What is a Classics degree for?
Every year, as choices for A Level start to loom, I sit with anxious students and their even more anxious parents to discuss career opportunities and university choices. Every year without fail and, I repeat, every year and not just once, I hear the same questions:
What does a Classics degree entail? If I do not want to be a teacher, what jobs can I have after choosing a Classics degree? Can I study Classics and still become a lawyer?
Now, we all know famous classicists. Some are teachers, scholars or professors, such as Mary Beard or Emily Wilson. Others have succeeded in jobs other than teaching in a variety of industries. Notable examples are Boris Johnson, who became prime minister, the talented actor Tom Hiddleston or the writer Toni Morrison, who not only won the Nobel Prize for Literature for her outstanding work but also enjoyed a successful career as a senior editor for Random House. But what about the occupations that will not necessarily make you famous, but that students would like to explore?
This is why I have opened a new series of blog posts, where I will interview a variety of Classics graduates from all walks of life. Younger Classicists may not have met anyone who has had a successful career after a Classics BA, or perhaps they have, but they would never have guessed! This series is here to show them the different paths that life may take and inspire to tread their own.
Below are samples of the questions I am planning to ask. Is there anything you would like to add? Just reply to this email and let me know!
- What aspects of your degree did you enjoy the most?
- Looking back, was your degree what you expected?
- If you could go back and speak to your 18-year-old self, what advice would you give her about choosing a degree?
- What was your first job after finishing your degree?
- And what other jobs have you had in your life, related or not to your degree?
- In your professional career, what learnings from your Classics degree have been most useful?
- Do you consider that anything you learnt was useless?
- How does classics inform your work as a _____________________?
- Would you do it again?
Come on, get involved, what do you think question 10 should be?
Ana Martin
www.latintutoronline.com
PS: I am going to be offering a limited-time 30% discount for my Latin GCSE Revision course. You can use the code BLACFRIDAY30 on checkout to secure 2-year access. Note that it expires in a week!
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