A liberal arts Degree is an educational program that offers a comprehensive account of humanity-related topics. The degree provides a strong base for students to work in various fields. These fields include the study of creative arts, psychology, sociology, philosophy, writing, literature, and history. Generally speaking, individuals with a liberal arts degree understand how to solve issues, communicate well, and formulate arguments. Career advisors often say that liberal arts has four core attributes namely critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity.
What Can You Do with A liberal Arts Degree?
Regarding what you can do with a degree in liberal arts, there are excellent benefits from this degree as it provides individuals with all-rounded skills for adapting to the 21st-century job industry. remember that a liberal arts degree enables students to explore various fields. Thus, a liberal arts student can pursue science or business-related courses that challenge how they view the world, and that assists them in growing as an individual. This degree is increasingly becoming important and recognized as work expectations are adapting to technological advancements and demographic changes in society.
What Is the Meaning of Liberal Arts?
Liberal art is a term that encompasses broad topics from economics to theatre arts. Here, we will mention some of the most classic and popular degrees in liberal arts” political science, psychology, philosophy, history, and English.
If you want to know more about the differences in associate degrees, Transfer degree, Bachelor’s degree, and other Graduate degrees, you can check own your own future. We only focus on Liberal Arts in this article.
What Jobs Can Liberal Arts Graduates Undertake?
With additional training, almost every liberal art degree major can result in education careers, enabling graduates who have the right qualification to share their educational passion with others. Liberal arts degree majors are also ideal for further studies, especially in law. Ost individuals who pursue liberal arts are interested in giving back to society and connecting with others, which directs them into political and public service careers.
There are various traditional liberal arts career paths, but graduates possessing this degree are found in almost every profession and industry. Their capability to solve problems, adapt easily, and think critically is what is most needed in the business and STEM fields, where graduates can get opportunities in areas like strategic management, sales, and marketing or relationship-based roles like account management and customer relations. Their skills in analyzing complex information, research, and continuous learning can assist them to quickly address technical business aspects, even if they don’t have a formal technical background in the field.
Individuals who pursue the liberal arts degree are usually found in unique roles that enable them to fill the gap, or in upcoming departments that don’t have clearly defined responsibilities and duties. Liberal arts graduates are usually comfortable in roles concerning meeting clients as they understand how to relate with people, and that they can become successful in adding the human touch to various technical fields.
Benefits of Pursuing A Liberal Arts Degree
Although liberal arts students are equipped for various roles, they do not have a clear road to the perfect job destination when compared to other graduates. Here are some suggestions for liberal arts graduates who are entering the job market:
- Liberal arts majors should be creative and flexible as they begin exploring the job market. If they think very narrowly about applying their degree in the workforce, they will get high competition and lesser pay. However, individuals who are willing to explore various organizations and industries, get new experiences, contacts, and to acquire new skills will always get away to merge all their interest and strength areas in a more fulfilling and compelling career. Open-mindedness and adaptability will serve liberal arts graduates well in the job market.
- Develop Your Brand: Students pursuing a degree in liberal arts are excellent in communicating complex ideas and telling stories, and when it comes to entering the job market, they need to focus these skills at telling their story. For instance, a history graduate applying for a job at Fortune 500 Company might not make much sense to the hiring manager like accounting or a business major would, but that does not mean that there is no value in what the history graduate can offer. It is all about creating your personal brand and a cover letter that connects the dots for the human resource manager and shows not only their strengths in the history major, but also their excitement and commitment to the mission of the organization.
- Diversify Your Skill SetStudies show that computer science and business majors tend to make more during the beginning of their careers because of their technical expertise, but liberal arts degree holders catch up and surpass some of these individuals over time. Getting some technical skills allows liberal arts graduates to assist in closing the gap in their early career years.
Is Pursuing A Liberal Arts Degree Worth It?
Considering that the job market is continually changing and the skills that are in highest demand today are most likely to change in the future, most employers in the future might be more in need of humanity majors. Artificial intelligence and automation are impacting more and more business fields, but skills like storytelling, relationship-building, and critical thinking resist automation and will continuously be needed in most workplaces. Therefore, liberal arts graduates are expected to be working in fields that we have not even though about yet. As more and more roles are becoming automated, new departments, new jobs, and new needs that have not even been thought of will emerge. This is where liberal arts majors will excel due to their ability to story tell and communicate.
Artificial intelligence provides various exceptional possible job opportunities for liberal arts graduates. It is expected that more roles are going to emerge in the future to give AI a human touch. As AI is generating thorough and more detailed data, there is a need for more individuals who can analyze the trends and provide messages of their analysis to others for easier understanding.
The best thing for liberal arts to do is to think broadly and remain flexible with their career options. As companies automate more and more roles, they will be able to utilize their critical thinking skills to do more with the information presented to others. With the humanizing capabilities of liberal arts graduates, there will be a great opportunity and need for liberal art majors to prosper.