I thought this was a pretty interesting and useful set of ideas of things any college student should do - pick up specific skills that complement the analytical thinking, writing, etc skills that they are learning as they major in Chemistry or English or Philosophy or whatever.
It may be that one can have the best of both worlds, by pursuing a rigorous degree in the liberal arts AND developing some specific skills via courses, internships, certificate programs, campus resource centers or just on their own time.
My D1 was a tutor in her college writing center, and is certain it gave her an edge when interviewing for jobs and landing a position with her current company.
I read this article recently by a professor at CTCL’s Southwestern University and thought there was a lot of good in there. I had read something about Southwestern being particularly good with career advisement/placement. Maybe this is part of that initiative? Regardelss, I especially liked this …
"Yet it seems to me that our first outreach needs to be to those students who are voting for us with their feet. They are following their passions and their instincts, but they are also buffeted by the culture, by their parents, and by their peers. Even as they resist a STEM-centered party line, they cannot help internalizing the worry expressed by a character in Jeffrey Eugenides’s The Marriage Plot that English majors ‘were pursuing university degrees doing something no different from what they had done in first grade: reading stories. English was what people who didn’t know what to major in majored in.’ "
I agree that writing is marketable. But I’d consider a degree in math or a science to be a liberal arts degree as well. I don’t want to get into the utterly predictable and annoying STEM - vs - Humanities debate here. The advice applies to Bio-Chem-Physics-Math majors too.
“like marketing and data analysis, or graphic design and programming.”
I cannot comment on all of these, but 2. Specifically, as my family has 2 Graphic designers and one IT person (I am the one), I can only tell you that I cannot see how person with the major in Philosophy will find the job in the Graphic Design or CS. It looks like a dream that may never come true. If you want these jobs, please, choose Graphic design or CS majors and have a minor in English or Philosophy or other libera art (like my pre-med D. had minor in Music Composition, which was nothing but a great blessing for her). Both Graphic Design or CS. are very much career oriented and very intense in regard to respective area of training, including some Graphic Design programs being co-op,. This means that students actually are working as Graphic Designers during their college years, alternating their time at school and time at various jobs all over the country. How in a world person with Philosophy degree will compete with them? The same goes to CS. Unless, the place of employment have the means to spend considerable amount of resources on training, I just do not see how English or Chemistry majors could compete with those who have written many computer programs during their college years and can actually “speak” computer lingo during interviews.
Well, I did. I majored in sociology and work in web development - mostly database design, programming in languages like PHP, javascript and Cold Fusion, and to a much lesser degree, graphic design.
Anyway the part of the article you quoted doesn’t say philosophy degrees, it’s making a point that employers are often looking for more than one area of expertise, in this case both marketing and data analysis or programming and graphic design.
Yep. If you want to be a graphic designer or a computer scientist they may be ideal. But they aren’t very flexible and I don’t think a graphic design degree is going to serve anyone any better than an art major who takes a weekend course in Photoshop, does an internship in which she works with Illustrator and maybe takes a course in basic CS or graphic concepts or whatever. And that art major will have more skills than those that spend 4 years doing graphic design. The liberal arts art major may work in retail merchandising or in an art museum or auction house, or take that liberal arts education and apply it to something totally different - for which s/he would be well advised to get some specific skills in advance, if necessary.
Some people I have encountered working in software had college major backgrounds like philosophy, art, history, physics, etc… A few have no college degree at all. Of course, substantial self-education (obviously requiring substantial motivation and the ability to think logically) is needed in such a case.
While I would recommend that someone going to college aiming for a software job study CS since the opportunity to do so exists at college, it is possible for someone who has already completed college (or is not going to college), but has sufficient motivation and logical thinking ability, to self-educate CS enough to be employable in software.
I guess I should go tell the front-developer I work with who has a Nursing undergrad that he’ll never be able to compete. And the project managers with degrees in history and biology. And the Java developers with degrees in biology and psychology.
I work with many UX/UI people and developers who have taken very non-traditional paths to where they are today. Dedicated, motivated people will self-train or will find courses - often something like a 6-month certification program - to retrain for new careers. Not everyone knows at age 18 what will best suit them when they are 25, 35, or 45. It’s not the easiest path, but what you major in in college does not have define who you are for the rest of your life.
