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Whats with all the college themed graphs? Are the grads that bored after not getting their dream jobs?
Bored AND jaded…
Well, that and it’s time for finals/graduation.
I am unemployed, therefore I am…
True…But…A philosophy degree is useful if you’re ambitious enough to go to Graduate School or Professional Schools like law school or business school. Unless youre a writer, you really can’t do anything in the discipline of philosophy. It does give you valuable tools though (Analytical Thinking, Critical Thinking, etc.), which help with certain careers, as well as probably the most valuable tool of all: the skill of rhetoric. If you’re a philosophy major (like me) I urge you to either switch majors, or be prepared to go beyond a BA in philosophy (maybe a double major, maybe a masters/phd, etc.).
Secret to making something of a philosophy degree: become a computer programmer.
HAHAHA…. I did Philosophy and Computing and am a Software Developer.
I’m kinda doing the same thing: Computer Science with some Philosophy courses on the side for spice.
Ditto, Philosophy and Computer Science double major here.
Haha that’s so cool – I did the Philosophy and Computing Science degrees as well, and I’m a Software Development Manager now. My computing science degree tells me what they’re doing wrong, and my Philosophy degree tells me why.
Yeah, I’m studying philosophy atm, so I know this all to well. At least it puts off the real world for a couple of years though…
*too
ditto
If you think of philosophy as putting off the real world, I think you’re doing it wrong.
“real life”? what is real??
]
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[yes, I am a philosophy student
Same holds true for a history degree.
Also, “Liberal Arts”
That means: Forever in College.
I just graduated with a Philosophy degree and an English degree. Almost had a history degree. It was great until I realized it’s all useless. Nothing I’m interested in will ever find me work!!!
You actually didn’t realize it’s useless until after graduating? Impressive detachment from practical life!
But I thought a philosophy degree got you a job as a bouncer in a roadhouse in the middle of no-where, where you battle evil and hang out with all the pretty wimmins.
Pain don’t hurt.
Or one could go all the way and get a PhD in philosophy and never need to enter this “real world” you speak of! Take it from the pros (like myself).
This should have been the green bar. Add in, recruit unknowing students to the field of Philosophy for unknown and likely diabolical reasons.
True, but would spoil the funny. I love this one, not so much for the “message” as for the intentional disrupt of the expected format.
Everyone says this about some fields (I’ve heard it about my major, too) but I think… If you go into an upper level business class you are likely to find 50 people, only 4 of whom are really interested in the subject at hand and the other 46 who are only interested in money or couldn’t think of a better major. If you go into an upper level philosophy course you have 10 students, and maybe 2 o them aren’t interested while the other 8 honestly want to learn.
I’d much rather be in a class where 80% of the students were excited and interested in the topic, any day. Lots of people go into fields unrelated to their major. At least some of them actually learned something they enjoyed.
They might have enjoyed the education, but they are not gonna be qualified for whatever work they will find. That’s part of the reason why there are not enough skilled professionals – half of the people doing their job studied something ‘exciting’ instead of educating… And then people complain about immigrants taking their job. Well I would rather do business with an educated hindu/chinese/etc than a philosophy student.
If you think a philosophy education isn’t valuable, you’ve drastically misunderstood what philosophy is. I won’t get into the history (although it’s worth pointing out that both mathematics and the natural sciences spring from philosophy) but you can’t possibly think that the combined ability to think analytically and write persuasively is worthless.
Also there’s the fact that several Fortune 500 CEOs were philosophy majors.
The graph is funny, but I think it misrepresents a really important field of study, and it’s sad that the misconceptions concerning the value of a philosophy degree are so widespread.
You posit the following:
1) That thinking analytically and writing persuasively is strictly under the purview of philosophy?
2) That several fortune 500 CEOs were philosophy majors.
I would respond with:
1) Many other degree programs stress the ability to analyze, hypothesize, experiment and articulate. Science and engineering degrees come to mind. The difference is that these alternate courses of study also place an emphasis on results, and thus put a premium on both intellectual creativity as well commercially valuable skills.
2) Where is the proof for this? This is not a fact that I’ve encountered before, and the school I currently attend has a top 5 business school.
Government, Politics, and Law: Thomas Jefferson (U.S. President), David Souter (Supreme Court Justice), Robert MacNamara (Secretary of Defense and Head of the World Bank), William Bennett (Secretary of Education and best-selling author), Patrick Buchanan (presidential candidate and political columnist), Jerry Brown (former governor of California and presidential candidate), Raisa Gorbachev (former first lady of the Soviet Union).
Business: J. Paul Getty, Carl Icahn (CEO, TWA Airlines), Gerald Levin (CEO, Time Warner, Inc.), George Soros (financier), Lachlan Murdoch (son of Rupert Murdoch, media magnate), Carleton Fiorina (CEO Hewlett-Packard).
Religion: Pope John Paul II, Martin Luther King, Jr., Madelyn Murray O’Hair (famous atheist).
