Are you thinking about pursuing a degree in communications? Not sure if you should? Need to know where to start? If you are asking yourself any of these questions, there is no need to worry because we have all the answers for you here. Read on to find out everything you will ever need to know about a communications degree.
What is Communications?
Communications is a very broad field. To put it simply, it is the art of spreading information. While that may sound a lot like advertising, it really isn’t. Communications majors use a variety of skills to help convey messages across all sorts of different cultures and channels. The thing about communications is that it can be used in almost any context. Nearly every business or company that exists has a use for someone who specializes in communications.
About Communications Degrees
Communications degrees can be earned online or on-campus, and include a wide variety of majors you can choose from. Many schools also offer the option of hybrid degrees, where your classes are split between online and on-campus work. The major you choose helps determine what jobs you are later eligible for, so choosing the right one is important.
Majors in Communications
Journalism, Media, and Broadcasting
If you choose to major in journalism, media, and broadcasting, you will easily find jobs working as a journalist, writer, copyeditor, or in television or radio. This major focuses a lot on writing skills and is good for those hoping to work for the media and have their work published on a large scale.
Business and Industrial Relations
Those who major in business and industrial relations as part of their communications degree have an edge when applying for jobs like communication planners or managers. This area focuses more on the business side of communication, with skills in corporate communications.
Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations
With a major in marketing, advertising, and public relations, you can land jobs like being a public relations specialist or marketing specialist. Working in marketing, advertising, or public relations is good for those who want to work more directly with social media and communicate with the public.
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Government and Politics
With a major in government and politics, you can get more unique communications jobs like speech writing and lobbying. This is a good way to get into both the fields of communications and politics, giving you a diverse set of skills. If you are interested in working in politics without actually being a politician, this would be a good way to go. This could also be a good pairing for a political science double major.
>Want to know more about double majoring? Check out Double Major: Everything You Need to Know
Getting a degree in communications is a great way to learn a broad set of skills that can land you a job in a variety of different fields. Communications is a good degree for anyone who wishes to work with social media, in public relations, or write technical documents.
Education requirements vary for many of these jobs, but you are almost guaranteed a job no matter what level of degree you are able to earn. Once you finish your education, you will want to enter the job market, so let’s look at some possible career paths you could pursue using different levels of communications degrees.
Communications Degree Job Prospects
The job field of media and communications is steadily growing, which means you would have ample opportunity to find the job of your dreams after completing your communications degree.
In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the field is projected to grow by about four percent by 2028. This will create approximately 27,600 new jobs in communications.
If you do go into the communications field, you can expect to make around $59,000 per year, but like any other career, you have the potential to make more depending on what skills, experience, and education level you bring to the table.
Depending on what job you are hoping to land, you may not need a degree any higher than an associate or bachelor’s degree, while some higher positions require graduate-level degrees.
If you don’t already know what job you want after graduating with a communications degree, check out some of the top jobs for your degree level below.
Careers with a Communication Associate Degree
An Associate Degree in Communications is the most basic level of education in the field. Earning an associate degree typically takes about two years. Some jobs, like photography, can be achieved without a college degree, but most will require at least an associate degree.
One in-demand job you can get with an Associate degree in Communications is a communications planner. Communications planners are proficient in the use of social media for web content marketing and management, as well as handling public relations and corporate communication. It is also good for communications planners to have a little bit of experience in frontend developing, using tools like Google Analytics and HTML.
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Those working this type of job are given the responsibility of organizing and planning a company’s online presence. This means planning content strategies for what will be posted to social media, websites, and blogs. This job has an average salary of $47,000.
If you are looking for a more relaxed job, you could be a social media communications specialist. People working this job earn about $49,000 per year and focus solely on social media content. They write and create posts to capture the company’s image, while also planning when to post them. This tends to be a very unsupervised job, leaving you with a lot of creative freedom and the ability to trust your own judgement.
Careers with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication
If you have a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications or plan to earn one, one great in-demand job you can apply for is a brand manager. Brand managers make an average of $90,000 per year and focus on promoting and protecting a company’s public image.
Brand managers use all communication platforms available to them to help create and maintain the best possible image of their company. This is also a job that is often hired out to those who do not work for the company, so if you are interested in doing a bit of freelance work, this would be great for you.
Another awesome job you can get with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications is as a technical writer. Technical writers make about $69,000 per year by creating and writing a variety of technical documents. If you are good at crafting instruction manuals, step-by-step guides, and infographics, you would be an excellent technical writer.
Careers with a Communications Graduate Degree
Most of the jobs requiring a higher-level education are open to bother master’s degree and doctorate degree holders. What differs between the two is primarily salary and employability. Those with doctorate degrees are likely to be paid more and get the job easier when competing against those with master’s degrees.
>Should You Get an Online Master’s Degree in Communications?
With a graduate-level degree, you could become a public relation manager and make about $110,042 per year. In this job, you would focus on the development and implementation of the necessary politics and procedures to maintain the public image surrounding a company. You would also be using whatever platforms available to you to communicate information around events, programs, and views of the company to add to the image.
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If you decide to earn a master’s degree in communications, you could become a community college communications instructor and make around $70,000 a year. Teaching classes at a community college would be a great way to prepare for becoming a professor at a university. You can even work as a community college instructor while you go to school for your doctorate degree.
With a doctorate degree, you can go on to be a professor at a university and make around $96,300 per year. There is also potential to make more than $150,000 per year after working in the field and building up your experience teaching. Working as a university professor is a great job for anyone who wants to be an expert in the field and help educate others.
In the field of communications, you could have the luxury of working remotely and/or for yourself. You could be a consultant, helping to advise companies and businesses in all areas of communication; this job is best for those with graduate degrees, and pays an average of $77,368 per year, with plenty of wiggle room to make much more.
Conclusion
There are plenty of different jobs you can get with a degree in communications. Just like with any other field, the jobs you can get are dependent on what level of education you have completed. If you are unsure of what degree you need to complete for your dream job, definitely take a look into the requirements for that job while using the above information as a guide. Good luck.
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