A degree in English “opens many doors”!

English Language lecturers DR HELEN WEST and DR HARRY PARKIN report on how former University of Chester students answered your questions   

Where can a degree in English lead you? University of Chester English Language alumni students have some answers to that question. Speaking at the UoC Creative Futures English Alumni Panel, they offered outstanding tips on what you can do with your degree and why your degree is important, the skills you are gathering now that will be useful when you graduate, the dos and don’ts of writing CVs and applying for jobs, and what to expect when applying. Here is what they had to say… 

The panel:  

Kate Green graduated in 2017 with a degree in English Language. She is now a Content Marketing Executive at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Specialist Care in London. 

Vicky Tams graduated in 2017 with a degree in English Language. Vicky worked as an au pair in Toronto Canada for two years, and now works in secondary education in the UK. 

Esther Humphries graduated in 2023 with a degree in English Language and has held posts as a Speech and Language Therapy assistant in Special Educational Needs schools. She continues to work as a professional researcher on the Swift Accent Shift Project, which is based on her undergraduate dissertation.  

Emily Boland graduated in 2017 with a degree in English Language. She originally wanted to work in fashion but found, once she entered the profession, it was not for her. She is now a Performance Marketing Creative Manager in London.  

Question 1: How did your degree enable you to get a job? 

Unanimously, the panel stated that having any degree was an essential requirement for applying for their jobs.  

Kate started in another role when her current post became available internally. Her current post required excellent communication skills, and her company looked for people who had a degree in English. 

Emily notes that talking about her dissertation, which she thoroughly enjoyed, helped her to demonstrate that she has academic interests during interviews. Leading on from this, panel members agreed that there is a broad range of skills that are acquired in English Language, which have proven invaluable to their work:  

• Independent work (i.e., dissertation, assessments and projects)  

• Modules that involved language in the media have really helped with careers in marketing and learning to write for, and communicate with, different audiences. 

• Presentations and assessments helped with communication skills and performing in interviews.  

• Analysis and research skills. 

They didn’t fully realise how useful these skills would be until they entered their careers.  

Question 2: What impact did your degree have in your approach to your current career?  

Vicky and Emily took some time to study abroad at the end of second year in Germany, and they reported that this experience helped them to become more independent. They said that “the university is a massive support, but once you move outside of this, you need to be more independent to get by”. This experience encouraged Vicky to live abroad after her degree, and Emily reports that this better prepared her to live in a large city like London, which she absolutely loves. 

Kate adds that she entered work straight away and while she has no regrets, she advises that, if you are going to travel, you need to do this before you settle into work and you have too many commitments.  

All the panel agreed that experiences such as working and volunteering during their degree prepared them for work afterwards, not just in terms of the skills and experience that they gathered from doing travel and work, but because employers recognised that they were able to manage their time between their degree and working, and that they had gathered work experience.  

Question 3: Could you tell us what the most important thing is you learnt in your degree that supports your job now?  

Kate says that she “fell into her job accidentally as English opens so many doors”.  For Kate, research and writing were the most important. Kate’s job in one of the largest medical providers in the country, requires her to do a lot of independent research as well as interviewing world-renowned medical consultants who are trialling innovative medicines and medical procedures. To carry out her role, she found many parallels with her English degree: the research skills she gathered such as learning what was and what wasn’t such a reliable source; the interview skills she developed on her degree has enabled her to effectively interview the medical professionals; and the writing skills that she developed have proven invaluable. She learnt to write both technical and persuasive texts during her degree and now she can write for different audiences from interview and research reports to persuasive texts to encourage consumers to take-up the innovative procedures on offer. She said that lecturers’ careful feedback on her writing skills during assessments, as well as learning how the English language works and is structured, has enabled her to be a highly effective writer.  

Vicky and Emily note that the ability to meet multiple deadlines is their essential take-away from their degree, as being super-organised is an essential skill in project management (Emily) and working in a secondary school (Vicky). 

Esther’s essential skill is teamwork. She notes that being able to communicate ideas with her collaborators in research is what makes the research flow and makes it even more exciting.  