Perhaps the concern really is not about the medium and long term employability of graduates whose majors are not directly associated with specific jobs. But many graduates have a short term need for immediate employment, because they need to start paying off their student loans, and their families are not wealthy enough to provide a safety net for an extended job search. That many employers have very short term thinking (i.e. “can you do this job now?” instead of “can you learn to do this job now, and other jobs as the business changes later?”) may add to the pressure to study something that is directly pre-professional in college.
^ right! But it seems fairly easy to remedy this deficiency in access to jobs immediately after graduation by doing some of the things the article suggests. Learn Excel, take a class in “x”, do an internship wher eyou learn some practical skills that relate to your major/jobs you might want.
Okay, back when a lot of us parents came out of college, majors like graphic design didn’t exist. It was a lot easier to “fall into” a tech-related career with a limited educational background in it because no one had that background. Now there are a lot if students majoring in those subjects, and it is harder to just switch.
Agreed. Among friends and colleagues who worked in the computer technology field…including CS heavy aspects was:
A supervisor who majored in English from an elite LAC and later got his MS in CS on the company dime.
A colleague at one of the early startup jobs was a Psychology major.
One veteran UNIX/Linux computer technology professional I met at a computer technology conference was a pioneer in the field actually majored in Music for undergrad.
A friend who worked on a team which programmed and maintained specialized software relied upon by the NYSE and brokers/finance/Ibankers counted several philosophy majors along with others in humanities/social science fields…including Fine Arts.
For many years there were not nearly enough trained people to fill the exploding market for technical cs type jobs. Just because you have plenty of anecdotes about people who were able to get into the field with little background decades ago does not mean that is the case now.
Granted that these are anecdotes, but they are not all decades old. There is still room in IT for motivated people who are willing to go back to school to earn 6 month certifications or other programs geared to career changers. I know I’m thrilled to hire some more “seasoned” workers who are newer to IT to help mentor the interns we convert to FTEs. It allows for a balance of experience and maturity along with salary level. I am constantly awed by the varied backgrounds and life experiences of the people I work with on a daily basis in the enterprise-level web development company where I work.
"to self-educate CS enough to be employable in software. "- it used to be very true…in a past. I have been in IT for over 30 years, worked for 9 very different companies in unrelated industries on totally different platforms using very different languages and other software and technologies. I had to learn new technology and languages at absolutely every place. While I met some people at the beginning of my career who just had a computer language class in HS, it is not true any longer. My current employer (which is my best job out of 9) will not hire to my position without a 4 year degree. This is a company wide policy as we are a big international company. They will not hire to IT with the Sociology degree unless the person has substantial prior IT experience. The latest new hires all had CS major, while some may have worked odd jobs before they found this one, but few were hired straight from the local college as most IT departments do. They do not seek employees among graduates from fancy places like Harvard and such. But they also would pitch a resume that had the Sociology or English or Chemistry degree and no prior experience in IT. All around my S. and DIL (both graphic designers) have degree in Graphic Design. Graphic Designers are not photographers, they do not take pictures, they are using pictures provided to them by photographers.
Of course some people may have different experiences. The experience working at couple places at the same location may not reflect the reality that is continuously changing. Do not rely on your dreams, have a realistic plan for achieving them.
None of the people I’ve hired would likely be hired by a big international company. But then again, they wouldn’t be happy working for a big international company. I wasn’t. But they are now getting those years of experience that will open doors at other companies if that is the direction they want to go in.
Time to leave this discussion now as it is rather pointless. I just hate to see kids repeatedly told they will never do anything in life other that isn’t directly tied to what they majored in while in college. What you choose at age 17 does not define who you are for the rest of your life. Plenty of smart and motivated kids with degrees in the liberal arts go on to have great careers in all kinds of fields. They get a foot in the door, find opportunities, and prove themselves. They may go through certification programs to learn new skills. Maybe they go back to college entirely. You are not doomed to pour coffee at Starbucks the rest of your life unless you listen to all the naysayers who tell you that you have no future.
My DD is a junior getting an CE degree but prefers the software over the hardware aspects. Job interviews are different than what I went thru. Hers starts with an interview that I would consider normal. They ask questions about your background and judge whether you can communicate. The next step, if you make it, is a two hour technical interview. There is no chit chat, it is all programming skills assessment. If you make it thru that loop, there is project placement. She has made it thru the first 2 steps numerous times but has not been placed on a project even for a 3 month internship. The companies want it all, communication skills and most definitely technical skills and there appears to be more than enough kids who have it.