The word on a lot of college student’s mind is ‘employability’, which isn’t a surprise considering that this generation of students entered college during the height of the recession.
Media outlets have increasingly been publishing articles focusing on the ‘worth’ or ‘value’ of different college majors, based on data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) which focuses on unemployment, projected rate of growth in the field and average salaries for graduates.
Most of the ‘hot’ majors are in the sciences and technology, with engineering, biochemistry and computer science at the top of the list. Fields that are considered ‘worthless’ tend to be majors like history, language, journalism and education: the liberal arts and humanities.
But not to worry liberal arts majors; things are not as bleak as they may seem.
Surveys by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) show that most managers care more about a job candidate’s skills than they do about a college major.
The skills employers say they want most in a candidate are communication and critical thinking; employers also look for strong work ethic, initiative, interpersonal skills, and problem- solving and analytical abilities. These are the very kinds of abilities honed by coursework in the humanities and social sciences.
Because the liberal arts offer a general education as opposed to specialized training for a particular career, job choices simply aren’t as apparent as those for students of engineering or nursing; but, there are probably more options than you realize.
Anthropology students, for example, know how to conduct ethnographic interviews and studies, skills that can aid them in marketing work when they analyze customers.
English majors have editing and writing skills, which are essential for media, law, public relations, education and publishing occupations. Geography majors are well suited to location-based urban planning. These are just a few of the many ways that liberal arts studies apply directly to occupations.
The liberal arts are also a springboard to post-secondary studies, such as law, education, business or even medicine.
Economists at the BLS estimate that the average American now changes jobs 10.8 times on average over the course of a twenty year career, and liberal arts majors are often better equipped to navigate the shifting job market. Many prominent figures in numerous industries boast liberal arts degrees.
Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, took his degree in 20th Century philosophy. Nobel Laureate Dr. Harold Varmus took a bachelors and masters degree in English before switching to medicine. Billionaire Ted Turner studied Classics at Brown University, and before dropping out, Steve Jobs attended liberal arts classes at Reed College.
Jobs later said, “If I had never dropped in on that single calligraphy course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.”
Rising salaries for liberal arts graduates are part of a long-term trend. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), salaries for social science majors increased more than 62 percent from 1975 to 2001, and humanities majors saw an increase of almost 67 percent. These salaries compare well to those of engineering majors, which had an overall growth of 26 percent during the same period.
Significant changes in global perspectives and technology, paired with the emergence of a “gig economy” based on freelancing have the future looking pretty bright for liberal arts majors, if they know how to market themselves and their skills.
Speaking to the ‘value’ or ‘worth’ of a college education, I reject the notion that the liberal arts have less value than the hard sciences. Economists agree that the most successful students diversify, delving into both the arts and sciences.
And if our society’s understanding of ‘worth’ only speaks to immediate monetary value, I suggest we expand the definition.