Classics - using your degree
From CareersWiki
Contents |
Introduction
A degree from Scotland's first university is an excellent start to any future career. St Andrews has a reputation for excellence and the ability to attract the brightest students world wide. With this as a starting point you are well on the way to impressing future employers.
Modern degree courses in classics and classical studies are designed to equip students with a broad range of skills and abilities, eg an understanding of different cultures and societies, language skills, the ability to research, collate and analyse materials. These abilities and attributes provide students with a desirable mix of specific, practical, intellectual, theoretical and transferable skills, and, consequently, there is an excellent choice of potential career opportunities available.
Well known Classicists:
- James Baker - Secretary of State (USA) 1989-92
- Mikhail Bakhtin - Russian literary scholar and theorist
- George Berkeley - Philosopher (18th century)
- Jerry Brown - Governor of California 1974-82
- John Buchan - Governor General of Canada 1935-40 (born and raised in Fife)
- William Cohen - Secretary of Defense (USA) 1997-2001
- Colin Dexter - Crime writer ("Inspector Morse")
- Charles Geschke - Co-founder of Adobe Systems
- William Gladstone - 19th century British Prime Minister
- Bethany Hughes - Author and broadcaster
- Boris Johnson - Conservative politician and Mayor of London
- Emma Kirkby - Soprano singer
- Karl Marx - Philosopher and political thinker
- Iris Murdoch - Novelist and philosopher
- Friedrich Nietzsche - Philosopher
- Nick Owen - Presenter of BBC Midlands Today
- J K Rowling - Novelist
- Dorothy Sayers - Writer
- Peter Snow - TV presenter
- William Weld - Governor of Massachusetts 1991-97
- Oscar Wilde - 19th century playwright and poet
- P G Wodehouse - Writer, playwright, lyricist
Student / Alumni Profiles
Students and alumni from the School of Classics have kindly agreed to share their experiences of work and other career-related activities with you. These profiles illustrate the wide range of careers, internships, volunteering and other work experience opportunities open to students and alumni from your School. Check regularly to see what's new.
Where Our Graduates Go
| Year of Graduation | Organisation/Company | Position | Classics Required | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Sputnik Communications | PR Intern | Not directly | |
| 2011 | Goodsource Global | Freelance Project Manager | Not directly | |
| 2010 | Marcus Evans | Conference Producer | Not directly | |
| 2010 | British Red Cross Society | Humanitarian Action Project Officer | Not directly | |
| 2010 | Hamilton Blake | Recruitment Consultant | Not directly | |
| 2009 | Deloitte | Management Consultant | Not directly | |
| 2009 | St Mary's | Trainee Teacher and Boarding Tutor | Yes | |
| 2009 | University of York | Adult Nurse Training | Not directly | |
| 2009 | Smith & Williamson | Trainee Investment Manager | Not directly | |
| 2009 | University of St Andrews | Director - Student Development & Activities | Not directly | |
| 2009 | Chatteris Educational Foundation Hong Kong (CAN) | Native-speaking English Tutor | Not directly | |
| 2004 | Merrill Lextranet, USA (CAN) | Project Manager | Not directly | |
| 1997 | Advocate case study | Not directly | ||
| 1998 | RCM San Francisco (CAN) | Director & International Product Specialist | Not directly | |
| 1998 | Los Angeles Daily Journal (CAN) | Journalist | Not directly | |
| 1998 | The King's School, Worcester (CAN) | Teacher | Yes | |
| 1982 | Evans Roberts, Solicitors (CAN) | Solicitor | Not directly |
Careers Alumni Network (CAN) indicates these alumni are willing and keen to be contacted to help St Andrews students with their careers search.
