Report on English Majors' Career Preparation and Outcomes. ADE Ad Hoc Committee on English Majors' Career Preparation and Outcomes

The Association of Departments of English (ADE) Ad Hoc Committee on English Majors' Career Preparation and Outcomes was charged with reporting on career outcomes for English majors and minors; gathering case studies and other forms of evidence of departments' effective strategies and curricular innovations for working with students on career preparation and professional development; offering advice on how to prepare students to explain how their study has readied them for a variety of careers and developed in them skills and values that are needed by hiring institutions in a variety of economic sectors; coaching faculty members to speak knowledgeably about such matters; and helping departments explain, to a variety of constituencies, how their work meets these challenges. The committee's "Report on English Majors' Career Preparation and Outcomes" documents that, despite myths to the contrary, English majors are employed, earn good salaries, and experience satisfaction with their career paths. The report offers six key recommendations for how departments can support students' career preparation and offers case studies from institutions with impressive career-preparation programming. [This report was published with the Association of Departments of English (ADE).]