You don’t publish novels, by chance? (My family’s getting on my case for finishing novels I don’t submit.)
No offense, of course - but that sounds like a primo put down! You know, like a few sandwiches short of a picnic …
Ever hear the story about the black sheep in the herd? The one who was different…?
My father is an English major with Poly Sci minor - he manages a golf club.
My brother is theoretically interested in philosophy, but in practise it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere (major? what?)
My sister is starting univeristy to be a high school teacher, emphasis on Drama and English.
My mother is a fully bilingual (English and French) teacher, who teaches both languages at the grade 1/2 level.
Me? I’m a chemist 
Well, my college lumped English/creative writing/lit into an interdisciplinary major called “Creative Arts”. I also took enough drama courses to constitute that as a minor.
Got my Masters of Ed in '86 and certification to teach Middle School English (grades 5-9), which I did for 3 years. The state tax cuts were furious at the time, and I couldn’t land a FT teaching job. I was also sick of subbing.
Since then I’ve been a retail manager, baker, bakery manager, and pastry chef.
I injured my back last year, which put an end to all that. I’m still on disability.
When I’m all healed, my next step is…???
My English degree has been put to good use. I was a reporter for two years, then I was in fundraising/communcations doing stuff like editing a news letter and writing press releases. Now I’m a web editor.
I’m doing what a lot of former English majors are doing: teaching other English majors.
And loving it.
Master’s in Writing in an English department.
*Taught English and creative writing in an international school at middle & high school level.
*Taught English, creative writing, critical thinking, and SAT verbal prep at a yeshiva middle and high school.
*Taught college grammar and reading courses known privately as “So You Failed the Test of Standard Written English.”
*Taught English as a Foreign language for 11 summers at Brown.
*Worked as a copy editor and proofreader here and there.
*Published a few poems, short stories, and articles, most of them under a pseudonym.
Along the way, I went back to school and became a psychologist, earning great local praise for my ability to write an entire dissertation using a 5-paragraph essay paradigm. It was much more boring than my previous work, but since it was psychology, nobody cared.
I was able to support myself on the fabulous earnings of an English major (at least, a master’s level one), though I still have some shoulder strain problems from reading all of George Elliot’s work (in those thick, hard to hold Penguin editions) in the autumn of 1984.
BTW, in my first hospital mental health job, I was paid an extra dollar an hour because I had a master’s degree (= about $3000 extra dollars all together for the time I lasted at that job). Nobody cared that it was granted for a slender volume of poems and postmodern short stories.
OOC, how do you put your mad writing skills on your resumes (if you bother at all)? Personally, I’m resorting to pretty much listing writing styles (creative, academic, technical, etc.) that I’m familiar with.
Still sounds like I’m saying, somewhat lamely, “Hey, look at me, I know English!” though. 
That depends on what kind of job you’re preparing your resume for (“for which you’re preparing your resume,” ick!). The people most likely appreciate your writing skills will include 1) people in a publishing environment, 2) managers who have had difficulties in the past with other employees’ writing, and 3) other English majors. Unfortunately, many people do not realize how illiterate they are and many not realize the importance of your writing skills.
Once you get an interview, bring writing samples.
My first degree was an Honours B.A., with a major in English literature, and minors in classics and cinema. I studied under Frye and McLuhan, so it was a mind-expanding experience, to say the least. The degree helped me develop cultural and critical awareness, which to me is extrememly important for a person who wishes to participate in a meaningful way in society. The degree also gave me a firm foundation in both logic and rhetoric, which helped me develop the solid analytical skills requisite to any number of fields.
I then immediately took an M.A. in English literature (thesis: Recognition and Rejection of the Victimization of Women in the Novels of Margaret Atwood), while concurrently running a computer lab and speaking on technical writing at a couple of conferences as part of the University of Waterloo’s WATDEC project. This is where I was able to smoothy and directly apply my English skills to a career.
