Arts and humanities

Arts and Humanities

What can I do with my subject?

It is a familiar question from students visiting the Careers and Development Centre. Having spent 3 or 4 years of your life studying a particular discipline it would be reasonable to assume that there will be some connection between this and the rest of your life. A degree from many Arts and Humanities fields doesn't come with a specific tag, and even within those fields (e.g. Publishing) that do appear to have defined career path there are many options. Employment prospects for Arts and Humanities graduates are excellent and recent graduates of the School have pursued careers in Journalism, Marketing, Public Sector, Publishing Media, Teaching . All of these sectors and others are outlined in the Graduate Prospects Sector Briefings. After doing some research; if you are still unsure about what you want to do next then have a look at our 6 Step Careers Guide or come to see a careers advisor.

Many employers in the private and public sector actively seek to recruit humanities graduates, believing that they bring a fresh, critical approach to the workplace. Although you will have developed a wide variety of skills throughout your degree, it would be a great idea to plan for a period of work experence alongside your studies as this would boost your employability and give you a valuable insight into your chosen field.

To learn more about work experience, visit our pages on ‘Finding a Job’.

What skills have I gained?

In order to understand what you can offer an employer you need to be aware of the skills that you have developed. This website from the Higher Education Academy describes the types of skills you have gained from your course and is a great resource to use when trying to decide on a future career. To access the information on your specific degree just choose the subject you are studying from the list and read through the information. The documents can be quite detailed, but if you look for the skills sections they are fantastic for helping to identify the skills (rather than knowledge) developed during your degree subject.

http://www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/benchmark/honours/default.asp

What jobs are related to my subject?

Although 70% of all graduate jobs are open to people from any discipline, in many cases students with a degree in the Arts and Humanities field go in to jobs relating to a range of different areas, including:

Journalism, Marketing, Public Sector, Publishing Media, Teaching

But for more detailed information about what kinds of jobs are related to your subject, visit these links on Prospects which explain more:

Options with your subject

Options with a Humanities Degree

What are the postgraduate options with my degree?

Postgraduate study is another popular option for Arts and Humanities graduates and provides another opportunity to expand on your existing skills, whilst increasing your knowledge of a particular subject. For more information on postgraduate study, here are a couple of websites to look at:

Make sure you check out the information on this site about Postgraduate Study.

Click here for specific information on postgraduate programmes at Brookes.

And here for more general postgraduate study advice from Prospects.

What did other graduates do?

A good way of considering the options you have with your degree subject is to have a look at what other graduates did in your situation. Every year a survey is carried out to discover what graduates do after they leave University. This allows Universities to understand more about their graduates and to use this information to see which graduates go where. To find out more, visit Prospects ‘What do Graduates Do?’:

For more information on the Arts and Humanities field at Brookes check out the department page on the Brookes website.