English Major Careers at USNA

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bashman

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I wanted to know more about the English major at the Naval Academy. I’m curious how the classes are, and what career options are available to English majors after USNA.
Any feedback is appreciated.
 
If you are asking what active duty postions are available after USNA with an English major, any and all of them.
 
If you want to go subs, majoring in English is ok if you still excel in the STEM courses. It’s definitely doable but probably easier to do as a STEM major.
 
You still graduate with a BS. So, you will have the engineering background necessary for any position - as long as you do well in the classes!
 
Above is true with the exception of the limited billets for some restricted line communities. Cryptologic warfare and cyber warfare require comp sci or a related major. Civil Engineering Corps is rare to get into but we have two entering this year, and an engineering major is required.
 
IronmanDaremo said:
You still graduate with a BS. So, you will have the engineering background necessary for any position - as long as you do well in the classes!
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BLUF: A USNA English grad will be far better equipped for post-Navy life than a civilian school English grad, but depending on what @IronmanDaremo meant by "any position" -- I'd push back somewhat if the reference is to civilian STEM jobs.

Yes and no IMO. Engineering skills necessary for most any career track in the Navy -- yes. The outside, not exactly.

A USNA English major certainly has more STEM experience than an English major from a civilian institution, not to mention the USNA connection. But as an example, the USNA English graduate will not have taken the NCEES FE exam (or similar) that many engineering grads at civilian schools take. Now, being candid I don't definitively know if USNA engineering grads take it, though this USNA link seems to suggest it is encouraged. I'm learning here too!

I could elaborate on coding and computer science skills as well.
 
Was speaking more about Naval billets when they graduate. Got a bit more clarification provided for specific career paths in the post by Kierkegaard.

Definitely not in the civilian world. In that instance, opportunities will open based on being a USNA grad and their actual work experience they gained in the fleet.

Heck, I'm in program management leadership for Earth Science missions for NASA, and my degrees are in Architecture! Current position was gained based on work experience, not a degree. Degrees open the doors. Your performance and experience gets you the advancement and positions.
 
My DS (2/C) is a humanities major and minoring in a language. I’m an engineer (former engineering prof) and my two oldest sons are engineers. IMHO (as an outside observer) the STEM curriculum DS was exposed to for plebe and youngster years was solid and recognizable at most engineering programs. The thermo and circuits classes he has taken (all non stem majors take I believe) are much more general. Those classes remind me of the classes civil engineers used to take back when the FE was one test for all engineering disciplines and they needed exposure to those subjects in order to pass. They appear to be designed to ready mids for their technical roles as officers but they would not likely suffice as a thermo or PChem class in a traditional engineering program.

My DS didn’t want to be an engineer (probably didn’t want to take the same path as his bros and me). But, 6 years down the road from now he has a solid basis for getting an engineering degree with 2 more undergrad years, if he so chooses. And he will have had nuclear power school, prototyping, and several years of living next to a nuclear reactor to decide what the next chapter in his life should be.

America is the place where you get to re-invent yourself every few years. I’ll give the same counsel I gave my son - do what you have a passion for, not what looks good in the job market at that moment. If you change your mind down the road, well, join the club. That and 2 bucks might get you a cup of coffee.
 
In my experience at three different technical companies in three different products/industries, a true engineering degree was only needed to pass the initial interview. IMHO, a true engineering degree is only needed if your planning to gain licensure and sit for the FE/PE exams.

A USNA grad with a Group 3 major who has experience with ship systems and basic engineering could slide into an "engineering" role at most "technical" or engineering company and be successful. The best engineers that I have known are the ones with passion and experience, and some of them did not have a piece of paper with BS in "X" Engineering.

IMHO, an engineering degree is not about Moore's law or the Laws of Thermodynamics or knowing about Van Der Waals forces. Engineering is knowing how to think through a problem in a logical manner and then develop a sustainable solution.
 
USNA_STEM_Prof said:
BLUF: A USNA English grad will be far better equipped for post-Navy life than a civilian school English grad, but depending on what @IronmanDaremo meant by "any position" -- I'd push back somewhat if the reference is to civilian STEM jobs.

Yes and no IMO. Engineering skills necessary for most any career track in the Navy -- yes. The outside, not exactly.

A USNA English major certainly has more STEM experience than an English major from a civilian institution, not to mention the USNA connection. But as an example, the USNA English graduate will not have taken the NCEES FE exam (or similar) that many engineering grads at civilian schools take. Now, being candid I don't definitively know if USNA engineering grads take it, though this USNA link seems to suggest it is encouraged. I'm learning here too!

I could elaborate on coding and computer science skills as well.
Click to expand...
Please do about comp science
 
LT360 said:
In my experience at three different technical companies in three different products/industries, a true engineering degree was only needed to pass the initial interview. IMHO, a true engineering degree is only needed if your planning to gain licensure and sit for the FE/PE exams.

