Career Opportunities in English Language & Literature

By Monotosh Dey, HOD, Dept. of English

Intro: In the last few years, thanks to jobs becoming global, the importance of English has increased manifold. It has over the years become an important medium of communication, both at the international and intra-national levels. The importance of spoken English is even more, because there are many cases where one knows his subject well, but fails to communicate it properly. The practice of spoken English, therefore, is quite essential. Learning English in a country where it is not a native language, opens a number of opportunities for the individual. In today’s corporate world, the need for effective communication has been recognized and accepted more than the technical knowledge. The language of the corporate world is English. An individual can make strides in the management ladder if he/she can speak English fluently. If your English is poor, even though with brilliant business ideas, you may still find yourself languishing at the bottom of the management ladder. Your productivity will drop over a period of time since you will find difficulty in expressing your brilliant ideas.

The following are the career opportunities in the field of English Language & Literature

Media and Journalism Careers:

To boost your employability options in Media and Journalism, you should have an active presence on social media, personal portfolio of work, proven capabilities in the current media landscape and so forth. While pursuing your UG or PG degree in English Literature, you need to take part in Internships offered by various media agencies. You need to gain experience by writing news for a blog, reviewing movies and drafting the content or e-mails.

There are different career options in Digital Publishing which include areas such as electronic journals and e-books as well as online news sites and magazines. An English Literature graduate has various tasks in digital publishing which include editing of the content and publishing on the sites.

Editing can be a good option for an English Language graduate. Here the fresh graduates need a specific training in written language, word usage, and sentence structure in order to have expertise in editing works. An English language trainer may train them in these respective areas. After the specific training, the candidate may get a job in any of the publishing houses. There is dire need of such expert editors in business world too to edit the official documents.

Education.

Careers in Advertising and Public Relations:

English Literature graduates must have creativity, communication skills, imagination, logic and reasoning and writing skills which lead them to various careers in advertising and public relations. These jobs include advertising copywriter, creative director, event organiser, event organiser, PR Manager and others. These are exciting careers where you need to use your verbal adeptness, creativity and writing skills.

Careers in BPOs

There is a broad range of jobs in BPOs with decent salaries. A graduate degree is enough to enter into these jobs. However, if you are willing to work in US or UK based BPOs, you need to have excellent communication skills as well as an American accent. Companies like Dell, Accenture, Tata Consultancy Services and others usually offer jobs to those who have excellent command over English and a good accent.

Teaching & Academic Career Fields:

English Language Trainer

The growth and development of an employee in any organization is directly proportionate with his communication skills. Research tells that whatever one learns in the class room only ten to fifteen percent of his technical knowledge is used in actual organizational context and rest is his communication skills. As one grows further in the hierarchy, the importance of communication is increased. As a recruiter, companies often face the problem of assessing a candidate’s command over English language. Even the existing work force does lack communication skills. Most of the organizations are aware of this and they train their employees in Communication skills in order to increase the productivity of the organization and better representation of the organization at national and international levels. After receiving a degree in English Language, one can get a job in any of the organizations and earn handsome amount.'

• Teacher/Lecturer

Teaching is a good option for an English Language trainer as Technical Communication is a compulsory subject in all Engineering and Management Institutes. There the students are trained and prepared in communication skills to perform better in interview and group discussion for their placements. Since the growth of an institute is totally dependent on the job placement of its students, the role of an English Language trainer becomes very crucial. A person with first class degree in English Language can get a job in any of these institutes based on his/her performance in the interview.

​ Reputed universities that offer degrees in English language & Literature

• English and Foreign language University (EFLU), Hyderabad

• Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

• Delhi University, New Delhi

• Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi

• Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi

• Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh

• Gujarat University, Ahmedabad

• Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar

Placement

• After completing Master’s degree in English Language, one can get a job in any public and private organization

• Educational institute,

• Can set his own training center.

​Civil Services:

If you are looking for a job in the Public Sector, then Civil Services is the best option. Most of the graduates in English Literature have qualified in civil services examination. However, there is much competition for these jobs. If you want to clear civils, you need to sacrifice your social life and completely focus on your studies.

( To be Updated)

Reference: employmentnews.gov.in )

Note: You may also be interested to know about careers in the following subjects.

Careers in Chemistry

Careers in Linguistics

Careers in Economics

Careers in Computer Science

Careers in Commerce

Careers in Maths

Careers in Physics

Careers in Biology