An Introduction
I often enough trip across announcements of liberal arts colleges closing. Likewise, I just as often read of various consolidations or even eliminations of liberal arts colleges and likewise humanities programs in colleges and universities. In short, the liberal arts degree, typically a bachelor’s degree, is not the giant it was. The liberal arts college nor the humanities, nor the degree in such from either a small liberal arts school or university - none are in vogue today. For many today it is the business degree, the accounting degree. Further, the desire for specific practical technical skills, the rise of associates and bachelor’s degrees focused exclusively on specific fields, and simple certifications in every field – all of this challenges a liberal arts education and degree.
And of course, this is not helped by the fact that many simply can no longer afford such a degree, but that is largely true of any degree. This essay, however, is not dealing with that issue. Rather, where I want to suggest is that the individual with a bachelor’s degree in the humanities is in fact uniquely suited for the employment market in today’s world. In short, such a degree might be worth the cost.
So far, I have pointed to the closing of liberal arts colleges, and likewise the consolidation or even the elimination of various humanities and liberal arts programs. Further, I have pointed to the trend of business degrees and the likewise today dominating the number of degrees issued today. Likewise, I have pointed to the rise of other degree programs and certifications and the suggestions made by some that such are sufficient for careers. And this is where I want to focus. I want to explore the question of what is required for a career. More, I want to suggest that a liberal arts degree can prepare you for certain spaces better than any focused degree or certification.
Often, the liberal arts degree is defended by pointing beyond one’s career, but this essay is not interested in the benefits of the liberal arts and humanities outside of one’s career. The focus of this essay is again the benefits of such a degree regarding one’s career.
The Liberal Arts and the Humanities. . .
As is often the case these terms point to various things. I suspect that often the liberal arts are often confused with the humanities. They do largely come out of the same tradition; however, they do in fact reference different things and originate in different historical moments. That said, let us try to focus on current usage. And let us focus specifically on three items: the liberal arts college, the liberal arts, and the humanities.
The liberal arts college is typically contrasted with the university which offers graduate and undergraduate programs. The liberal arts college, however, offers only undergraduate degree programs. It offers only the bachelor’s degree. It typically does not offer an associates nor a master’s, much less a PhD. A liberal arts college is not to be confused with a community college, which are where most associate degrees are earned.
Typically, liberal arts colleges are smaller, more intimate. The classes are smaller. Typically, professors at the liberal arts college are focused upon teaching, as opposed to research, which complements the fact that they typically focus only on undergraduate studies. Again, they do not offer graduate studies, which is a gateway into research. The liberal arts college’s focus is on teaching. Universities shares much of these concerns, but also see a value in research, and likewise a value in the mixing of research and education. That said, universities in the US are still very much interested in the liberal arts and a liberal education. More to be said on this shortly.
Now the areas of study at a typical liberal arts college, the majors they offer, may surprise. They include the humanities, the natural sciences and mathematics, and the social sciences. And this is where we see the difference between the liberal arts and the humanities. In short, the liberal arts, in regard to curriculum, entail more than the humanities. The humanities typically include domains such as history, philosophy, literature, language, and both the fine and performing arts. The liberal arts entail these plus the sciences – physics, biology, chemistry, etc. Math which entails geometry, calculus, algebra, etc. is part of the liberal arts. It is interesting that historically both the liberal arts and the humanities have been seen as keys to a proper education, even though the one is a much more limited set than the other.
The question becomes what is not included in the liberal arts? We now know at least one of the differences between the liberal arts and the humanities, but we also know that colleges and universities today offer a range of studies. Are all offerings found at a university or college seen as part of the liberal arts? I do not want to dig too deep into this but do things such as business, feminist and gender studies fit into the liberal arts? Is sociology part of the liberal arts? What of engineering and labor relations? What about a degree in tourism?
The answer is that all or most of the above can be part of a liberal arts education, but again, none of the above are part of the humanities. Ultimately, however, whether they are part of a liberal arts curriculum or not is determined not purely by their content. Rather it by how they are taught and what is required of the student at that particular college or university. It turns out that the liberal arts are not only a list of domains or subjects, but more importantly an approach to an education.
In short, a student attending a liberal arts college or involved in a liberal arts program at a university will select a major, but also be required to explore other parts of the curriculum arriving at balanced and ideally a ‘complete’ education. To describe a bachelor’s degree as a complete education might be generous, but the hope is that students will be exposed to a range of domains outside of their major, which they will have focused upon in their studies. The hope of such is that such introductions or exposures will allow them to recognize and engage in spaces they would otherwise miss in the course of their live. The classes and studies suffered outside their major it is hoped will allow them to identify opportunities and challenges they would otherwise not see in their travels.
