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Jan. 11th, 2013 01:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerAn interesting article on the value of humanities degrees
The author rather idealistically (to my mind) suggests that
if you’re an employer who needs smart, creative workers, ...you may find that the humanities major with extensive college experience in dealing with complex material handles the challenge better - more comprehensively, more imaginatively - than the business or finance major who assumed that her degree was all she needed to earn a place in your company.
I'd love it if hiring managers thought that way, but I see little evidence that they do.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gr_c17, who is job-hunting now, was told that his resume had to be very focused, essentially rewritten, for each posting he was applying for, directly addressing how his experience specifically relates to the responsibilities of that job. Maybe CEOs are thinking "we'd like more smart people", but the HR people in the front line want detailed, measurable metrics--what application certificates do you have? what jobs have you held in which you did precisely the same sorts of tasks? The "smart people can adapt to any position" argument is great, but it's a long-term one, and most people actually doing the hiring are usually looking very short-term.
The author rather idealistically (to my mind) suggests that
if you’re an employer who needs smart, creative workers, ...you may find that the humanities major with extensive college experience in dealing with complex material handles the challenge better - more comprehensively, more imaginatively - than the business or finance major who assumed that her degree was all she needed to earn a place in your company.
I'd love it if hiring managers thought that way, but I see little evidence that they do.
gr_c17, who is job-hunting now, was told that his resume had to be very focused, essentially rewritten, for each posting he was applying for, directly addressing how his experience specifically relates to the responsibilities of that job. Maybe CEOs are thinking "we'd like more smart people", but the HR people in the front line want detailed, measurable metrics--what application certificates do you have? what jobs have you held in which you did precisely the same sorts of tasks? The "smart people can adapt to any position" argument is great, but it's a long-term one, and most people actually doing the hiring are usually looking very short-term.
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Date: 2013-01-14 03:20 am (UTC)Not too long ago I was shown an article that listed English as the top of "8 College Degrees That Will Earn Your Money Back." I like knowing that my choice to major in English/Communications was not a desperate attempt to avoid the "more difficult" degrees.... I didn't notice anything particularly "fluffy" about slogging through Russian Literature or A Rake's Progress... though it was lovely to have a professor who saw the Canterbury Tales as a lecherous romp through literature...
http://salary.com/8-college-degrees-that-will-earn-your-money-back/slide/10/