Photo: carmichaellibrary (CC BY 2.0)
Job description
Beyond lecturing, the job includes grading essays and papers, leading and moderating class discussions, and keeping regular office hours to help students who need extra support outside of class. Professors also advise students on academic paths and career questions, exercising real independent judgment day to day even while working within a semester's structured rhythm of syllabi, exams, and grade deadlines. Nearly all positions require a PhD in English or a related field, and many combine classroom teaching with ongoing research. Pay ranges widely by institution, from about $48,000 up to roughly $137,000, and job growth in the field has held essentially flat in recent years.
Pros
- Relatively large field with 5,100 positions nationwide compared to many humanities specialties
- Standard 40-45 hour week, on the lighter end for postsecondary teaching roles
- Work centers on mentoring and discussion-based teaching rather than routine, repetitive tasks
Cons
- Flat projected job growth (0%), meaning openings depend mainly on retirements
- Below-average pay relative to the years of doctoral education typically required
- Requires a PhD, a long and often low-paid path through graduate school first
A typical day
A morning seminar on the modernist novel runs on discussion, so the professor spends the first hour steering twelve students through a chapter of Woolf, pressing on the readings they rush past. Office hours follow — one student needs help restructuring an essay, another wants graduate school advice. The afternoon splits between grading a stack of close-reading papers and the professor's own scholarship: an article on epistolary form that has been three drafts in the making. Committee work and dissertation advising fill the gaps, and course prep for tomorrow happens after dinner with the book open and a pencil in hand.
Tasks at the job
- Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers.
- Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
- Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.
- Assist students who need extra help with their coursework outside of class.
- Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students.
- Advise students on academic and vocational curricula and on career issues.
Workplace & working conditions
Work happens indoors in a climate-controlled setting.
There's a regular, moderate amount of time pressure, and you're expected to exercise significant independent judgment day to day. The work is highly structured, following set procedures.
Education necessary or common
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in the relevant field
Common college majors
Licenses & certifications
- PhD in English or a closely related field (the required credential)
Career path
Related fields
Courses to take
- AP English Literature — the discipline itself, in miniature
- AP English Language — argumentation and rhetoric are the professional toolkit
- A world language (AP if possible) — comparative literature and grad school both reward it
- AP European or US History — literature lives in historical context
- Creative Writing — understanding craft from the inside
Clubs, activities & competitions
- Literary magazine — editing and curating other people's writing
- School newspaper — writing on deadline, every week
- Speech and debate — argument construction under pressure
- A serious independent reading project (an author's complete works, annotated)
First steps you can take now
- Read one canonical novel with a critical edition and actually work through the endnotes
- Enter a national essay or writing contest (Scholastic Writing Awards, for one)
- Sit in on a college English lecture on a campus visit
- Ask an English teacher what graduate study in literature is really like
