The Career Fair’s dated structure needs a tune-up and a new direction that will better benefit job-hungry students in liberal arts fields.
About 132 companies are attending the fair, including Brady Corp., Briggs & Stratton, Ernst & Young, General Mills and Deloitte.
Wanted: financial managers, mechanical engineers, IT project managers, tax interns and team leaders.
Unwanted: editorial interns, philosophers, writers, history majors, sociology researchers and publishing interns.
Even Milwaukee Radio is looking for account executives, not for writers or media personalities.
With such a huge segment of the student population excluded, what’s the point for liberal arts students to attend?
If Career Services could set up career sessions for liberal arts majors at the Career Fair, it would give these students more impetus to attend and tools to stay afloat after graduation.
Career Services could have resume and cover letter sessions for history majors, interviewing tips for PR majors and workshops on branding oneself in the gloomy job market.
Even local companies that aren’t hiring could meet with liberal arts majors and provide them with advice on how to find jobs.
These tips would give students a big leg up.
About 900 students are expected to attend Marquette’s Career Fair. With 11,623 total Marquette students, Career Services isn’t reaching many.
In our century’s second worst economic downturn, students should be receiving as much help as possible. The one-page outline of tips for liberal arts majors in the Career Fair packet isn’t cutting it, although it’s a start.
Although many companies are recruiting all majors, most of these companies are financial or medical entities like Wells Fargo, M&I Bank and Medical College of Wisconsin.
Companies who do want students in majors other than engineering and accounting are primarily demanding communication majors, especially corporate communications.
Granted, recruiting is down in all job fields this year. Last year, 217 employers attended the Career Fair. And the number of employers attending Career Fair’s Technical Day is 50 percent less than last year.
But excepting careers in nursing, accounting, finance and engineering, the rest of the field has seen better days.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicted a 2 percent job growth in communication between 2006 and 2016, which is considered to be a minor change or no change in employment.
With such a bleak forecast, Career Services should be doing everything it can to bolster students’ confidence as they head into the communication and liberal arts fields.
Clearly the Career Fair isn’t conducive for many. It’s time they made a change to reach out to more students in a new format, in a new way.
Cpt. Capitalism • Oct 14, 2009 at 11:26 am
I was just going to point out that HR is a worthless profession. But perhaps that’s too much brevity.
History Alum • Oct 8, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Be simplistic much, Jay?
That cow example is old hat and quite lame.
If you are going to diminish non-LA majors with a simplistic example, let’s put the shoe on the other foot. There are lots of LA types who think that woman is quite fine where she is at in life. She certainly doesn’t need an engineer go come along and provide a water system to enhance irrigation so she can grow food or construct a better road so LP gas can be brought in for a gas stove instead of a cow dung stove.
The world needs both types of thinkers and one is not superior to the other. However, current liberal arts education is a disgrace and has become more of developer of groupthink rather than truly creative and intellectual thought. Until universities fix that problem LA majors deserve much of the mockery that engineering/science types toss our way. We liberal arts types need to hold ourselves to higher standards than we currently do. I mean, I read some of the editorials here by people who are probably liberal arts majors and I see an absolute dearth of intellectual curiousity and basic attempts to even gather all the facts before crafting a simplistic, emotionally laden “editorial”. That is not the holistic thinking or even linear thinking. It is lack of thinking.
