Hey, don’t blame art history for something that just runs in the family.
Don’t forget being able to write.
I’ve interviewed kids interested in “Global Business” who can’t find India on a map. They don’t know why Mao was one of the most significant figures of the 20th century (even if they don’t plan to do business in China). They don’t understand why family structure in traditional societies in Africa is relevant to figuring out how to launch a profitable bank, cellphone company, consumer products business there. They don’t know why retail banking and investment banking were split up in the US (or when) and what those historical events have to do with finance today.
And they don’t know what the SEC is.
The nice thing about Art History majors is that know how to read and to make connections between various things they’ve read. They don’t open an interview with “So how’s business?”
Ummm… we had an investor call yesterday after releasing our earnings for the quarter. I’ll categorically reject any job candidate who asks “how is business” when a public company MUST actually tell the public how its business is… (up, down, sideways, challenging due to increases in the price of raw materials). Read the annual report. Read the 20 analyst reports which are available online from the various banks who cover our industry (a few of the analysts are rated in the top five by Institutional Investor! So go read them if you’re pressed for time!)
That’s the enduring value of an Art History major. If they don’t know something, they look it up.
“And they don’t know what the SEC is.”
Everybody knows Alabama is the SEC champ! 
There is some truth to that. A philosophy major from Stanford may be able to get a job in HR at Google, but a philosophy major from Fresno state will be looking at bagging groceries at Safeway.
However, this article might be a little too optimistic. Underemployment rate only went down by 2% and is still at 44% overall. I’ve read recently the figure is as high as 60%. The art history major from Yale who got a job on wall street/capitol hill/art gallery/museum/media company probably has great contacts through family to begin with, otherwise he/she is probably working for <$40k at some non-profit, which to some is probably better than frothing latte as it’s an office job, even if the pay isn’t better.
That is neither unique to art history majors, nor do all art history majors do that.
That is more of a distinction between adaptable people (regardless of college major, or even whether they went to college) and less adaptable people. Adaptable people are more likely to be successful.
Actually, we know a philosophy/psych major from a CSU who is working (in a tech-related position) at a major SV company. Those logic courses came in handy…
I still don’t get it why a company cannot weed out some college graduates who do not know where India is. How do they made out of middle school in the first place. This is more of a failure for a company not to do basic weeding. I’m not sure why that example is being used over and over again. It has nothing to do with liberal arts or STEM education.
Plenty of weeding going on Dr. Google. It’s a broad brush- I’m not interviewing every college kid in America to select a “class” of 200 entry level employees- I’ll be efficient and weed by college, major, GPA, SAT scores, evidence of leadership, and a whole host of other inputs, i.e. holistic review.
There are folks on CC who can’t understand why every employer in America doesn’t recruit at their kids college. It’s not a knock on their kid. But it’s an efficient mechanism to focus on a set of “core schools” which in the past have yielded the right number of employees at the right cost (budget for recruiting, plus the out-of-office time for our people who make campus visits, who devote time to interviewing at our offices for second rounds, etc.)
Using college major alone- i.e. interviewing every aerospace engineer in America is just as dumb as using any of the other single criteria. The STEM parents here would like to believe that the Art History majors are unemployable and that’s their right of course.
But it doesn’t jive with reality. The STEM kids get weeded. The humanities kids get weeded. The social science kids get weeded. For all the ink that gets spilled arguing that the anthropology majors are going to be serving french fries… it would pay off (I think) to learn more about the recruiting process in various sectors of the economy and stop spending time on the false dichotomy that there are winners and losers based solely on college major.
Fact- biology at the undergrad level is a tough employment major. (most bio majors don’t know this). Fact- philosophy is considered an analytically rigorous major by many corporate employers. Take a stats course (not “stats for poets”), learn Matlab, and do well in philosophy, and you will be competitive in the corporate employment market. Fact- there is no such thing as a job labeled “business” so don’t major in “business” because it will get you a job. Accounting is not Supply Chain is not Investor Relations is not Marketing. Hordes of new grads flood the job market with degrees in business without any knowledge or understanding of various business functions and disciplines. It’s tough to lose out on a job at a consumer products company to a kid with a psychology degree if you studied business-- but psych is a terrific lens for B2C.
