Harry Potter: The 15 Best Careers After Hogwarts

The Harry Potter series mostly takes place at Hogwarts, so much of what fans see in terms of the Wizarding World surrounds school life. Since then, of course, J.K. Rowling has branched out in her canon–and even before she did, there was talk of the careers someone could pursue after Hogwarts.

Throughout the list of potential careers, a have few stuck out to fans as being seriously cool for various reasons.

Updated on August 5th, 2021 by George Chrysostomou: The Wizarding World continues to expand and with it, the many careers that a witch or wizard could find themselves in once their education is over. After leaving Hogwarts or one of the other many Wizarding schools, there’s really a whole range of possibilities of what someone can do with their future. These jobs are some of the best of the bunch, with each one offering a unique and enjoyable path; or perhaps a dangerous and excitingly alternative career. 

15 Magical Inventor

The Wizarding World needs inventors as much as the Muggle one. There are wizards and witches who understand the art of creating something new and they manage to invent products that people just can’t get enough of. Fans have already seen this in action with the Weasley twins.

While not traditional inventors, they put their wit and intelligence into action by inventing a range of jokes and tricks which delight their customers. They even opened up their shop, Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, which showcases their many creations. It definitely sounds like a fun and innovative role.

14 Duellist

Dueling is as much of a sport as sword-fighting or fencing is in the Muggle world. It showcases some of the best of a wizard’s or witch’s skills and is an art that continues to be honed with each passing match. It’s one of the Wizarding World’s most respected sports as well.

While dueling is an important aspect of defense and combat in times of struggle, the process can also be a brilliant spectator sport. These athletes have to be quick-thinking, skilled with a wand, and able to withstand some of the best spells and curses in the game. It’s as tactical as it is brutal.

13 Knight Bus Driver

The Knight Bus worker gets to control one of the most magical objects in the Wizarding World. Responsible for the safety of countless people, it’s quite an exciting job to have and showcases the best of the Muggle and Wizarding worlds, with the night bursting with magic.

The bus itself is cursed to be able to withstand plenty of situations, stretching, curving, and splitting in half to accommodate for the strange occurrences which might take place. It’s also a people-facing job, with plenty of opportunities to meet new and diverse sorcerers.

12 Ministry Official

The Ministry Of Magic offers up a range of career options, many of which will be very attractive to a graduate straight out of Hogwarts. The Ministry’s various departments are responsible for incredibly important research and the everyday running of the wizard community.

Whether it’s overseeing the use of wands, the development of spells, or perhaps even the understanding of the Muggle world, there’s something that could interest anyone. The changing leadership of the Ministry is quite concerning, but under the care of Hermione Granger, employees will be able to do their best work.

11 Broom Maker

Broomsticks are an incredibly important part of everyday life. It’s a crucial mode of transport and is also involved in a number of sports, including Quidditch, the number one sporting activity in the Wizarding World. There are always new discoveries to be made in the field.

It may be that the speed of the broom needs increasing, or perhaps visually, the designs need updating. Some broomsticks have to carry out specific tasks in certain jobs and therefore have to be fitted and created to match the criteria. It’s definitely a vibrant community to be a part of.

10 Obliviator

Obliviators work for the Ministry of Magic and are one of the more fascinating jobs there, even if it probably does put the witches and wizards who have this career in a moral crisis. It involves keeping the Wizarding World safe from being found out by the Muggle world.

Most often, this means showing up to scenes where Muggles have witnessed magic or some trace of it and wiping their memories so they forget it and can’t speak of it to anyone. They have questionable ethics, but also an interesting job since it involves poking through people’s minds and removing their memories. Not to mention they probably show up after some really wild scenes.

9 Healer

Healers work for St. Mungo’s, a wizard hospital in London. Like Muggle doctors, there seem to be many different types of healers that work for different departments of the hospital, such as accidental spell damage and so on.

A healer would probably be just as important a job in this world as a doctor would be in the Muggle world. It seems there’s no limit to the damage spells can do, and the results are often way more bizarre than anything a Muggle accident might produce. So although a healer would probably be tough work, it would most likely be fulfilling.

