Written by Dan Moseson, Career Coach

Published December 5th , 2025

Humanities students gain extremely valuable skills and can succeed in an incredible range of career paths, from education, nonprofits, museums, arts, journalism, and publishing to law, medicine, tech, finance, sales, entrepreneurship, and government.

The skills they gain in class are among the most sought-after by employers, and the most resilient to market and technological changes.

A great way to be begin exploring career paths is the “What Can I Do With This Major?” tool in Handshake (students must activate their Handshake account at utah.joinhandshake.com).

To use it:

• Log into Handshake
• Click “Career Center” on the left side of the page
• Click “Resources”
• Scroll down to “What Can I Do With This Major?”
• Click “Languages, Cultures, and Humanities” (Writing and Rhetoric majors may want to look under "Communication" as well)
• Click your major (exact match not needed)
• Explore career paths, related resources, professional organizations, occupational outlook, and employment opportunities
• Follow up with your career coach to explore further and create plans for action

Read more:

• The Humanities Pathway to Career Success – National Humanities Alliance
• “Why English?” – U of U English Dept, applies to all Hum majors
• “Colleges Rebrand Humanities Majors as Job-Friendly” – The Hechinger Report, 2/11/2025

The reason many Humanities students get stuck is that they don’t realize they need relevant experience and professional relationships to launch their career in their desired field. In almost all cases, a strong academic record is not enough.  The necessity of gaining experience and connections outside the classroom must be communicated early and often. Hands-on experience is also essential for making informed career choices that suit students’ strengths, goals, and values.

Experience can be gained through:

• Internships
  • College of Humanities Internship Information
  • The Hinckley Institute - Internships
  • Goff Strategic Leadership Institute
• Jobs
  • Handshake Job and Internship Search (Students must activate account)
• Volunteering
  • Bennion Center
  • Utah Nonprofits Association
• Student Involvement
  • ASUU
  • Campus Connect

Professional relationships can be gained through:

• 1-1 conversations
• Networking events and career fairs (find on Handshake)
• LinkedIn (make an account, ask your career coach for help setting it up)
• Anyone wanting a deeper dive can complete our free, non-credit Canvas course on networking.

Most Humanities students who come to U Career Success for career coaching want to start the conversation with resumes and cover letters, but in reality, these are secondary and relatively simple parts of much longer process of exploring career interests and options and building a track record of experience.

By the end of their second year, students should be looking for ways to explore career paths.  You can find an excellent summary of this process here.

For help with any of these tasks, Humanities students can make career coaching appointments with:

• Dan Moseson (all Humanities majors except Communication)
• Giovanna Percontino (Communication majors only)
• Students in the Ethnic Studies and Gender Studies majors can make appointments with Suzy Shurtliff , as well as with Dan.

Please feel free to contact U Career Success with any questions:

Dan Moseson – [email protected]

Giovanna Percontino - [email protected]