jay • Oct 7, 2009 at 10:12 pm
As someone who works in Human Resources, it is safe to say that more than half of the employees working in our company does not have a “practical degree” and are not business majors. I majored in a liberal arts AND business and I can honestly say that what you learn in business is something that one can learn on the job. Do we really think everybody thinks about a double-shift in a graph in the real world? Most jobs in the “real world” is mostly base on common sense and experience that is developed over time. Someone can simply be an office clerk and become a payroll manager in little time. A major thing that people forget is a lot of people, regardless of major, begins at the bottom. By gaining more experience and working your way up through hard work, you get better positions and higher salaries. Furthermore, I fail to see how creative thinkers are bad for society. A business/engineering major are thinkers but they think more linearly. They will see a hungry Indian woman with a cow and think “eat the cow you stupid woman” ..a liberal arts major would think “why doesn’t she eat the cow, there must be a reason…” (then you find out that a cow is a religious figure in Hinduism and a cow actually supplies the family with essentials throughout the year such as milk, and dung (for cooking), thus being an asset instead of a burden. If we have people who don’t think holistically and think in terms of black/white, then society would be full of skilled ignoramuses (being smart does not mean you are not ignorant). Plus, a lot of you people don’t even think how liberal arts is integrated into the real world and business world. For example, one can major in English/Literature> write a book> book generates revenues for publishers/author/editors, etc> books leads to literacy and the usage of imagination among children and adults alike> your child is better able to communicate with you and the community at large> better communication = better grades in school> go to college> functioning member of society. In addition, someone like an applied anthropologist can perform participant observation studies (similar to ethnographic research studies), which would allow companies to better understand their clients or customers. Such methods were use to think of the successful “gogurt” products.
Amanda • Oct 7, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Hey, I’m a blogger about to do a blog about how geeks, liberal arts majors, etc., end up paying more with less to show for it and more debt. I do not mean to say that choosing a liberal arts major is a bad thing AT ALL. I graduated with two of them and wouldn’t change a thing. But it is harder out there, and I thought your article was wonderfully put. The world needs more of us, not less, and sometimes in fields they might not expect so they actually have people who THINK instead of just who complete menial tasks like other like-zombies. I can’t believe that only one person gave you an intelligent response and everyone else is deluding themselves. Wonderful article. The job market needs to accommodate for people who can think. Obviously most of your readers can’t.
History Alum • Oct 4, 2009 at 12:49 pm
“You can work in media, politics, public affairs, advertising, public policy, international affairs, non-profit administration, etc”
All jobs that that do not produce anything. They simply serve to redistribute what other people have created. Liberal Arts people are CREATIVE! Go out and CREATE rather than get a job as a professional rent-seeker. Rent seeking only further diminishes liberal arts in the eyes of the hard sciences and professional fields.
JC • Oct 3, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Don’t believe the hype – there are more jobs out there than just in engineering, accounting, nursing etc that will allow you to make a valuable contribution to society and live decently and do what you enjoy. Oftentimes we just aren’t aware of them. You can work in media, politics, public affairs, advertising, public policy, international affairs, non-profit administration, etc.
If you want to you can even one-up business majors for jobs in their field. I heard about a Classical Studies major (a major that in all honesty seems a little frivolous me even to me) who got a job in investment banking, a coveted job by business majors. If you have strong internship experience in business and some relevant course to demonstrate quantitative skills, you too can get a job in business, if that’s what you really want.
However as many of the commenters have said – the responsiblity is yours to make yourself attractive to employers and as a liberal arts major you just have to go the extra mile to do so. And remember a business major with no relevant work experience isn’t an attractive job candidate either.
Don’t believe the hype about chasing money – if engineering, finance, nursing isn’t what you really want to do, then don’t feel forced to seek out these “practical” majors.
At my last internship – the leader of our department was the Vice-President of Policy and Advocacy – she was a senior executive probably pulling over $100,000 and she had never foot in a business school, she had a BA in Speech communication and public relations and 10 years of experience in politics (Capitol Hill, Political Campaigns). While $100,000-$120,000
isn’t comparable to her private sector counterparts – I’d say she lives quite comfortably and that her salary ain’t shabby for someone who earned a “worthless” degree.
Basically what I’m trying to say – is that if you plan, work hard, and make sacrifices you can have the best of both worlds – a job that pays for you live comfortably (or decently) and work that aligns with your interests.
