So You Majored In English. Can You Still Get A Job At Google?

Big tech companies have long been considered highly attractive places to work. They pay well, offer top notch perks, and are full of talented people working on difficult technical problems. Being tech companies, most of their workforce is composed of jobs that require technical skills.

But technical jobs are not the only jobs in big tech. While these companies are filled with engineers and programmers, they also have a workforce who studied things like history, philosophy or English. What do those people do at these companies?

Below are the top jobs that people get hired into from the humanities:

Notably, things are changing. Non-technical roles are becoming a much smaller share of the workforce at big tech:

We further see that employees with non-technical backgrounds stay for 15% longer than their more technical counterparts, likely because of a more limited set of exit options:

Takeaways:

• While tech companies are filled with technical workers, there are many jobs available for a non-technical audience.
• That said, jobs at big tech are becoming more and more competitive, and the requirements for these roles are becoming increasingly technical.
• People with a non-technical background stay longer at tech companies. Perhaps they are more loyal or like the work more, but we think this pattern is likely driven by a smaller set of outside opportunities.

If you have any ideas of other metrics to track or would like to hear more, please feel free to reach out.