Determine what you want to do when you graduate. If you do not know, work with career services to identify potential careers.
If you are a liberal arts major, your area of concentration may not translate to a specific job (e.g., philosophy to philosopher), so you may not be sure about your next career step.
A liberal arts education offers much to employers, including communication, research, critical thinking skills, teamwork and leadership skills, flexibility, a global focus, and many, many other skills and strengths. All of these skills can be applied to industries such as advertising, education, health care, manufacturing, media and entertainment, even areas associated with the business majors (financial services, accounting, consulting, and so forth).
If you’ve studied English, history, religion, philosophy, or psychology, you have honed your critical thinking skills (for example, comparative literature), you have been innovative in your learning (for example, art history, East meets West), and your writing skills are advanced because many of these courses require extensive research reports.
If you’ve studied the arts, you could be innovative, have strong presentation skills, be flexible in your thinking, and have an eye for design and graphics.
If you’ve studied languages, political science, or international relations, your focus is global and you can appreciate the juxtaposition and convergence of the profit and nonprofit sectors.
Economics and technical sciences test your analytical and quantitative skills, in addition to teamwork because many of the courses require group projects.
Although they are not considered “majors,” extracurricular activities enhance many of the just-noted skills—creativity, communication and presentation, working with different people and cultures, and teamwork—along with a competitive winning spirit and drive, organization, and dedication.
Table 1.4 "Translating Your College Major to Potential Jobs" may help identify exactly what you want to do.
|
Major |
Your Strategy |
Your Ability and Your Focus |
|
English, history, religion, philosophy, psychology |
Promote the soft skills and critical thinking that are the hallmark of liberal arts |
Research, communication skills, context, critical thinking |
|
Dance, art, music, theater |
Demonstrate your creativity and the value of creativity in the workplace |
Innovation, flexibility, importance of design |
|
Languages, political science, international relations |
Emphasize the value of global studies and cultural awareness |
Globalization, convergence of profit and nonprofit |
|
Economics and the technical sciences |
Do not take for granted that recruiters know your value, so highlight your analytical skills and market knowledge |
Quantitative and analytical skills, business-specific projects and classes |
|
Extracurricular activities |
Position competitive sports, student government and special interest clubs as opportunities to develop teamwork, leadership, and a multidimensional background |
Teamwork, organizational skills, |
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