Classics : Your skills

Although classics has traditionally been seen as a strongly academic subject, modern degree courses in classics and classical studies are designed to equip students with a broad range of different skills.

Studying such an intellectual discipline certainly demonstrates that you have a willingness and ability to learn and comprehend challenging subjects. The specific content of your course also provides you with a well developed understanding of different cultures, societies and perhaps even specific languages such as Latin and Greek.

Throughout your studies, you will develop the ability to research, collate and analyse materials, including written documentation and statistics. You also learn to critically evaluate and interpret resources in order to formulate impartial and coherent arguments, which you can present competently in both the spoken and written word.

The structure of your course, mixing independent study and group tasks, gives you the opportunity to prove that you can work autonomously and manage your own workload but also can engage in team work. Like most students, you are used to working to strict deadlines and under pressure.

Coupled together, these abilities and attributes make for a very well-rounded individual who possesses a desirable mix of specific, practical, intellectual, theoretical and transferable skills. Consequently you have an excellent choice of potential career opportunities open to you.

Consider the skills developed on your course as well as through your other activities, such as paid work, volunteering, family responsibilities, sport, membership of societies, leadership roles, etc. Think about how these can be used as evidence of your skills and personal attributes. Then you can start to market and sell who you really are, identify what you may be lacking and consider how to improve your profile. Take a look at job application advice for some useful tips.