Abstract

Working life is often seen as ever-changing and increasingly demanding, also for those with academic degrees. In this paper, we will discuss the career paths of Oulu University Philology alumni. For our data, we carried out an Internet survey in September 2017 and received 118 replies. While language studies have traditionally led to teaching or translator positions, in the past few decades, the private sector has been employing an increasing number of graduates for various tasks. Many language alumni still work as teachers, but the job titles in our survey range from Technical Writer to Marketing Manager and Communications Officer. In this paper, our aim is twofold: 1) to investigate how the alumni have gained employment, and 2) what factors have influenced this process.