Life is too short not to do what you love – I’ve heard stories from a bitter young professional who pursued what he thought was his dream job and ended up hating it and is now doing everything he can to transition to another field. He told me of someone else, a Harvard Law School grad who thought he wanted a big shot job as a corporate lawyer. In undergrad he slaved to get the credentials to get him into Harvard Law – got there and realized he hated it – but stayed – who drops out of Harvard Law right?After graduation he landed a 6 figure job at a corporate law firm – hated that too. Now he’s working 14-hour days (I was told he once called the teller of this story from work at 4am) at a job he can’t stand, and is waiting it out so he can pay off his law school debt and get the job that he really wants – which is working as a public defender.
JC • Oct 3, 2009 at 11:14 am
I read this article and the many comments critical of a liberal arts education and agree/disagree with both sides of the argument. I was an English and International Studies double major with “wasteful” minors in African-American Studies and French. While this didn’t give my mother a heart attack, it did elicit a stern “your degree is just a foundation, YOU have to build upon it.”
So by God’s grace I found opportunities to develop myself professionally outside of the classroom – which is what really matters – your education is only 20%-30% of your resume anyway, the other 70-80% is what you do outside of the classroom.
To the students reading the comments of naysayers who say lib. arts majors are worthless – that isn’t true – study and do what you love, you don’t have to be a business, engineering, nursing major to be employable. My friend just graduated from NYU with a major in International Relations and got an entry-level position as a program associate in his field with the non-profit the Council on Foreign Relations, a position which easily pulls $39,000 – a pretty decent salary for someone with a BA who is just starting out and doing what they WANT to do in this economic downturn.
What you do have to do use your time in college to develop marketable skills and gain relevant work experience. That’s what will get you a job.
The issue is that liberal arts majors aren’t taught this. Our degree programs aren’t career oriented- our coursework doesn’t provide or point to a specific career path or teach hard skills, internship experience isn’t built into the curriculum or required for graduation, and professional development isn’t something students are generally encouraged to start working on by professors they way I imagine it is in a business program.
So it’s up to liberal arts students to do all this for themselves.
class factotum • Oct 1, 2009 at 1:12 pm
“Bad at math”
Well. Not exactly. I started in the engineering program and made it through differential equations (B+, A in physics, so I’m not a complete moron) but I didn’t like it. So I changed my major to English, where I learned to analyze, write, and figure out what people were really trying to accomplish (ie, reading between the lines and understanding why people did what they did). I got my first job because I was able to convince the recruiter that my skills did indeed apply to the business world. I then got an MBA, which helped me get future jobs, but the critical thinking, analysis and communications skills have all been essential to doing a good job.
Unfortunately, liberal arts programs seem to have turned into a big waste of time in the 24 years since I finished college. English majors not required to study the classics? Marquette appears to require that English majors take only nine hours in actual English literature. http://www.marquette.edu/english/undergraduate/documents/LITmajorformwithNEWnumbers_000.pdf
Who wants to hire someone who has wasted time on these classes?
Literature in Film)
4800 (Studies in Lit. and Culture)
4810 (Ethnicity in Amer. Lit. and Culture)
4820 (Studies in Race and/or Ethnic Lit)
4830 (African-American Lit)
4840 (Post-Colonial Literature)
4860 (Survey of Women’s Literature)
4870 (Studies in Women and Literature
Robert • Oct 1, 2009 at 9:10 am
Yes Pete, thanks for posting the age old liberal arts argument of “Well, we learn critical thinking and creativity”. Because you, of course, after reading Chaucer, know all about what is learned in an engineering curriculum. No creativity or critical thinking needed to build a bridge, or a device, or a spaceship, or a car, or an ipod etc. No, the only way to learn critical thinking is to sit around all day, reading stuff that has no bearing on the current world. You’ve got it all figured out.
And good job displaying those great critical thinking skills with your examples at the bottom. The logic is infallible! The CEO of Xerox is a liberal arts grad, so all liberal arts grads are great! Brilliant!
By the way, Ursala Burns, the current Xerox CEO, is a mechanical engineering graduate, so you were probably referring to the previous CEO. Way to come up with a great example. Looks like engineers can get the same jobs that english majors can, plus actually have high starting salaries! I guess Xerox didn’t see a “critical thinking” problem with an engineer.