Etc. But have at it- the STEM crowd rules CC and those of us who hire for a living get shouted down when we try to introduce some facts into the discussion.
That’s simply because the two groups have been dramatically preselected with as much as two standard deviations between them in cognitive ability. To start.
Please enlighten us blossom on what the “core” schools are. Wall Street publicizes their “target” schools but I have never seen a list of “core” schools broken down by industry for recruiting purposes.
Every company has its “core schools” and they will differ based on the business, the geography, other considerations.
If your company does a two year rotation and then a posting overseas, a school like BYU is going to be highly attractive- their seniors are fluent in at least one language besides English, they’ve done a mission overseas so they know that “international” doesn’t just mean Paris and London, and the academic standards are high in a bunch of different fields.
There is no generic “core school” list since each businesses criteria are so distinct. BUT- the idea that certain majors are universally attractive regardless of which school the kid comes from- which is a dogma on CC- isn’t true in the real world.
Schools have reputations for different things- the Williams Mafia in the art world (auction houses, museums, banks which finance art purchases, tech companies which develop lighting and exhibit equipment for museums, the publications which cover the industry); U Maine’s program in chemical engineering which is a feeder school to the paper industry, etc.
That’s why the lists of “which majors make more money” are so unhelpful. A classics major from Brown who goes to work at a hedge fund is going to make more money than a chemical engineer from U Maine who is working for a pulp processor. Does that mean that Brown is better than Maine? No. Does that mean that classics is a better discipline than chemical engineering? no. Does that mean my kid who is interested in aerospace engineering should go to U Maine? Apples and oranges.
Thank you Blossom. Here’s an old (2010) list of top schools for recruiters by major from the Wall Street Journal.
The list seems to be dominated by flagship state universities.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703376504575491704156387646
I’m sure students would be interested in any more recent data.
You can do your own research in two ways:
Go the career services page of your kid’s college and look up the recruiting calendar. (likely last year’s since the schedules aren’t always finalized for the class of 2016 hiring yet). That will give you a snapshot of which companies recruit at this school- and often, it will specify which business functions they are hiring for.
Does that mean you can’t get hired at P&G if they don’t visit your school? No. But it will require significantly more initiative on the part of your kid.
Or- go to the company website of a corporation your kid may be/might be interested in working for, and on the Career portion of the website, it will usually show where they are recruiting (either last year’s class, or if they’ve already finalized next years, you can see this Fall/Winter.) Again- does this mean that if Viacom isn’t recruiting at your kids school, your kid will never get a job in the media industry? No. But you can learn a lot from seeing where they are recruiting and what they are recruiting for.
I am often asked to help friends, neighbors, acquaintances kids who come home after graduation with no job and no plan. It’s sad that they’ve wasted the last year NOT developing a plan… but even sadder when they refuse to accept reality which is that your dream job in your dream city making a boatload of money isn’t likely to happen RIGHT NOW. You want a career in the news/entertainment industry? Move to Columbus Ohio and get a job at the local TV station covering house fires and school closings. You want a career doing public policy? Move to Albany and get a job as a staff assistant to the NY legislature. etc.
There are so many myths about the employment market for new grads. Don’t waste time worrying about whether studying Bio at U Minnesota is “better” than studying bio at Wisconsin. Invest the time learning how to get a job as a bio major from either school.
On the topic. There are still plenty of college grads who are waiting tables…and some actually enjoy it.
Not to mention those who wait tables for extra income to pay off their college loans. I know a couple grads like that.
Post # 26, Every time a CEO appears on cnbc I searched for his bio including for college and undergrad major to see what he studied and such. I believe the CEO of LinkedIn has a Philosophy major so I’m not surprise about your comment. I’m not surprised at art history major at Google if you look at the Google search, everyday is a different art of some sort. And engineers get weeded out too and that’s why there is a 3.0 min for most companies, could be higher for some desirable top companies.