'What can I do with an English degree?' Career guidebooks by major now available

A new set of guides has been released to help college students identify careers tied to their major, understand the competencies required for entry and learn how to build relevant experience. The guides cover 290 jobs linked to 10 majors, ranging from English literature to food processing.

The Korea Employment Information Service announced Wednesday that it has published 10 volumes of its "College Major Career Guide" series to support students in choosing a major and developing career paths related to their field of study.

The 10 majors covered span the humanities and social sciences — English and English literature, philosophy and ethics, public administration, tourism, trade and retail, economics, and business information systems — as well as the natural sciences, including clothing and fashion, culinary science, and food processing.

The guides introduce a total of 290 jobs. Economics leads with 45 occupations, followed by English and English literature with 34, trade and retail with 30, tourism, clothing and fashion, and food processing with 29 each, public administration with 28, culinary science with 25, philosophy and ethics with 21, and business information systems with 20.

Each guide covers not only the day-to-day duties of each occupation but also the competencies needed for entry and the career-building steps students should take while still enrolled. The guides also include 27 to 32 interviews per major with professionals who have entered the field, giving readers a firsthand look at actual career paths and on-the-job experience.

New to this edition are interviews with professors in each major. Those interviews explain the characteristics of the discipline and examine how shifts in industrial and social structures are affecting the major and its related occupations.

The Korea Employment Information Service has been selecting 10 humanities, social science and natural science majors each year since 2023 to develop these guides. It plans to complete career guides for about 50 majors in total by 2027.

The guides will be available from late August on the Korea Employment Information Service website, as well as through the Employment24 and Cyber Career Education Center portals.

Korea Employment Information Service Director Lee Chang-su said providing broad information on majors, occupations and entry preparation is increasingly important given the growing trend of undeclared enrollment and employers' emphasis on job-specific competencies and work experience. "We hope the guides will help young people choose their major and develop their careers," he said.