A USNA grad with a Group 3 major who has experience with ship systems and basic engineering could slide into an "engineering" role at most "technical" or engineering company and be successful. The best engineers that I have known are the ones with passion and experience, and some of them did not have a piece of paper with BS in "X" Engineering.

IMHO, an engineering degree is not about Moore's law or the Laws of Thermodynamics or knowing about Van Der Waals forces. Engineering is knowing how to think through a problem in a logical manner and then develop a sustainable solution.
Click to expand...
I was a Group 3 major at USNA. When I left Active Duty, GE hired me as an Engineer. Then I became a Senior Engineer.
A couple of years later, I became a Principal Engineer. Later, I was hired by Lockheed as a Principal Engineer.
In all of those I was a "Program Engineer" as I moved through the levels. It is the Program Management area and requires one
to manage/lead the full gamut of engineers as well as manufacturing, procurement, etc and to be successful, requires understanding
and insight into what they all do.
 
Thinking about two of our USNA sponsor family alumni…

- English Honors, submarines, separated from service, M.S. in Engineering Management using Post-8/11 GI Bill benefits, high-paying job at Boston Scientific. Performed very well in STEM courses at USNA, passed submarine screening, excelled in nuke power pipeline, excelled as a junior officer gaining leadership and management skills. Actively headhunted by major firms.

- English major, Marine ground (logistics), separated at 8 years, hired by a Fortune 500 company that makes tires (had several offers after attending the Service Academy Career Conference [SACC], an exclusive career fair for SA grads, well-attended by major firms who know exactly what they are looking for). Has been promoted again and again, now has an MBA, PMP and other certifications, and is now a VP with plenty of career room left to go higher. Was a “regular mid,” grade-wise, at USNA. The company was looking for someone who had actual leadership experience in high-pressure situations (two combat zone tours, and appropriate chest candy), adaptability, resource management, maturity, reliability, work ethic, decision-making and risk analysis skills, STEM abilities and so much more to offer than age peers.
 
+100 to the great answers above. I’ve hired and managed — and worked alongside — numerous former JMOs. To this day, I can name the college major of only one or two of them. Each of them ended up in a field that wasn’t a “logical” outcome of their major. They were hired not for their technical expertise, but for their leadership acumen. That’s what sets ex-JMOs apart.
 
Capt MJ said:
Thinking about two of our USNA sponsor family alumni…

- English Honors, submarines, separated from service, M.S. in Engineering Management using Post-8/11 GI Bill benefits, high-paying job at Boston Scientific. Performed very well in STEM courses at USNA, passed submarine screening, excelled in nuke power pipeline, excelled as a junior officer gaining leadership and management skills. Actively headhunted by major firms.

- English major, Marine ground (logistics), separated at 8 years, hired by a Fortune 500 company that makes tires (had several offers after attending the Service Academy Career Conference [SACC], an exclusive career fair for SA grads, well-attended by major firms who know exactly what they are looking for). Has been promoted again and again, now has an MBA, PMP and other certifications, and is now a VP with plenty of career room left to go higher. Was a “regular mid,” grade-wise, at USNA. The company was looking for someone who had actual leadership experience in high-pressure situations (two combat zone tours, and appropriate chest candy), adaptability, resource management, maturity, reliability, work ethic, decision-making and risk analysis skills, STEM abilities and so much more to offer than age peers.
Click to expand...
Post-9/11. Not 8/11. 🙄
 
cluelesscandidateparents said:
Please do about comp science
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Coding is a unique beast. The foundation is well established, but applications evolve, approaches get refined, and languages grow, gain popularity, and fade. The skill atrophies heavily if not used IMO. However, in the modern era no one needs a comp sci degree to code given the many phenomenal resources available online, many of them for free. So this really distills down to skill acquisition and understanding of all things code -- algorithms, recursion, data structures, and so much more. If a USNA grad has a desire to one day work as any flavor of software engineer, they'll be up against technical coding interviews at most big tech companies. It is my opinion that the base USNA STEM courses would leave our hypothetical English major woefully unprepared for that interview. A USNA comp science major that has strong skill retention and/or maintained their skillset during time in the fleet, would only need minor polishing to be ready for that interview IMO. Moreover, that comp sci major will have a foundational understanding to rapidly build upon and jump into the latest and greatest, be it ML, GANs, or neural nets, while our English major will be learning print("Hello World")

Example: I'm NOT a comp sci undergrad and am struggling with a machine learning implementation for my dissertation. I spend hours each day in Python but I struggle in certain areas compared to my CS peers. I'm thankful for my more diverse education, I'm here after all, but given my extreme love of coding, I am envious of those with a more thorough understanding. I'll always work to rectify that deficit.

We all have anecdotal experience with non-STEM majors kicking ass in careers. @Capt MJ provided a wonderful example. And perhaps I'm saying a lot of nothing because in the end, it doesn't matter. Our English major can spend evenings during their service on codeacademy instead of watching Netflix and trounce the CS major who goofed off when they both interview with big tech or seek to develop their own software tool.

Thoughts from a tired new Dad (DS #2). :)
 
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