Graduate skills and career opportunities
Language graduates in general have excellent written and oral communication skills. Graduates of French, in particular, acquire highly developed skills in textual analysis and critical thinking and are sought after by employers across a range of industries, from the creative sector to the public service. Trinity French graduates have worked or are currently working for Google, eBay, Christian Louboutin, The Abbey Theatre, Amazon, the British Institute in Florence, the Museum of Modern Art in New York or the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris. Recent graduates in French have gone on to work in areas as diverse as arts administration, translation and interpreting, diplomacy, tourism, publishing, and investment banking, as well as second-level teaching and the Civil Service. Increasing numbers of graduates go on to take further postgraduate courses in areas such as law, marketing and business for which a degree in arts and humanities provides an ideal and necessary background. The combination of an arts degree and a more vocational or professional programme of studies has proved to be highly attractive to prospective employers.
What our graduates say
“Studying French at Trinity has been invaluable to my personal and professional development. With the support and guidance from excellent lecturers within the Department, I studied French language, culture, linguistics and literature. Studying French allowed me to work in Paris for the summer months and study on Erasmus in Lille for the first semester of my Junior Sophister year. Studying on such a vibrant campus has enabled me to work as a Collections Analyst with French for a large multinational company, liaising and building strong relationships with French-speaking clients on a daily basis.”
Gary Hartigan, TSM French & Sociology, 2015 graduate, Collections Analyst
What our current students say
“The combination of the historic setting and knowledgeable lecturing staff provides the perfect basis to study French in Trinity. Studying a foreign language like French is an excellent basis for any career path, especially when one is given the opportunity to perfect one's spoken and written proficiency in the language itself, and discover such diverse subjects as literature, sociolinguistics, politics and history. What I found extraordinary about studying French at Trinity is that although the course caters for the student who is career focused, the talented lecturing staff are unique in that one of their main priorities is to offer a progressive environment focused on learning for their students, which I believe is unique to this university. French at Trinity has inspired a different way of thinking in me, an awareness of different aspects of international culture and also a desire to learn more.”
Ciara Greene, TSM French & Modern Irish, Junior Sophister, Castleknock, Dublin