There are several questions regarding the above. Will these classes, these explorations outside their primary focus in fact benefit them in any way? Is it better to have such a broad focus or to narrow one’s studies to something manageable, and be properly ready for the workforce? The alternative to such an education is typically vocational training - skills-focused degree programs. Our degree in tourism is probably involving a more skills-based approach.
At the university one who studies engineering or accounting most likely will become either an engineer or accountant. An interesting one is the numerous teacher colleges in the US-all specifically with the intent of teacher preparation. That is not the case with a student completing a degree from a liberal arts program, whether it be in biology or physics, history, or English. Pursuits of the later degrees is much less predictive of the student’s future pursuits. A skills-based approach is pursued with the intent of pursuing a particular vocation or profession.
We point to an education where one, through their education, is prepared to go into the workforce, prepared for a specific vocation or job. Once you complete the specified curriculum, you are largely eligible to pursue employment. With the skills mastered through such a program there is no doubt regarding the career, the job, the employment opportunities that the student will pursue once he or she has finished their studies.
Today’s university is a combination of these two models, the liberal arts approach where you go broad or a skills-based model where you are focused and upon completion of such-are basically ready to enter the workforce. In the former, where you still have a major, but are likewise introduced to a range of domains and subject matters, there is no relation between one’s studies and what they do after that education is completed.
Perhaps the transition from school to the workforce is the biggest challenge for the liberal arts student. They may have a major, a central focus in their studies, but they also have all these other experiences, or at least all these other classes, which distract, consuming time, energy, and money. Further, it can be said, that though the major may prepare the student for the workforce, is it enough? Often the major is taught in such a way that the student though they are educated on a certain field of study, they are not prepared to enter it.
This critique of a liberal arts degree not being adequate in preparing students for the workforce, and further not preparing them for a career is a challenge to the whole tradition of the liberal arts, the humanities, and the liberal arts college. The response to the criticism is that though it may prepare students for work, that is not its primary intent. Again, I am not interested in this response here (though I might just circle back and apply certain pieces of that defense!).
Again, what I want to suggest is that the liberal arts and the humanities do provide a solid preparation for entrance into certain areas of today’s workforce. Ultimately, I guess I would be fine with the claim that the liberal arts and the humanities provide both a solid preparation for both career, and life in general but here now – I want to focus on career and professional development.
My Experience
What I have pointed to so far is the tip of the iceberg and the grounds for a long running debate in academia and beyond. It is found in various places from the exchanges of WEB Du Bois and Booker T Washington to the counterculture of the 60s. It is really one of the core debates over what an education is, and as tempting as it is, I am simply attempting to avoid it. Rather, what I want to suggest is a that the liberal arts and the humanities are in fact assets in one’s career. And I want to do that by simply highlighting my own experiences, which at least in my case illustrates the fact that the liberal arts and the humanities can be very much productive in business, and in one’s career.
So, in my case, I studied philosophy and then pursued a master’s in education for a time. Both were pursued at Rutgers University in NJ. I completed the bachelor’s in philosophy, pondered graduate work in philosophy before pursuing the master’s in education, which I sadly never completed. I continue to read and reflect on subjects and issues in both of these spaces.
For my career, however, I ended up for the past twenty-five years working as a technical recruiter and recruiting manager in a series of small staffing agencies placing IT professionals. Looking back one can easily wonder how it was I went from such studies to a vocation of placing IT professionals at various business and organizations. One of my managers use to routinely joke that if one was told in college that we would end up in the IT staffing industry, we would probably just shake our heads in disbelief. And there is some truth in that. I, like many I imagine, really had no idea what was next after school. I was for a while working towards teaching Social Studies in a high school, exploring graduate school, and to pay the bills was doing corporate security.
It was in the midst of that, however, that I had a moment of clarity, a ‘eureka’ moment if you will. It was in the late 90’s reading through the Sunday New York Times help-wanted section when I arrived at the realization that a staffing position, especially in IT, would be a perfect position for myself. And it was from there that I became interested in temporary staffing as a means of transitioning from school to career and ultimately finding a position as a technical recruiter.
I was lucky. I recall one conversation with a staffing agency recruiter, where she asked me what kind of job would I be interested in? I responded that I wanted her job. Luckily, she called me back shortly after with such a role. She had gotten a requirement for an assistant recruiter for an HR person/ Recruiter at Merrill Lynch. And in the first five minutes of starting that assignment, I was being told by my new manager that she ran her office as an agency and treated the hiring managers she supported as clients.
