As a career switcher finding her place in the UX space, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what’s gotten me here and why UX is a good fit for me. I’m a former English major switching to UX from publishing, and when I inform friends and family that UX is a tech job, they sometimes seem a bit surprised. I’ve always had a reputation as bookish and creative, and when most people think of Tech, they think of grueling logic puzzles, a lone programmer clacking away on a keyboard in a dark room, and finicky code — a far cry from the creative intellectualism of the English classroom. The overlaps between UX design and the humanities aren’t always obvious, but the further I get into my career transition, the clearer it becomes: those who study English are primed for UX. Here’s why.

We Know What Makes a Good Story (And How to Tell One)

Anyone who studied English as an undergrad—even if they didn’t take the creative writing route — knows what makes a good story. We’ve consumed thousands of narratives and written a gazillion essays analyzing stories of all shapes and sizes, so we have a pretty good grasp of what makes up effective storytelling. The good news is, UX practice is pretty much built on good storytelling. How do you convince stakeholders that your design is worthwhile? Tell a good story about the feature you’re proposing to add. How do you ensure that your persona is accurate and compelling? Add details that form a multi-dimensional character. And of course, there’s the ever-repeating advice about what makes a good case study: tell a story.

We’re Excellent Critical Thinkers

Another thing that any English major will tell you is that critical analysis is everything. Our education hinged on how well we could think critically about a piece of literature, form an analysis, explain that analysis, and then defend it with textual evidence. We’re excellent at reading between the lines and looking past the surface to get at the why of things. UX designers also face this challenge regularly. Nothing gets designed and then built without answering the why question. Designers have to be ready to defend their decisions, explain their reasoning, and dig ever deeper to uncover the best possible solutions for their users.

We’re Some of the Best Communicators Around

Being able to leverage language for your own purposes is essential to being an English major. Not only do we study the English language, we have to use it effectively in our essays. We know the power of words and how to use them to convey whatever message we want. UX design also involves a LOT of communication. UX is a team-based profession, and as a designer, you’re constantly communicating with other designers, stakeholders, developers, PMs, and, of course, users. You need to know what information is relevant and how to convey it clearly and succinctly. Luckily, if you’re an English major, you’ve had lots of practice articulating your thinking.

We’re Practiced Empathizers

What is reading if not an exercise in empathy? Getting inside a character’s head, walking in their shoes, and understanding their psyche — these are all intrinsic to getting value out of a piece of literature, and also the foundations of user experience. It’s hard to write a good book if you can’t empathize with your characters, just like it’s hard to design an intuitive interface if you don’t understand how your users think. Just like UX designers, English majors are people persons. People people? I feel like I should know this…

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So for any other English majors out there who are looking to transition into UX — the journalists, the editors, the writers, the teachers, and the publishers — this article is for you. You have more transferrable skills than you think. Wishing you all the best of luck!