How to figure out what to do with a liberal arts degree
Liberal arts degrees are a great preparation for a great many careers.
Not having a prescribed set of careers you must pursue can be both a tremendous freedom and a bit of a headache.
Without that equation of "x degree = y career," how do you figure out which career is for you?
There are two ways to get started: you can start with the degree and/or you can start with you.
Start with the degree
What career paths often follow this degree?
- What have past grads done with that degree? Speak with people in your department (staff and faculty) and see if you can find out what previous students in your field have gone on to do. Check to see if your department invites any alumni back for career panels so that you can hear graduates' career stories and ask questions.
- Consult "careers by discipline" lists. There are lots of books and lists of "What to do with a degree in ..." For example, many university career centres will have books with titles like "Great Jobs for Liberal Arts Majors," "Careers in Psychology" and "Great Jobs for Biology Majors."
Start with you
What are you interested in, and what career paths relate to that? You can ask yourself some questions to start narrowing down what types of careers might be things that you could find satisfying.
- What are my interests?
- What type of environment would I like to work in?
- What are some of the kinds of work I've always been attracted to?
- What are some things I know I really don't want to do?
The wonderful thing about your career path is that you get to construct it. There is a lot of flexibility and space for creativity. But it can be hard to get started without some information about what is out there, and what might be a good fit for you.
If you'd like a helping hand along the way as you research and contemplate your options, I'd highly recommend checking out what your career centre has to offer. Speaking with a career counsellor can help you get focused. They can help you explore yourself and what makes you tick (they'll often refer to this as "self-assessment"), and point you to resources based on your interests - saving you lots of time by focusing your research.
Best wishes!
Cathy Keates is the director of Career Considerations and the author of Not For Sale! Why We Need A New Job Search Mindset
Comments
Well, you either applied for engineering and didn't get in, or you flunked out. Then you applied for Business and didn't get in, so after that it was either Education or Liberal Arts. So, now what to do with a liberal arts degree? May I suggest you go into Education?
You can do anything with a liberal arts degree. The upside of one is that it's a great base for further specialization. The downside is it's 4 more years of general education after which you will most likely still need to study or apprentice further for an actual career path.
Personally I'm glad I did it being surrounded by so many unthinking drones at work, even though I essentially had to go to university twice to have a career. People who don't see a value in a liberal arts degree are probably the same people irritating you just towing the line and thinking squarely in the box day in day out as you try to work around or through them to actually accomplish something at work.
It's not too late for a career in business.
Communication and critical thinking skills (something you presumably got with that liberal arts degree) are always in high demand in business.
You may need to take a few marketing or accounting or psych/HR courses, but the field's still wide open to you.
I've actually found there is a surprising amount of uptake in the job market for those of us with arts degrees. ed, I didn't apply for engineering, or business (or sciences for that matter). I have a language degree and I find it tremendously useful. There are a lot of smart people out there who, while brilliant at their chosen disciplines, are TERRIBLE communicators. So I work in communications, helping these people translate their ideas and discoveries into language that non-technical people can understand. Aside from that, PR/communications are fabulous for people with arts degrees. There are a lot of interesting opportunities out there (you can practice many types of PR [strategy, fundraising, internal, external, social media, media relations] and you can practice it in many different areas [non-profit, public sector, academia, hi-tech, health care, automotive, natural resources, etc.]). I have a career I really enjoy, and I actually make more money than a number of my science/engineering/business grad friends. Not a bad deal for this arts grad.
There is a good debate under the G&M; blog "Freshmen Life" on this topic. Some very interesting and insightful comments are there.
We currently restrict entrance to science and engineering (and often business) to the cream of the crop. Although entrance requirements are increasing, arts degrees become the clearing house for those who cannot get into any other programs.
There are, of course, many talented people who go into the arts. My point is that the arts programs need to do a better job of restricting entrance to those with a real future in the area. At the very least, weed out a bunch of people in a hurry (e.g., you can't fake your way through 4 years of physics).
Until that occurs, we will continue to graduate droves of arts students who really aren't much use to prospective employers, and the lament of the unemployable arts graduate will continue.
Liberal arts degree? Engineering? What does it matter. For both groups at the beginning of the nineties unemployment was the likely outcome. More importantly : without work experience most graduates, in whatever academic discipline they labour through in their studies, discover a degree is merely an entrance requirement for a first job, economy willing.
The tale of five graduates when confronting a challenge in the workplace:
The engineering graduate asks "How does it work?"
The science graduate asks "Why does it work?"
The business graduate asks "How much does it cost?"
The arts graduate asks "Do you want fries with that?"
And the Journeyperson states: “I can fix that, and if not, I’ll build a better one!”
Oh, and I forgot one step that would typify the development of so many Canadian entrepreneurial success stories since World War II*:
The tradesperson says "I'm going to start up a company fixing or making these things", and then proceeds to hire some of these university grads as the ‘gofers’.
*e.g., Magna, Husky Injection Moulding, Linamar, Royal Plastics, ATS Automation, etc., etc.
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