advisor Stephanie Martinez (semarti3@central.uh.edu) can help you conceptualize your degree plan, and choose the degree pathway that’s right for you!
• UH University Career Services: https://www.uh.edu/ucs/
• UH Internships Office: https://uh.edu/education/degree-programs/
• UH English Professional Internship Program. Designed to give students practical experience that will be helpful in setting career goals and in securing positions after graduation. •
  • Places students in a variety of businesses and non-profit organizations.
  • Internships are unpaid and consist of at least 70 work hours during the academic semester.
  • Upon successful completion of all work and course requirements, students receive 3 hours credit (ENGL 4390) that can be applied as English elective hours.
  • Please contact Dr. Lauren Zentz at lrzentz@central.uh.edu