As a student of the classics, there is no shortage of skeptics who will tell you that you have no career and no future as anything that is financially lucrative. As we mentioned before, the classics can actually be the start to a great career if you only know where to branch out.
Studying the classics equips you for many of the tough challenges you will be facing in your career further on. As someone who has a background studying classical material, and more importantly, a large amount of dense paperwork, you can be well equipped to work in areas with high advancement opportunities, and not only someplace with a history background.
Prospects suggests three more things you could possibly be doing once you get a degree in classics:
Heritage Manager
This one is a rather versatile job title. It could be a position at a local authority like a historic preservation society, or it could encompass many other job titles.
Essentially, a heritage manager is responsible for the conservation and management of historically important heritage sites like buildings, landscapes, museums and monuments.
This is an up and coming career with a broad range of responsibilities. These could include the preservation of important sites all the way to developing plans to maintain a community's culture or a region's legacy.
You can mostly expect to be placed in management roles and work in the heritage sector, and you might be responsible for balancing the preservation of the site with overseeing the project's income, from a business perspective.
Market researcher
If the idea of research appeals to you and you have a flair for communicating large amounts of information, this could be the job for you.
As a market researcher you will be collecting and analyzing data and information which you will then present to your clients. The information gathered by you helps them make informed political, social and economic decisions.
A company could directly employ you (you would be working client-side) or you will more likely be employed by marketing agencies. At agencies like these, work is carried out on various projects for different companies. You can expect to specialize in either quantitative or qualitative research.
Solicitor
This is a bit of an unconventional route to go after a classics degree, albeit one that is surprisingly frequented. A solicitor provides expert legal support and advice to clients, which would be individuals, groups, public sector organizations or private companies. Depending on what your area of expertise is, you could be working in the area of personal issues (real estate, family matters, divorce proceedings, criminal litigation) or commercial issues (mergers and acquisitions).