Where Our Postgraduates Go
| Year of Graduation | Organisation/Company | Position | Classics Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Wellcome Finance | Customer Services Advisor | Not directly |
| 2010 | The Vindolanda Trust | Research Assistant | Yes |
| 2009 | Greek Government (Ministry of Education) | High School Teacher | Yes |
| 2006 | Barnados | Fundraiser | Not directly |
Popular Jobs for Classics Graduates Nationally
Around 12% of classics graduates entering full-time work choose professional roles within the business and financial sectors. However, classics graduates are well-suited to professional services roles with their ability to analyse and understand complex information and also to research, document and present findings.
The next most popular choices are professional roles within advertising, sales and marketing and also secretarial/administrative roles across all sectors, which together account for just over 20% of classics graduates. Communications-based roles are an obvious option, drawing on an understanding of language and its power. Administrative roles tend to be the entry-level route for graduates who ultimately would like to work in creative, cultural and heritage-related positions and is again an understandable choice.
Acquiring an understanding of different cultures and societies also leads to a small number of graduates going into social work and related roles.
Summer Internships & Work Experience
It can be very valuable to gain experience of work in various areas, but particularly in those areas that you are considering as a future career.
- The University Careers Centre has information on vacation jobs and internships in the US
- If you'd like to stay in St Andrews over the summer, you might want to apply for the St Andrews Summer Internship Scheme.
- Remember to network with students in more senior years, tutors, family and friends they may have suggestions and contacts.
- The Undergraduate Research Internship Programme (URIP) was launched in 2008 by the University of St Andrews. Under the URIP scheme, the University funds 20 undergraduates to carry out research over ten weeks during the summer vacation. The students work on independent projects under the guidance and supervision of a member of academic staff. Look out on the website for application forms which normally have to be returned by the end of April.
- Talent Scotland TalentScotland offer summer internships and graduate placements in a range of areas including IT, market research, marketing, international expansion, human resources and environmental management, all with small Scottish firms.
- Several penultimate year students have been successful in getting a paid summer internship with the Saltire Foundation. These are global experiences in USA, Japan, Cayman Islands and others.
- If you are interested in teaching or other work with children the University runs schemes in partnerships with local education authorities which give students access to school pupils. To find out more contact the staff involved by e-mail, schools.access@st-andrews.ac.uk .More Schools are offering the UK Undergraduate Ambassadors Scheme, which requires students to spend up to 25 hours working within a Primary or Secondary school or Science centre. The module is assessed and contributes towards the final degree outcome.
- Consider applying for a place at a Summer School at either the British School at Athens or the British School at Rome. Application details. Travel Awards available. Read a case study of a classics student who attended a summer course at the BSA.
- Look out for archaeological projects or excavation projects. The School of Classics has a page of useful contacts and links.
- Joining a society and particularly taking on a role of responsibility can impress future employers and also enhance employability skills such as - team working, negotiation, event management, controlling budgets, leadership etc. Have a look at the case study from a student who made the most of his time at St Andrews through involvement in societies. At St Andrews you have a wealth of societies to choose from. Here are a few relevant examples:
- Classical Society Whether classics is your chosen subject, or just an interest, the Classoc is open to all.
- Archaeology Society The St Andrews Student Archaeology Society offers weekly meetings with occasional guest speakers, picnics, walks, cheese and wine evenings, practical archaeology and digs
The table below gives some examples of the experiences of Classics students.
| Year of graduation | Organisation/Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | ArchaeoSpain | ArchaeoSpain Excavation Programme case study |
| 2011 | British School at Athens | Undergraduate Summer Course case study |
Employability Profile
Skills
The profile below identifies the skills that can be developed through the study of your discipline based on subject benchmark statements developed by UK higher education academic communities.
