Successful Humanities Majors?

College Majors
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<p>I have a question about humanities (talking about English, History, Philosophy etc.) undergraduate majors. Most people say they're useless in this economy or just plain not worth the cost of education at all. A minority of people say that because majors do not have to be directly related to jobs after college, humanities majors can still get decent jobs. Research shows that recent college grads with humanities majors have a starting salary of 31K/year with about 8-9% unemployment. Source: <a href="http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/want-a-job-go-to-college-and-dont-major-in-architecture/?_r=0%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/want-a-job-go-to-college-and-dont-major-in-architecture/?_r=0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I've heard a few times that certain humanities majors land jobs in PR/consulting/hedge funds etc. My Question is: Does anyone here know of these people? What are their stories? How do they get these jobs and what was the key to their success? Was a school prestige, networking, high grades etc? Or is this a myth?</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

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<p>My older brother graduated college a BA in psychology and got a job as a post man. While his degree was probably a factor in the selection process (a lot of high school diplomas probably got weeded out), I think the main reason he got picked was because he was friends with a higher-up. Networking in the humanities, I think, is especially important. You can be passionate about writing, or the human mind, or fossil research, but if no one knows that, no one will care to hire you.</p>

<p>I too have heard that humanities majors tend to get PR-type jobs. I’m wonder if job satisfaction is high for those types of jobs.</p>

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<p>I am old, but my undergraduate major was speech. I worked as, drum roll please, an admissions counselor right out of college. My communication skills were good and lots of places need good writers and speakers.</p>

4

<p>My niece was an English major at a Big 10 school. She has a wonderful job as an account manager for an international advertising firm in Chicago .</p>