I then spent a few years teaching English literature, technical writing, and outdoor adventure leadership at university, and running a technical communication business. It was a fine life, with a very enjoyable mix of challenges, and a good balance between technical work and social interaction.
The technical writing and outdoor adventure work led to some heavy environmental legal writing, which was so much fun (creatively and analytically) that I then took a degree in law with a little graduate environmental science on the side.
I am now a litigator (I dress up in a bat cape and argue in court), which draws extensively on my English background. Quite frankly, I would be lost without having a foundation in English, for my job is to step outside the box and analyse facts, and to create and present rigorously logical and perusuasive arguments.
I am very happy with how my life is progressing, and I am very grateful to have been able to study English.
Ironically, I never did learn how to spell.
I graduated in '91 from the University of Toronto with a double major in English and History. My first job for two years was as an ESL instructor in Tokyo. I came back to Canada and have had tremendous difficulty in landing an appropriate job ever since. I began doing factory work because I needed the cash. I’m now a saw operator, cutting steel for a metals distributor. I’ve been with them for five and a half years and have been unable to land a sales position within the company, which really disappoints me.
I really need a new job.
Global Citizen
My mother majored in English.
She fell in love with ceramics along the way, and now makes pottery and jewelry. She admits that it has nothing whatsoever to do with her degree, so I’m not sure of the usefulness of this data point (yes, the math/science people have returned!:))
Right now I’m unemployed. Actually, I am contracting for one of the companies I used to work for, capped at 16 hrs/wk, so let’s say I’m underemployed, doing project management for a software developer.
I graduated with a B.A. in English in 1986, and started a Ph.D. program in English lit that fall. I stuck it out for most of three semesters, but hated grad school so much I only completed one of three courses that third semester. I started working part-time as a proofreader at an ad agency, then went full-time. I added some print production, copywriting, and traffic duties over time. Then I moved on to a type shop as a proofreader, learned to set type on proprietary systems, and then caught the desktop wave as it began to gather momentum. I ran the desktop service bureau part of that business for a while, then took a job doing customer support with a software company whose products I’d used and believed in. I was there for the next eight years, managing the support group, creating product specs, shepherding development projects, etc., rising to VP of product management and support after about three years. For the last eighteen months of that time, I served as de facto president of the company, after the founder/president was fired and not replaced by the company that had acquired us. Eventually, I coordinated the sale of the company to a competitor, closing the deal on a Friday and starting work for a new company on the following Monday. I worked there managing customer support for a year or so, then was asked to take over managing the QA department, which I did for another year or so. I left that position at the instigation of a friend/former colleague who offered me a chance to work on a project that was exactly in line with some longstanding interests of mine. That lasted for almost a year, until January of this year, when the project was eliminated, along with my position, in one of many rounds of cost-cutting.
During the fifteen years my career has spanned so far, my income increased six-fold, peaking at just under $100K/yr in my last position. I would have made more money in the early years of my career had I majored in a technical field, but I don’t believe I’d have been able to change and adapt to such a wide range of roles and responsibilities.
My standard response to people who ask whether I wish I’d done something related to my degree is that in getting a degree in a liberal arts field I learned to:
[ul]
[li]find relevant information[/li][li]assess the merits of that information[/li][li]make connections between that information and knowledge I already possess[/li][li]synthesize new ideas from that combination[/li][li]communicate the results of that to other people[/li][/ul]
I point out that these are skills that I’ve used every day of my working life, skills that have allowed me to succeed in a variety of business roles despite having no formal education or training in for those roles, and that my employers have been willing to pay quite well for these skills.
Not an English major here; but one of my best friends (and long-time college roommate) was. He graduated with a 2.0 and has done very well in advertising.
I was a B.A. with a major in Psychology - I’m now 22 years down the road (with many additional post-graduate hours) with a career as a geophysicist.
Of my friends in the Psych track, one is now a physician, two went on to Ph.D.s, two more practice with Masters and the rest are doing wholly unrelated things.