History Alum • Sep 30, 2009 at 10:35 am
Pete,
You are correct that people need to be well-rounded and have some critical thinking skills, etc. but you doth protest too much.
I am have a liberal arts masters and do apply my LA skills everyday in a private sector job; however, I am not the norm. Liberal Arts majors need to recognize market reality and make themselves well-rounded with some business skills that will get their foot in the door. A newby right out of college at any workplace will be doing far more “biz skill” tasks than critical thinking ones.
The market is oversaturated with LA majors because too many college students use them as a fallback degree when they can’t cut it in Engineering, etc. LA degrees should as rigourous as the hard sciences, but colleges that use them as cash cows willingly dumb down their LA programs so that you merely have to show up to class, do the minimum and you still get a degree. That is a disgrace to a true liberal arts education that develops the skills that you rightfully describe as needed to be successful in business.
MU should cut enrollment in its liberal arts programs in half and expect more from the students that are left. Only then will an employer take MU LA students seriously at a job fair.
Of course this will not happen, so MU LA majors, get out of your comfort zone and pick up that minor in business, develop the logical part of your brain by taking some advanced math and science. You might get a C as a grade, but you will learn something. Challenge yourself to truly be the intelligent, well-rounded scholar that you claim to be.
Pete • Sep 29, 2009 at 11:48 am
So many of these responses reveal one fact: critical analysis and creative reasoning (what the liberal arts major learns and applies daily) is sadly lacking in those who imagine they will be successful in the “business world” or the “real world” or whatever they dream it to be. Almost anyone can learn “business skills” on the job. But skills like critical thinking, an understanding of other human beings that supports collaborative leadership, the ability to see around corners and past the horizon — sorry, biz kids. Too many of you come up woefully short. But that’s not the point of the article anyway. The point was, how might the university job fair rethink its approach so it might support more students in how to imagine their careers. I know biz majors like to think yes/no, black/white — but that only works on spreadsheets, it’s not the kind of thinking that gets you to the top of an organization. The CEO of Xerox, by the way, was an English major. And I know several c-suite execs with undergraduate degrees in history, philosophy, and the like. How do you think that they developed the imagination that lets them anticipate chalenges or the resiliency that helps them respond? It wasn’t from Bus Econ 101.
Good luck to all of you. Whatever you choose to study. You will need it. And we need you.
From an “old guy in a big organization.”
Mike Platten • Sep 27, 2009 at 1:17 am
Good article.
superiorryan • Sep 24, 2009 at 10:07 am
That might be one of the problems in pursuing a degree in a “Liberal Arts” area.
multani • Sep 24, 2009 at 8:42 am
Here’s a thought. Get an education in a field that really will get you a job. I hope everyone with a liberal arts degree enjoys flipping burgers for a living. Even then I wouldn’t hire you. Time to grow up kids.
Ed • Sep 24, 2009 at 8:23 am
Maybe these majors should have thought about creating marketable skills by changing their major. Go ahead and ask any of your business majors about the rule of supply and demand.
Why must Career Services be responsible for “bolstering” the student who has the inability to make an informed decision. Why is it always the fault of some other force besides your own.
Out here in the REAL world, we have to be responsible for our actions and decisions and accept the consequences.
Bill • Sep 24, 2009 at 8:23 am
Interesting article, but totally misses the point of a career day. That being meeting and greeting possible employers. It is not the fault of anyone but the Liberal Arts Majors that they are not getting employers coming to the gathering. The Degree in Liberal Arts is worth absolutely zero. Don’t get me wrong the knowledge is great, but very few will ever make a career out of being history majors and that ilk.
As a 35 year man in IT take the advice of some one that has experience in Business, health care, and technical work; get a degree or skill that is usable. Knowledge is good, Knowledge that will let you earn a living at a good job is even better.