Regardless of that break, it was the skills I developed in the course of my studies that have made me successful in this space. I am routinely applying some of the concepts I explored in philosophy in my searches for candidates. I am constantly pondering what is the essence of the job spec I am working. Likewise, I know that such specs have no real essence. There is a great deal of plasticity in how I define or interpret a job spec. In engaging candidates, I always try to understand who this person is. There is no perfect candidate, and each has an Achilles heel. It is best to anticipate these flaws and put them out there. List their strengths, and weaknesses when presenting to a client. My job is in some respects pretty straight forward. My firm is brought in by a business, a school, a non-profit, etc. to full IT openings in their organizations. The simplicity of the description betrays much of the complexity underlying the challenge.
Often, to find the right candidate we basically abandon the original job description, or we write our own. As you can see, I enjoy the challenges. And there is really no way I could be really prepared for this job. One day I am recruiting for an assistant director of clinical research systems and the next day I am searching for a desktop-support person for an HVAC duct work group. The skills required though are pretty simple. An ability to read and write, a sense of curiosity, an imagination, an ability to work with and understand the wants and needs of others.
I was lucky in another way. The nineties were when IT exploded and of course that is when we saw Microsoft, the internet and all the rest just go wild. It was all over our culture, and that included philosophy. Concepts such as distributed networks, and discussions of symbols, objects, representations were part and parcel of our studies. My philosophy of mind class basically started with the claim that the mind (brain) is a computer. There was an overlap. Enough of one for this naïve student and wannabe recruiter to latch onto.
And yes, I know, I am pointing to one instance. One case of this happening, but it happened. And I can say that I have on several occasions replicated these results. Again, I am pointing to single instances here and there. My data set is limited. That said, anyone who is successful in my space must be able to read and write, communicate, negotiate. They must be able to interpret and reinterpret the challenges in front of them. In short, they must be able empathize, imagine, and communicate and that is what an education involving the liberal arts and humanities ultimately arrives at, regardless of the period in history we are looking at. Regardless of the period in history, such an education allows for those with such a background to proceed and engage.
Now I have intentionally been vague on the content of the curriculum. I believe that just as I was prepared for the vocation, I ultimately found myself in, so will those who follow. Those who follow will no doubt look at some of the same texts and others, and they will discuss and try to make sense of them within the confines of what is happening at that moment. What is happening in the world will have its impact upon those classes and the discussions in those classes. Perhaps I have an over-reliance upon the principle of charity, whether it be from framework of Davidson or Augustine. The key to my formula and what I see as the formula of the liberal arts and to some degree the humanities is that mis of reading, writing, and discussion, all at a particular moment, in a particular place.
Lastly, my one case, or few cases we include two or three on my staff who have shared my experiences, are focused on IT recruiting. Perhaps what I describe is just a lucky coincidence. Perhaps it is limited to recruiting. I see this as absurd. A common role in IT is the business analyst. Basically, this person sits between technology and the business and facilitates the integration of technology into the business. They make sure that the business is getting what they require from IT. I see technical recruiters serving a similar function. I have at times pondered going into such a role. The fact that I have not does lead to questions, but in general the similarity is still there.
More importantly than the ability to do business analysis is the ability to sell. I would suggest that a good salesperson may very well come from the liberal arts and humanities. Again, that ability to communicate, unpack, explain. That ability to understand what their audience needs and is interested in. And lastly, the ability to reimagine something, to offer an alternative from the status quo, from what is currently accepted or embraced and to do this on the phone, through a zoom, or in an email. And again, I am not saying that others cannot do these things. Rather I am simply saying that a liberal arts degree involving the humanities promotes and develops such skills. It instills an openness, a curiosity, to explore alternatives and likewise an ability weigh and evaluate options.
Conclusion
In short, this is my offering regarding the liberal arts and the humanities and the value of these domains. It is with such ideas in mind that I see the continued closing of schools, and the consolidation and elimination of liberal arts and humanities programs as problematic. More importantly, it is with the above in mind that I see the limitations of a skill-based education. More importantly, is the fact that the liberal arts and the humanities can and do contribute to one's career, and there is a large swath of business and careers that could benefits from such.
I have seen numerous developers who programmed in Cobol or RPG left behind-that was what they learned in college and today’s programming languages are quite different. Likewise, those managing and working in yesterday’s factories just struggle to adopt. Sadly, fields such as these probably must delve into a more skill-based approach. But for those considering, applying, and even selling ideas and approaches, whether they be old fashion services, such as recruiting, or SAAS platforms, people with a liberal arts and humanities background may just have an advantage.
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