Career Information for Film Studies Majors

It is important to understand that employers hire people, not degrees. The skills and knowledge you develop as a result of your education, as well as in your work and community activities, have the greatest impact on hiring decisions. Listed below are some specific knowledge and transferable skills you will acquire as a result of your university education and your focus on Film Studies.

Specific Knowledge Skills
Valuable Transferable Skills
Some Career Options for Film Studies Majors
Potential Employers
Websites

Specific Knowledge Skills

• Skills in interpreting a variety of literary and cultural works, including fiction, film, drama, poetry, non-fiction, and visual media
• An understanding of historical, political, cultural, and discursive frameworks determining film composition
• Awareness of the appropriate use and understanding of language to communicate ideas/information
• The ability to closely analyse both the language and the form of complex texts and images
• The ability to engage strategically with a variety of theories of writing, reading, and representation
• Knowledge of how language/literature shapes and reflects different cultures, societies and time periods
• The ability to comprehend information in the context of presentation, audience, time, place and purpose
• An understanding of social, cultural, political and historical perspectives of film and literature
• The ability to express clear critical arguments, both in scholarly writing and in oral communication
• The ability to conduct independent research, including evaluating print, audio-visual, and virtual resources
• The insight to recognize the above-mentioned skills as they contribute toward one’s personal growth, to interdisciplinary thinking, and to future successful career management

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Valuable Transferable Skills

Information-gathering and Communication Skills

• The skills required to identify and access a wide range of relevant information and resources
• The ability to compile and organize facts and information and to comprehend and apply new and/or unfamiliar information to different situations and settings
• Skills in preparing interesting, creative and informative presentations which target diverse audiences
• The ability to develop effective reports, presentations and materials using current technology

Thinking, Planning and Organizational Skills

• The ability to learn, understand and interpret information and apply your knowledge to new situations
• The ability to set priorities, meet deadlines and effectively plan/manage time, data and resources
• Problem-solving skills and the ability to make well-reasoned decisions, think creatively and search for, identify and consider all sides of an issue
• Skills to effectively analyze and interpret a wide range of information and data to discuss, support and/or reject ideas, opinions, reports, theories and proposals

Teamwork and Management Skills

• Skills enabling you to work effectively as part of the team by identifying your role in the team and contributing to the team through leading, teaching, motivating and/or encouraging others as required
• An understanding of how to successfully identify, plan and contribute to the goals of a team/project
• The ability to oversee, supervise and/or contribute to a project from beginning to end including determining outcomes, planning details, making decisions, assigning roles and completing tasks

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Some Career Options for Film Studies Majors

 (Additional education, training or experience may be required)

Having chosen Film Studies as one of your selected majors, you may be interested in researching the following job titles:

   
   
  
  
   
  
   
   
   
   
   
  



If you are interested in combining your historical and theoretical background in Film Studies with further studies in the area of Film Production, you may wish to explore the following careers:

If you are interested in exploring a career which combines your Film Studies major with another area of study, you may wish to explore the following job areas/careers in Education, Business or Government:

 
  
   
  
     
     
  
   
   
  
   
   
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Potential Employers

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For more career options and job descriptions, visit the following sites:

Career Cruising - www.careercruising.com. Please contact the Career Centre at 519.884.0710 ext. 4495 or careercentre@wlu.ca for the username and password.
Career Insider (Vault) - Access through the library website at www.wlu.ca/library. Click ’Find Articles and More’, click ’Databases by Title (A-Z)’ and then ’C’ - Career Insider (Vault). You need to access this resource from a Laurier computer or through the library’s remote access service.
National Occupational Classification - www.hrsdc.gc.ca/noc

 
Websites

Theatre Ontario 
Work in Culture 
National Film Board of Canada 
Telefilm Canada 
Canada Council for the Arts 
Magazines Canada 
Gaulin Media (media/communications) 
Small Publishers, Artists & Writers Network 
Directory of Think Tanks 
Centre for International Governance Innovation 
The Canadian Public Relations Society 
The Canadian Association of Journalists 
International Association of Business Communicators
International Association of Business Communicators - Grand Valley  
Society for Technical Communication 
Association of Canadian Publishers 
The Professional Writers Association of Canada 
Canadian Library Association 
Association of Canadian Archivists 
Arts Alive 
Canadian Heritage Information Network 
Canadian Radio-TV and Telecommunications Network 
Cultural Human Resources Council  

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