- Esmeralda Hawking, The M. McGonnagal Alumni Office, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
- E. Macmillan, The Department of Magical Employment at The Ministry of Magic.
Another magical year draws to an end. The magical community continues its steady growth since the last Wizarding War decades ago. We at the Hogwarts School Witchcraft and Wizardry have observed with pride as our graduates and dropouts contribute successfully in their fields — fostering community, building businesses and providing services with integrity and excellence. It is clear that Hogwarts remains one of the most influential schools of magic in the world. Its famed House system of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin (in alphabetical order) provides students with an impactful cohort to make progress with. Each house also picks based on special characteristics of the new students.
We in collaboration with Ernie Macmillan of the Ministry’s Office of Magical Employment have compiled a study of employment trends shown by the four Hogwarts houses across various industries. Keep in mind that while our students are sorted into houses based on their characteristics, most develop in deeper ways than what their House’s motto states. There are bound to be numerous exceptions to most observations about the Houses as a whole.
Magical Law Enforcement and The Auror’s Office
These two critical offices went through several changes in the aftermath of the great Wizarding War — the effects of which we are still seeing today. Upon Voldemort’s demise the celebrated triumvirate of Mr. Harry Potter, Mr. Ronald Weasley and Madam Hermione Granger took big steps to reorganize the Ministry. In particular their changes were driven towards making sure members of House Slytherin had places in the new Ministry and could contribute.
After Messrs. Potter and Weasley concluded their investigations and arrests amongst the Death Eaters, they reformed the Auror’s Office to include House Slytherin, long a stronghold of Voldemort’s supporters. They did so by advertising the Office’s need for cunning and ambition — central parts of the Slytherin ethos — in the face of intense pressure. Mr. Potter repeatedly spoke to House Slytherin about the need to use its considerable talents in unison with the magical community. He admitted that the Sorting Hat considered putting him in Slytherin — showing that a House did not need to completely define an individual. Madam Granger encouraged writers to use Voldemort’s real name to un-deify him and foster openness.
After years of healing and rebuilding their results are clear. Houses Slytherin and Gryffindor provide the largest contributions to these two offices; each contributing over a third of the personnel. Gryffindor’s members were the most prominent leaders of the victorious resistance and their presence here comes as no surprise. The successful and productive Slytherin presence is a direct testament to the work done by the trio and organizations like The Order of The Phoenix (now operating as a community builder), Hogwart’s own Dumbledore’s Army (which continues as a successful club at the school) and the Supporters of Severus Snape (meeting in S. Snape Hall every Friday). Houses Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff split the remainder nearly equally, with Hufflepuff having a slight edge. We note that other houses show similar trends of re-assimilation of House Slytherin.
Magical Entrepreneurship
While the houses have produced a nearly equal share of entrepreneurs over the past few decades, it is interesting to look at some non exhaustive trends of businesses started by them.
Gryffindors have repeatedly proven themselves as builders of outdoor goods, travel equipment and magical security. An obvious example are George and (the late) Fred Weasley — both Order of Merlin, 3rd Class — who dropped out of Hogwarts to found Weasleys’ Wizarding Wheezes. While Fred was martyred in the Battle of Hogwarts George continued in his memory. The newly named Weasley’s Wizarding World is the largest magical artifact store in the world in terms of yearly Galleons earned.
Slytherins maintain the largest presence in the luxury artifacts market and own large stakes in several of the major magical theater and music companies. Ravenclaws have founded several potioneering and publishing firms. It is a running joke that every Hufflepuff going through the Hogwarts Business Society (HBS) pitches a restaurant or pub. We don’t believe it is a coincidence that the winner of the Daily Prophet’s Restaurant of the Year for the last nine years has a Hufflepuff proprietor.
Note — The Dark Arts in Today’s Magical World
While practicing fields related to the Dark Arts is heavily frowned upon, we have seen important inventions come from their offshoots. Anti aging potions were a direct result of experimentation based on certain techniques practiced by Death Eaters. We note that magical entrepreneurs have a more nuanced and, to quote our muggle friends, grayscale approach to ascertaining what flies and what doesn’t. An increasing number of entrepreneurs are pushing to relax the norms to be able to make and sell better products to magical consumers.
Quidditch and Entertainment
Quidditch proves to be a unifying factor across Hogwarts — with all English teams featuring an even mix of all houses paired together. While Slytherins own large parts of the entertainment business, Gryffindor owns the largest share of actors in the Wizarding Actors Guild (WAG) at just over a third of membership.
Healing
Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff share the lion’s share of the medical profession as a whole. Observers have reasoned that the mental depth and desire to help others form the defining features of them respectively. An interesting development is that the majority of advances in healing charms in the past few decades have been put forward by Hufflepuffs whereas Ravenclaws have proven to be very influential in creating medical potions.
Journalism
A survey of the major publications in England shows that House Ravenclaw makes up nearly a half of the editors, writers and journalists. Notable examples include Ms. Luna Lovegood, Editor of the newly revamped Quibbler and Julian Bottlesworth of the Daily Prophet. Ms. Lovegood returned from traveling as a naturalist to take over the Quibbler from her father. She runs it as a widely read quirky yet informative account of magical happenings from around the world. We suspect the emphasis on deeper research and clear writing makes Ravenclaws a good fit here. House Gryffindor forms a distant second in contributing to this area, with an outsized number of them being investigative reporters at publications around the world.
Conclusion
While these trends have shown up based on the Sorting at Hogwarts, we have noticed that the most successful students learn from all Houses as they graduate. Success in today’s Magical world requires a variety of skills that no single House can lay complete claim to. Hogwarts is committed to admitting magical student and to training the finest witches and wizards.