Frank_Reality • Sep 23, 2009 at 10:19 pm
The author wrote “With such a huge segment of the student population excluded, what’s the point for liberal arts students to attend?”
Maybe the point should be that students, especially liberal arts students should consider going into fields of studies that are in demand by employers.
There are a lot of liberal arts graduates serving coffee at Starbucks or working sales in department stores. Classic over-supply and under-demand.
Good luck.
Doug • Sep 23, 2009 at 9:03 pm
If there aren’t jobs for Liberal Arts majors . . . who is supposed to hire Liberal Arts majors?
Guess y’all should’ve picked a major that actually has jobs available, like, I don’t know, nursing, accounting, finance and engineering. It’s not like the data that showed these jobs would remain important is hidden. These fields were growing 20 years ago (before I went to college), and I was smart enough to know that a major in History wasn’t going to get me a minimum wage job parking cars outside a hotel, much less something that allows me the chance to afford renting a movie a few times a month.
Welcome to the real world, Rosemary, where decisions have consequences. You chose poorly. I hope you didn’t take out a lot of student loans to get a degree that has no value.
Brett • Sep 23, 2009 at 7:49 pm
There’s no need to have career sessions for liberal arts majors. Their future employment prospects can easily be found at employers like Mcdonalds, Walmart, and 7-Eleven.
Dan Anderson • Sep 23, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Perhaps telling them as freshmen that they will be unemployed if they continue down the liberal arts route, instead of trying to tell the market who to hire?
POWinCA • Sep 23, 2009 at 5:27 pm
What’s the purpose of them to attend? Nothing.
What’s the purpose of getting a degree in liberal arts? Same answer.
Taxpayers are subsidizing student debt for majors which are not in high demand for our labor force. These degrees are essentially worthless to the economy. High ability people in these majors have had their degrees diluted by a flood of clueless underachievers.
Many of these people will be using their expensive college degrees in receptionist and retail jobs. What a waste of resources.
We taxpayers subsidize the defaults of total losers who failed to get their degrees or make something with it. Further, low income student loan debtors get the full amount of interest deduction while higher income debtors have their deduction phased out. We are subsidizing failure and punishing success. What do you think we get from that?
And now Obama has put government in the student loan business, directly using taxpayer funds to create armies of unemployable sociology, theater, journalism, English, anthropology, ethnic studies majors with five or six digit debt and little contribution to GDP. Their sheep skins won’t be worth the paper they’re printed on.
There are no external benefits to a college education. Nearly 100% of the benefits are conferred to the individual getting the education and they are compensated through the market. When we subsidize people to undertake education the benefits of which are lower than the costs, we are throwing money away which could be used elsewhere.
The country needs more highly educated people, but the MARKET decides what skills are valuable. Subsidies distort the price-information mechanism and we get too many lib arts majors when we need more engineers, mathematicians, economists, and accountants.
We shouldn’t expect a Community Organizer to know anything about Economics, should we?
Hagbard Celine • Sep 23, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Instead of whining about the dearth of opportunities for budding philosophers, or literary critics, why not offer liberal arts students some really sage advice? Study something useful! Why whine that your women’s studies degree isn’t getting you a decent job? What did you think, that corporations large and small would fawn over you because of your deep understanding of the sexual dialectic and feminist theory? Oops, you studied English lit, and no bank will give you a 70K a year job?
Grow up. You haven’t been studying towards anything useful. You’ve been indulging a hobby. Get off your asses and study something that is actually in demand. I know, its hard, and the subjects are difficult to master, but you might wind up a productive member of society rather than a whining, self centered “advocate” or “community organizer”.
pete • Sep 23, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Need advice for the liberal arts majors on how to find jobs? Quit your liberal arts courses, because they’re not good for anything in the workforce. Now either take a course that will teach you something valuable, ie engineering, science, accounting etc, and you will be employable. Or, go out now and get a job at the entry grunt level, whether it’s flipping burgers, working the cash, or stocking shelves. Work your ass off! Enjoy your job, be enthusiastic and energetic. You’ll get promoted, and before you know it, you’ll be making some decent coin and working a mid-management job.