8 Curse-Breaker

Curse-breakers can be employed by the Ministry of Magic, but the ones fans hear about more often are employed by Gringotts—such as Bill Weasley. Almost the equivalent of archeologists, they’re tasked with bringing back gold from tombs and often have to break curses to enter them, hence their title.

But the job can extend to breaking any curses, especially when it comes to the Ministry; it’s just Gringotts who tends to focus on the gold side of things. This would be a fascinating job, not least because it involves traveling. Bill, for example, had the whole Weasley family come and visit him in Egypt when he was working.

7 Hogwarts Professor

One of the more obvious professions (but also absolutely the coolest) would be a teacher—more specifically, in the UK, a Hogwarts professor. Not only are the subjects at Hogwarts truly fascinating, but the school itself is also a hive of activity. With all of the trouble it seems to attract, especially when Harry’s around, there’s probably never a dull moment as a professor of Hogwarts!

People were probably warned off the Defense Against The Dark Arts position for a while, though, considering there was a curse placed on it. A shame, since it’s definitely one of the coolest subjects there is at Hogwarts.

6 Magizoologist

This career is for all of the animal lovers out there and was pretty much made famous thanks to Newt Scamander. Magizoologists are people who study creatures and animals, to learn more about them. Luna and her husband Rolf also went on to become magizoologists, so it seems this is a thing passed down in the Scamander family.

Mostly, this job just involves the care of magical creatures and studying them to learn more about them and fill the gaps in people’s knowledge. It can be assumed that a qualification in Care of Magical Creatures at school would be handy for fulfilling these career requirements.

5 Wandmaker

There are very few wandmakers in the world, probably because it’s such a hard thing to do. It’s also difficult to imagine how someone like Ollivander made all of those wands on his own, but it’s a rare skill, so he must have.

Being a wandmaker involves, well, just that—making wands. This is no easy feat since what’s needed to make a wand is rather rare. The wood is probably the easy part, but Harry Potter wands contain unusual and fascinating cores such as phoenix feathers, unicorn tail hair, dragon heartstring… And who would want to be the person responsible for bringing someone a dragon heart so they can make wands?

4 Quidditch Player

This is the career that Draco Malfoy wanted but, alas, wasn’t quite good enough for, because only the best of the best can become Quidditch players professionally after school. Charlie Weasley apparently could have played for England if he hadn’t gone to Romania, and Harry is described as being just as good, but this career wasn’t for them.

It involves fame and a lot of pressure—to know more about it, just look at the world cup scene from Goblet of Fire, and the number of people who were watching that game. It would pretty much be like being an extremely famous soccer player in the Muggle world, really.

3 Auror

Auror is by far one of the coolest professions in the Potterverse. Although they’ve been compared to the police by a lot of people, this isn’t actually accurate. Hitwizards and Hitwitches are more like the police in the Ministry of Magic; Aurors are described in the books as more like the secret service.

They’re responsible for tracking down dark wizards and capturing them and, at one point, were even authorized to use spells such as Unforgivable curses against them. This means that Aurors have a lot of trust and responsibility and, as such, it’s extremely difficult to become one. Unsurprisingly, this is Harry Potter’s chosen profession.

2 Dragonologist

Charlie Weasley’s job of choice rather than being a Quidditch player is a dragonologist, which might just be one of the most awesome career choices someone could possibly have in the Wizarding World. Not only does it involve travel, but it involves being up close and personal with one of the most dangerous but interesting and awe-inspiring creatures in the Harry Potter world–dragons.

Although the qualifications for this job aren’t quite clear, it’s safe to assume that they’re pretty strict and someone has to prove they’re worthy. After all, a lot could go wrong with this job, considering dragons aren’t known to be friendly towards people.

1 Unspeakable

Unspeakables somehow manage to be the career fans know least about and the coolest one in the Harry Potter universe. Unspeakables work in the Department of Mysteries, which is just that–a department of mysteries. The department deals with things that the outside world is allowed to know nothing about, and it’s often alluded to in the series that this includes the mystery of death.

The people who work for this department are sworn to secrecy about their work, and it’s a part of the canon that J.K. Rowling hasn’t really expanded on. Maybe this one will be a secret for good.

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