Question 4: What is the one thing you would say would be essential to have in any degree course now?  

All members note that job-hunting is very competitive, and it is a full-time job before you find your role. But communication is key. They skills you learn in tailoring your language to different tasks has really helped. All panel members reported that applying for their job and the interview included several stages that required different communication skills. All the interviews have presentation components as well as interviews, and some required writing exercises.  

Kate stresses to be yourself when communicating and do not use AI when writing a cover letter or CV! Kate is part of the hiring committee at her work and has received 300 applications for a recently advertised post. She reports that use of AI is glaringly obvious, and these applications are binned as they are lazy and lack individuality/personality. She also warns that employers are now using AI detection software on applications.  

Research the role from the job specification and use “buzzwords” from that specification in your application. Your application should be tailored to the role you are applying for. She also advises preparing your interview responses in advance. 

Vicky and Esther agree that in teaching, a variety of communication skills is essential – not just for enabling the students learning, but communicating with students pastorally who are struggling, or communicating with parents of disruptive or struggling students.  

Question 5: Does AI play a role in your work?  

Kate says that using tools like Perplexity help her to find research papers, but all panel members agree that AI should be used to help you work smarter, not do the work for you.  

Emily finds using AI as a translator tool to reach an international audience has proved invaluable.  

Question 6: Do you have any advice for our current students who may wish to do something similar to what you are doing now?   

Vicky recommends travel. She says “you finish uni at 21 and you can be a teacher by the age of 22. You need to be able to hold your ground dealing with teenagers (and parents). Take your time to figure out what you want to do and don’t rush after uni. It’s ok to not know what you want to do”.  

Emily agrees that taking your time is key. “You can restart your career if you get it wrong but take the time to think about what you want to do and how you can best use your skills. You spend most of your time at work, so you need to get it right”.  

Kate: “There’s no shame in having a placeholder job while you figure out what you want to do. Working for smaller businesses, rather than going straight for a big company, is a good way to gain experience and get a foot in the door”. 

Esther: “Try to do what you enjoy doing. I’ve had some challenging roles, but I’ve been able to reflect on these experiences and pick out the parts that I’ve really enjoyed and think about where I want to go from this experience”.  

Question 7: We are currently redeveloping our English programme. What should we include/keep?  

• Kate: public speaking practice/presentations and how to use AI properly/appropriately.  

• Vicky and Emily: travelling abroad experience. 

• Esther: “I always enjoyed how varied the course is – the different areas that you could explore. Some of my modules weren’t my first choice but I ended up really enjoying them!’  

Question 8: If you could do your degree at Chester over again, what, if anything, would you do differently?  

All students reported that they would not choose different modules or do anything differently. Although Vicky admits that she perhaps didn’t focus on her studies as much as she should have, she would find this difficult to change, as she gained lots of valuable and treasured memories from her time at university. You may be surprised to hear that we agreed – perhaps Vicky could have focussed more but university should be a fun and all round experience.  

Question 9: (from audience) What advice would you offer anyone thinking about working in a secondary school? 

Vicky responds with her usual jocular manner: “get experience working in a prison!” before continuing that “there are different ways you can enter [the profession] – I got a SCITT rather than a PGCE, so I qualified in the role. I found that I’d forgotten the curriculum and all about exam boards, so you need to prepare and remind yourself of the curriculum content. Having a degree in English Language has been very useful, but I teach more in literature now, so I needed to brush up on literature covered on the curriculum”.  

Vicky also noted that it is a reactive role, and you must respond to situations in a pastoral capacity that suddenly arise, such as behavioural issues that you can’t prepare for. She stresses that being able to communicate calmly and professionally to students and parents is essential. She also stresses “make sure you can switch off – leave work at work and recharge your batteries when you come home!”  

All agree that employers will never say “stop!” You need to know how and when to switch off.  

Question 10: Did anyone prepare you for the challenges you face in your role, or did you learn on your feet?  

All said that, while they had their skills to fall back on, they had to learn on the job and were not pre-warned about the challenges. They advise confiding in colleagues really helped. (Panel chairs, Dr Jo Close and Dr Helen West, very much agree.)  