FLY EAGLES FLY • Sep 23, 2009 at 2:07 pm
“….what’s the point for liberal arts students…..?”
Herein lies the more important question which we should solve prior writing lame articles about the blight of students who major in basket weaving.
mojo • Sep 23, 2009 at 2:02 pm
“Good jobs for Philosophers, too!”
— Firesign Theatre, 1969
It’s an old story. Some degrees are worthless paper.
History Alum • Sep 23, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Liberal arts majors need to pay attention and learn from this article on the job fair. The skills these companies want are not what you have. Set yourself up for success and get a business minor with your English degree or take IT classes with your history degree. Don’t cry and complain because there are no companies that want you, instead get the skills that employers want. There are too many liberal arts majors enrolled in college and if you are one thenyou need to separate yourself from the pack by getting the skills that employers want. Complaining that the university isn’t getting employers that will hire philosophy majors on campus will not get you a paycheck when you graduate.
minbari • Sep 23, 2009 at 1:17 pm
“Even local companies that aren’t hiring could meet with liberal arts majors and provide them with advice on how to find jobs.”
how about studying a course that the world actually needs 😛 that would give you a HUGE leg up.
Mick Langan • Sep 23, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Is the person who wrote this article completely clueless about economics? Oh yes, I suppose they *are* a liberal arts graduate.
Bill Gilles • Sep 23, 2009 at 11:49 am
As an employer who sometimes hires liberal arts majors, I want to take you up on your request for advice. If you want a job, major in something else.
The days of companies hiring someone simply because they have a college degree are over. Today you must either have experience (probably one of the millions of people who lost their job when unemployment in this country doubled), or a relevant degree.
If you don’t have specific experience, and your degree has little to do with the jobs being offered, you are at a severe disadvantage.
My advice – find a major that requires advanced math classes. Those majors will always be in demand.
Sean • Sep 23, 2009 at 11:44 am
Reach out to more students? Who’s supposed to hire “liberal arts majors”? What are they actually qualified for other than teaching? Oh…. I know! There might just be an employer there: the US Army. But they will likely be too busy throwing rocks and insults at the recruiter to actually have time to sign their application.
Perhaps McDonald’s and Walmart will be there as well.
Flea • Sep 23, 2009 at 11:38 am
“In our century’s second worst economic downturn, students should be receiving as much help as possible.”
Yes, in history, for example. We are experiencing this century’s worst economic downturn to date; not its second worst. We have not experienced a comparable economic downturn since the first half of the last century.
John West • Sep 23, 2009 at 11:12 am
The only place that is interested in general arts BA holders is government. There is no real skill required in most of those desk jobs. Plus, after graduating with a BA it’s a pretty sure bet that the grad student will have the Liberal values the government bureaucracies love.
I have met many BA grads in my life and most of them are mediocre people with marginal reading and writing skills which is about all they have going for them because they have no other marketable skills unless they learned a bit of landscaping or drywalling or painting in their summer job tenures.
Kyle • Sep 23, 2009 at 11:09 am
Why would a company that isn’t hiring waste time telling students what they should do to get hired by other companies? And the reason there are no job postings for Liberal Arts majors is because no jobs exist for Liberal Arts majors. Go get a real degree if you want a job.
jubal singapoosalert • Sep 23, 2009 at 10:31 am
Dear sirs. will any gunsmithing or gunmaking jobs be offered? thanks.
Jerome Bastien • Sep 23, 2009 at 10:23 am
Yes, clearly students enrolled in liberal arts programs need help in order to find a job.
Here’s the help they need:
Get out of that useless liberal arts program and get into a program that will give you marketable skills. Sorry, I know the truth hurts.
But its about time somebody said it.
There is no right or entitlement to a job, especially if you chose to spend your university years pursuing a vanity degree (which is ALL a liberal arts program is). Not only are these vanity degrees subsidized by our tax dollars, now these poor dupes who thought they were going to coast through life with a history major are whining that they need help finding a job because their degree is useless.
