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Careers with Classics

What can I do after studying Ancient Classics?

Some recent Classics students at the University of Galway have gone on to the following careers:

Academia (university lecturers, e.g. at Princeton; post-doctoral researcher; university administrators)
Author (published novelist)
Civil Service (departments of Finance and Employment Affairs)
Consultancy (audit manager for major international firm)
Customer Support (for an international games company)
Law (barrister; legal assistant in the Paris area)
Marketing and PR (for an Irish bank; for a Dublin theatre festival; for an Australian wine company; for a US volunteering agency)
Media (production co-ordinator for a Canadian film company; production controller for a major UK publisher; content editor for a sports website; TV journalist)
Performance (actor in Channel 4 sitcom; casting agent)
Recruitment Consultant
Social Sector (traveller support agency; refugee agency)
Teacher

Your BA degree

It is important to remember that, whatever your subject choices, your qualification on graduation will be a Bachelor of Arts degree. The BA degree has long been recognised as a mark of attainment in general education.

A good result in your degree indicates to employers that you have developed the following personal competencies:

Absorb and analyze complex information
Perform focused research on complex issues
Communicate with clarity, accuracy and polish
Original thinking

It also demonstrates the following personal attributes:

Self-motivation
Capacity for hard work
Ability to organise, prioritise and work independently
Ability to learn

All of these soft skills are very important to employers (according to a recent LinkedIn study).

Within your degree, Classics is particularly good for developing the following competencies:

Flexibility. Because you can study history, literature, theatre, mythology, art, archaeology, languages and linguistics as part of your Classics education, you will develop confidence in undertaking many different kinds of tasks.
Linguistic competence. If you study Latin or Greek, you will develop very strong general linguistic skills, including a much better understanding of English vocabulary (about 70% of which is derived from Latin), English grammar (easy after studying ancient languages!), and the mechanics of how language works. You will find that as a result you will develop both your own communication power and your ability to analyse the spoken and written word.

Read our student testimonials on the skills students themselves felt they acquired from the study of Classics.

Classics and teaching

Many Arts students consider the possibility of a career in teaching. If you are interested in teaching, you should keep in mind that while Classics, Classical Studies, Latin and Ancient Greek are all subjects on the second-level curriculum, they are not core subjects in most Irish schools.

However, Classics may be valuable for your teaching profile in other ways. In particular, studying an ancient or medieval civilisation is currently a requirement on the Junior Cycle History curriculum. And of course, having a knowledge of Classical backgrounds will enrich your knowledge of other subjects (particularly English literature, from Shakespeare to Wilde, Joyce and Heaney), and so Classics can complement your teaching portfolio, even if you take it in First Year only.