Question 11: (from audience) Is doing an English Language degree more advantageous than a literature degree?  

All panel members admitted that their response may be biased towards English Language as that is their degree. Kate notes that the scrutiny over her writing skills as well as learning the structure of the English Language has helped her to be a good writer, but all the panel agree that having a degree in any area of English and Creative Writing is advantageous, and employers wouldn’t necessarily know the difference between these areas. Jo adds that English Lit, Lang and Creative Writing give you excellent communication skills which employers are looking for.  

Question 12: (from audience) What are you putting on your CV to make it stand out from the others?  

Kate offered a lot of invaluable advice here. She reiterates not to use AI, but also to keep you CV simple and not to use brightly coloured boxes everywhere, as employers run CVs through software, which pulls the information from these boxes in the wrong order.  She advises:  

• Use bullet-points. 

• No more than two pages with most of the information on the first page. 

• Start with a summary about yourself stating (a) who you are, (b) your interests (professional not hobbies), (c) your main skills. 

• Add where you want to develop on your CV too  

• Make sure there are no typos – typos and AI = rejection.  

Vicky: “schools have a different process – you fill in a document/form rather than sending a CV. Don’t copy and paste from a previous application”  

Emily: “I recommend Canva. I think you can make your CV a bit more personalised/your brand but it depends on who you are applying to/what you are applying for. The key is to tailor your CV and application for the job/role you are applying for and take time over your application – don’t rush it.” 

Question 13: (from audience) Does networking help? 

All agree that networking and knowing someone can help get a foot in the door. (It can be worth contacting the company before applying for a brief informal chat about the role if you don’t know anyone.) 

Kate and Emily recommend having a professional LinkedIn account to present yourself and for finding jobs.  

All agree that having Twitter/X and Facebook set to private/cleaned of embarrassing posts is essential. Vicky says that her school “social media stalks” candidates applying for posts.  

Question 14: (from audience) Should I add hobbies and interests to my CV?  

Kate: “This is going to sound savage but no not really. You can add a couple of lines at the end but I’m not really paying attention to girl-guiding and book club membership when reading a CV”. 

Kate and Emily: talking about your dissertation/projects and interests in the application and the interview will not only demonstrate your relevant experience but will bring your personality through as well.  

Question 15: (from audience) Should I add my address to my CV?  

Kate: You only need the city.  

Emily: Graduate schemes can help with relocation.  

Esther: I interviewed for a job and was offered it the same day, so I had to relocate very quickly. Some jobs won’t allow for relocation, so watch out for that.  

Question 16: (from audience) How did you get into marketing? 

Kate and Emily: There are a few good online courses that teach you good marketing skills but most of the skills I gathered from my English Language course at Chester in terms of writing for different audiences. A good skill to develop is media strategy – planning and lining up posts so there are not gaps of time between posts, and so they are structured.  

Question 17: (from audience) Is it better for me to do a Creative Writing portfolio or an undergraduate dissertation? Which would employers value more?  

All: do what you think you will enjoy the most. Kate, Emily and Esther report thoroughly enjoying their dissertation and they still talk about it and think about the skills and knowledge gleaned from that. Vicky did not enjoy hers and feels she picked the wrong topic. If you do what you enjoy, you’ll get the most out of it in terms of skill and experience and you can bring that experience to your role.  

Question 18: (from audience to Esther) In your role as a professional researcher, do you still have access to the resources offered by the University?  

Esther: As an alumnus you have access to the resources (library, careers service etc.) for a few years after graduation. 

Our final thoughts – key takeaways from the panel for current students: 

(a) Do what you enjoy, both in university (i.e., for your dissertation) and afterwards.  

(b) Trust that you are picking up a very broad range of skills that open many doors to you.  

(c) Take your time. Find what you enjoy, try things out. You don’t need to know what you want to do straight away. 

(d) Stay in touch. You are making and have made life-long friends at university and with your university.  

Written by Dr Helen West and Dr Harry Parkin