Hey here’s a lesson from the real world: make a dumb choice (like pursuing a liberal arts degree), and you will suffer consequences.
Kevin • Sep 23, 2009 at 10:17 am
There is no reason to major in liberal arts. Journalists, linguists, graphic designers, anthropologists, public relations specialists and especially teachers (!) contribute absolutely nothing to society. Absolutely nothing! If you want a job, you should become an engineer or major in business because there will always be an abundance of those jobs. Even if everyone majors in them! Actually, when you’re finished getting a degree, go to law school. We always need more lawyers! Just make sure you do something that gives you a giant paycheck; it doesn’t matter if it’s the least fulfilling work in the world. People only work to get paid. Remember don’t do what you love. Do what will garner the biggest paycheck. That’s what I did. And I’m the happiest person in the world! I love money!
Brad • Sep 23, 2009 at 9:31 am
Why is it the Career Fair’s fault that students choose a field of study that is unwanted in the business community?
Kyla • Sep 23, 2009 at 9:23 am
Maybe they should teach supply and demand in the liberal arts program, eh?
Mambo Bananapatch • Sep 23, 2009 at 9:14 am
> With such a bleak forecast, Career Services should be doing everything it can to bolster students’ confidence as they head into the communication and liberal arts fields.
It’s not possible to be more wrong. How is it possible to be so wrong?
Career Services should be doing everything it can to be encouraging students to learn things that are not completely useless, and not render themselves unemployable.
Nope • Sep 23, 2009 at 9:13 am
“In our century’s second worst economic downturn”
Which century are you living in?
Brad Forrest • Sep 23, 2009 at 9:04 am
Maybe it’s just that productive companies need students with skills and not students that have basically majored in a hobby.
James Halifax • Sep 23, 2009 at 9:02 am
I’m sorry, but most businesses are in business…to make a profit. You make a profit by having competent accounting and Finance majors providing direction and monitoring the use of funds. You make a profit by having people with strong business skills….who know HOW to make a profit.
What you DON’T want….is a Liberal Arts major telling you that capitalism is bad….that your employees are racists, sexist….misogynists…etc…etc…etc…
If students want a job in the victim industry…..tell them they need to apply for work with the Government. No self-respecting business will want to hire a professional whiner.
While we’re at it….maybe some of these “Liberal Arts” students (Otherwise known as, “Bad at math”) may want to persue other avenues to earn an income.
Chad • Sep 23, 2009 at 8:58 am
How about you get a real degree that will get you a job.
Pete Campbell • Sep 23, 2009 at 8:41 am
“With such a huge segment of the student population excluded, what’s the point for liberal arts students to attend?”
I think the more relevant question should be “With such little demand for liberal arts students in the job market, what’s the point in enrolling so many liberal arts students?”!
class factotum • Sep 23, 2009 at 8:37 am
Or they could be encouraging people to select majors that will lead to jobs.
Old Country Boy • Sep 23, 2009 at 8:24 am
“In our century’s second worst economic downturn” If this is an example of writing, as taught by Marquette’s esteemed faculty, no wonder nobody wants to hire their students. Please describe a downturn that was worse than this since 2000. Could you have been referring to the great depression of 1929 -1940? If so, that was last century.
The so-called students that take liberal arts courses and get such degrees are not worth the money to flip hamburgers at Burger King. If they had true BAs or philosophy degrees that were based on truth, and not the wishful lies of the college liberal/socialist faculty, they might be able to make change at Burger King. Not one of these mis-educated cry babies could even pass one semester of a good engineering curriculum.
As evidence of their liberal/socialist education, they expect the local businesses to waste time interviewing them and teaching them how to do interviews. What’s in it for the businesses. That should have been done as part of their liberal classwork.