This table is able to help you to identify the valuable skills that you can offer to potential employers.
| A graduate in Classics/Ancient History typically will have the ability to: | Evidence: | |
|---|---|---|
| understand another culture and a complimentary range of subjects such as language, literature, linguistics, philosophy, history, art and archeology | The whole series of modules deal with this, as they comprehend all the mentioned aspects: languages completely different from theirs, history and culture of former civilisations, archaeological methodology, their literature both in their formation process and in the form it has reached us, the thought of the most prominent figures of the different periods, etc. | |
| command techniques and methodologies such as bibliographical and library research skills, a range of skills in reading and textual analysis, the varieties of historical method, the visual skills characteristic of art criticism, use of statistics, philosophical argument and analysis, analytical grasp of language, and skills in translation from and/or into Greek and/or Latin | Any Literature and History module covers the first mentioned techniques of research: after being given some basic guidelines and the target to be reached, students must develop their own research techniques either in the library or finding information form other sources, analyse it, etc.; obviously, the modules that deal with classical art deal with art criticism, and the same can be said with respect to modules that deal with philosophical thought of the two classical civilisations; obviously, the analytical grasp of language is provided by the language modules, which includes the translation from both languages, and skills in translation into both classical languages are developed in the recently introduced modules, at Honours level, of Greek Prose Composition and Latin Prose Composition. | |
| understand a range of viewpoints and critical approaches | In any History, Literature or Cultural module, students are confronted with different ways of interpreting historic events, literary masterpieces, civilizations different to theirs, etc. This compels them to adopt an objective and analytical attitude to approaches different from their own ones. | |
| exercise reflection and critical judgment | Although all modules deal with this, this aspect is mostly developed in modules that require historical and literary analysis: the need to analyse data and to choose their own approach makes students reflect, choose and decide a course of action. | |
| gather, memorise, organise and deploy information | Developed especially by means of the confection of essays, as these require students 1-to collect all necessary information, 2-to classify it according to the theme to be dealt with, 3-to deploy the final presentation of the essay. Most of literature modules require essays as a core part of them. | |
| extract key elements from data and identify and solve associated problems | This is developed in their private study and research process and the need to choose the necessary elements from within the usual huge amount of data that students receive, whether from large bibliographies or as result of any research process. Solving the problems presented by apparently contradictory data is an important factor. | |
| engage in analytical, evaluative and lateral thinking and to marshal argument | As has been said for other aspects, this is developed basically by their individual research, whether to present a written essay or to defend a given positioning of thought, either historical or cultural. Marshalling arguments is achieved by the need of team-work. | |
| present material orally and in writing | Most modules require this: written essays, oral presentations in front of their classes, etc.; even language modules require them to present written material as homework. | |
| work with others, work under pressure and meet deadlines | Making students work in small groups is rather frequent, which compels students to develop the ability to organise themselves, and obviously the need to meet deadlines in all modules essays, presentations, etc. develops in them the sensation of working under pressure as something that finally is accepted as normal instead of being considered something exceptional, also the usual assessment procedures during the semester should be mentioned as something that develop their revision needs to meet an unavoidable deadline. | |
| apply modern foreign language skills and basic IT skills | The structure of both classical languages provides students with excellent skills for the learning of any new language; hardly will they find in any modern language a structure which they have not already found in any of the classical ones. This applies not only to the learning of Romance languages after studying Latin, their common stem, but also to any other indoeuropean language from other branches. The need to present parts of their essays (quotations, etc.) written in Classical Greek makes students develop their knowledge on the existence and use of several fonts and especially on the use of Unicode (alphanumerical system created to put an end to the incompatibility between different fonts for languages using a non-Latin alphabet). | |
| demonstrate autonomy manifested in self-direction, self-discipline and intellectual initiative | While some modules may have a structure which gives a lot of guidance to students making them follow the lecturer's instructions, others (especially those in which individual research is involved) compel them to learn how to work on their own, how to organise their own work and how to work in an autonomous way taking their own decisions with respect to which points must be achieved (after receiving some previous guidance from their instructors), by which means (bibliographical research, etc.), and organising their own timetable. |
Classics Careers/Employability Link
Each School has a Careers/Employability Link who "champions" employability, yours is Dr Juan Coderch (jc210@). If you have any information you consider important for your fellow students please let him know. Alternatively you can complete a "profile" which enables you to share your experiences with other students.
