Career Advising

Making the leap from classroom to career

Don’t let the question “What are you going to do with that major?” catch you by surprise. You have a team of people at IUB ready to help you do what many others have done—take the major you love and find a good job after you graduate.

Career development is a fundamental component of your education. In the College, The Walter Center for Career Achievement is here to help you gear your studies toward prospective fields of interest, from the first year to the last. The earlier you connect with them, the better prepared you will be.

Resources through The Walter Center help you turn your diverse talents and passions into a successful and rewarding future. You’ll find job search resources, career courses, job fairs, information about internships and full-time jobs, and help with social media networking through professional organizations. Get advice about how to write your resume, ask for letters of recommendation, and prepare for job interviews, too.

Your career coach

A good starting point for exploration is an appointment with Angela Lexmond, the Arts and Humanities career advisor. She provides individualized guidance in Ernie Pyle Hall, check-in at the desk on floor 2. Angela accepts appointments through the Walter Center for Career Achievement.

The English Major Guide, co-authored by the Walter Career Center and English department, contains valuable information about all aspects of your undergraduate experience, including how to launch your career and coordinate academic and lifestyle goals.

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English skills & Career communities

The Walter Center uses a community-centered approach to deliver expert guidance and create opportunities for you to successfully engage with employers, industry experts, and alumni. To do this, it hosts career communities in a range of disciplines.

Each community is based around an industry, offering unique online content such as alumni spotlights, internships, full-time job opportunities, and industry resources. Each community also holds in-person events to discover and connect with employers and alumni.

Discover events are exploratory. You can speak off the record with alumni and employers about potential career fields in a casual setting.

Connect events are more professional, catering to students who have decided on a direction and are ready to connect with alumni and employers about specific opportunities. These events are designed to help you achieve success in your internship and full-time job search.

Where do you fit in?

You can explore multiple career communities and attend events across the industries, developing a great network for future opportunities while learning about various jobs.

Examples of how you might follow your interests while using your transferable English skills:

If you want to be a speechwriter or work as a policy analyst or researcher, you might go into Government, International Affairs, and Public Policy.

If you want to work in marketing and design in a retail setting, corporate environment, theatre or dance company, manufacturing or wholesale establishment, or within a design firm, you should explore the Design, Retail, and Apparel community.

If you want to teach, serve the public interest, or be a part of an organization that focuses on advocacy, you might go into Education, Nonprofit, and Social Service.

If you are interested in writing about business strategy, management, and branding within an entrepreneurial or corporate environment, you should look into Finance, Consulting, Management, and Sales.

If you are skilled at conveying information through technical and scientific writing, you might go into Science and Research.

If you are someone who can translate, organize, interpret, and summarize numerical data to provide usable information to solve problems in the health sciences, economics, business, engineering, or market research, check out the Technology, Data, and Analytics community.

If you are interested in applying your skills to the fastest growing industry in the United States, focusing on the healing, diagnosis, and treatment of human physical and mental impairments, you can connect with the Healthcare and Wellness community.

If you are fascinated with film, media, athletics, and the many facets of the entertainment industry, you should explore Journalism, Sports, Entertainment, and Production.

If you interested in branding or being the external voice of a company, writing press releases or marketing plans, you should investigate the Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations community.

If you want to go into publishing, writing, and design, conveying information about creative expression and the performing arts, look into careers through the Visual, Written, and Performing Arts community.

The career community alerts system gives students the tools to fine-tune their career search to their areas of interest and their regional preferences. Students who enroll in the alerts system receive emails with job opportunities that match their preferences, as well as information about events and spotlights about what current students and alumni are doing.

Explore career communities

Skills you need for a variety of careers

IU English majors bring their analytic and rhetorical skills to many employment fields, including teaching, editing, writing, technical information, publishing, public relations, government, education policy, advertising, marketing, sales, management, administration, development, fundraising, content strategy, and communications.

Learn more about marketable skills

Every employer values exceptional communication skills. The English major develops these and many other key transferable skills that employers seek: information analysis, critical thinking and creative problem solving to name a few. Engage with the Walter Center early and often to explore career possibilities and move purposefully toward your future.
Angela Lexmond, Career Coach

Department of English

Career Advising

Making the leap from classroom to career

Your career coach

English skills & Career communities

Where do you fit in?

Skills you need for a variety of careers

The College of Arts & Sciences

Career Advising

Making the leap from classroom to career

Your career coach

English skills & Career communities

Where do you fit in?

Skills you need for a variety of careers

Department of English social media channels

The College of Arts & Sciences