Jeff • Sep 23, 2009 at 8:20 am
Are you serious? Do you have any idea how sheltered and unrealistic you sound? Why not stop to think that there are some degrees for which there are no jobs? The world is not there to provide for you. Learn a trade, study a profession, get some applicable skills. I studied history, language, philosophy, and English, but I did it to supplement my studies in Chemistry and Accounting. My arts classes provided me a leg up over other accountants. On their own they’d be fulfilling, but useless.
grok • Sep 23, 2009 at 8:14 am
More explicitly, what’s the point of becoming a liberal arts major?
Pat Tentlyobvious • Sep 23, 2009 at 7:06 am
This article is a spoof…isn’t it? It’s abundantly clear that academia needs to be fitted with a large enema to flush itself of useless offerings disguised as higher education. I believe this article serves as a shining example. Oh, and good luck!
RSP • Sep 23, 2009 at 6:57 am
One other comment: your one-sentence paragraphs do not speak well for the quality of a typical liberal arts “education” nowadays. Your style suggests too much time watching TV and text-messaging your friends, and not enough time spent in contact with serious minds capable of complicated thought.
RSP • Sep 23, 2009 at 6:46 am
People who treat college as a sandbox in which to play cannot be shielded forever from reality. Like others who thought American “prosperity” would allow them to live forever on credit, they must face the consequences of choices they themselves made. Your sappy, sympathetic attitude is not helpful.
Anonymous • Sep 23, 2009 at 5:45 am
The best advice to give liberal arts majors to get a job related to their education would be to go back in time and get an education that isn’t worthless. There are jobs which do use liberal arts degrees, but we graduate (at least) 100 times as many students as there are positions for people with humanities/social science degrees; which means that the jobs are rare and do not pay particularly well.
Producer • Sep 23, 2009 at 5:39 am
This piece is meant to be a joke, right? This isn’t serious, right?
Evil Red Scandi • Sep 23, 2009 at 2:44 am
What did these liberal arts majors think they were going to do when they graduate? Seriously? Every liberal arts degree should devote at least one semester to teaching students to properly ask someone “Would you like fries with that?” Outside of academia and the collapsing realm of journalism, that’s pretty much all their degrees are good for.
Dan Tappin • Sep 23, 2009 at 2:22 am
LMAO!
How about you encourage those in the liberal arts fields to go back to school and prepare for a ‘real job’.
wahoo • Sep 23, 2009 at 1:42 am
“Even local companies that aren’t hiring could meet with liberal arts majors and provide them with advice on how to find jobs.”
Well…..Okay.Here’s some advice from a private company owner…..don’t take useless,socialist,nanny state courses in secondary school!!! You can’t handle higher math or sciences, then take a trades course. Don’t you “liberal” arts people realize you have out-produced the demand for desk jockeys? Journalists,shrinks,and such contribute absolutely nothing to the basic needs and demands of a society trying to survive and prosper.
When you learn how to build a house for the homeless,instead of perpetuating the welfare system,then you are required.
You just can’t fathom that nobody needs,nor wants, 80% of a graduating class with a degree in “touchy-feely-good,how do I create my own bureaucracy
” mind set. gaaawwwwww. You are pathetic.
Aaron Clarey • Sep 23, 2009 at 1:19 am
Hey,
I wanted to thank the editorial staff for a gem of an article that exposes just how woefully educated college students are today about economics. You should be getting a couple thousand hits and some significant media attention from a couple links I’ll be posting. Here’s one.
http://captaincapitalism.blogspot.com/2009/09/liberal-arts-majors-demand-more.html
The best advice (and I’m being serious, because this WILL help you) for all the liberal arts majors is to STOP majoring in liberal arts and major in something where you will get a job. I know your parents told you you’re all winners and puppies and unicorns will all be yours if you “just do what you want,” but the realities of the labor market is that you all want I-Pods and cell phones and X-Box games, but none of you are willing to major in the fields that produce those things. Instead you want to major in poetry, sociology and basket weaving, nobody, yourselves included, want to part with money for.
Think about it and try to stay awake the next time you take Econ 101.
Sincerely,
Aaron Clarey