Contemporary Writers: T. S. Eliot, Christopher Hitchens, James Michener, Iris Murdoch, Alexander Solzhenitsin, Umberto Eco, M. Scott Peck, Ken Follett, Susan Sontag, David Foster Wallace, Elie Wiesel.
Performers and Broadcasters: Harrison Ford, Susan Sarandon, Woody Allen, Steve Martin, George Carlin, Jay Leno, Dennis Miller, Kim Thayill (Soundgarden), Stone Phillips, John Chancellor, Alex Trebek, Gene Siskel, Willard Scott, Jimmy Kimmel.
Sports: Bruce Lee, Phil Jackson, Michael McKaskey (Owner, Chicago Bears), Aaron Talylor (OT, Notre Dame and the Green Bay Packers).
While these people may have or had succesful lives, their philosophy degrees have no impact on their future careers
you are stupid. that’s all I really wanted to say.
Umm see… there is a different in “following a set method” as with science and engineering, versus being completely on your own and left to produce your own results. They’re very different kinds of thinking, and that’s why many philosophy students enter law. Forming a strong argument isn’t simply the result of studying laws.
As an English/history major I hear this all the time, but really, every major has infinite things you can do with it. For instance, as an undergrad, at the company I work for I write work instructions and a lot of our legal documents (big words are fun!). I inevitably want to teach once I’ve completed my MA, but I sure as h*ck wouldn’t turn them down if I ever got offered a job with Scholastic.
Those of you who are philosophy majors can look forward to potential careers in public relations, communications, education, journalism, business administration, etc.
So long as you love what you do (and are proficient at it) you can succeed at anything (wow…that sounded really corny).
um…let’s not give the sparse journalism jobs to philosophy majors. We journalism grads need those.
If you want to work for Scholastic, you should consider going to China. It’s a burgeoning market, and they need people there.
it also gets you to be a hobo!
BA Philosophy -> MD -> Medical Ethics
This is incorrect, it leads you straight to law school.
Yeah, a ton of prelaw students have some philosophy. Apparently it helps with the LSAT.
I did go Philo -> MD though, it’s a great route.
There was a guy in one of my classes majoring in Philosophy. When asked what he was going to do with it, he replied, “I’ll be thinking deep thoughts about unemployment.” I thought it was pretty funny.
You do have to have a sense of humor when majoring in something others feel is not “practical”. Or you deal with it through elitist attitudes, like us art majors. It’s a defense mechanism. I get tired of professors and family members constantly asking me, “What are you going to do with that, teach?” You’ve got to prove that the thing you love the most is worthwhile.
But I do agree that just having a degree will open up so many job opportunities, regardless of what you studied in college.
“What are you going to do with an art degree?”
My friend was asked this so many times that he now answers: “”Well, I’ve been thinking about drawing, but I might try my hand at advanced brain surgery if the paint by numbers thing doesn’t work out.”
That’s hilarious! I might have to use that! Seriously, everyone expected me to become a doctor or professor or something, just because I graduated top of my class in high school. Art majors aren’t just those who couldn’t make it in the other fields. I’ve heard one guy actually say that! And they wonder why we’re so defensive.
You can imagine what my old-fashioned grandfather had to say about me majoring in art! (I’ve since changed it to art history, but he still thinks it’s impractical.)
“But I do agree that just having a degree will open up so many job opportunities, regardless of what you studied in college.”
I’m going to have to strongly disagree with that. Jobs are not abundant these days. I have a philosophy degree from NYU – graduated cum laude – and I now work part time in a frigging retail store. It’s the only thing I could so much as get an interview for.
Unless you’re French, in which case you will be a respected public intellectual and have best-selling books.
Ca semble une bonne idee.
Pourquoi ca ne marce pas en Quebec?
Good idea. Why doesn’t that work in Quebec?
Well a Philosophy degree COULD get you into a good school if that wasn’t so self-fulfilling. It’s an interesting thing, though it’s rather true that there aren’t many jobs you can get with it.
A friend of my family graduated with a philosophy degree. He’s had a variety of jobs entirely unrelated to philosophy, most recently forest ranger.
Sad thing is, this graph is wrong. It should be PSYCHOLOGY degree, not philosophy.
There’s enough unemployment for both to share
Both, and many others.
Music, anyone? Though there was already a graph about that. lol
Not really. You can go to grad school or take some other kind of post secondary training (like I intend to)…
Oh, wait, you mean just with that degree? Never mind, point conceded.
AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
hoo! okay. haha. sigh….
But if it is getting you nowhere then nowhere becomes a place, it is getting you somewhere just somewhere that is not useful.
Late to the party but will throw in this: philosophy, history, art, English majors, etc, are all actually pretty good at writing. If you can write, you can be hired into lots of different fields. When I was in business school I was floored to find that most of my fellow accountants couldn’t write very well. Writing counts!
Of course, in this economy maybe being able to write really well won’t help either.
Sure as shoot hasn’t helped me.
I have a liberal arts degree… would you like fries with that?
Take THAT, Steve Barron!! I have a BA in Linguistics and that is SO much better than Philosophy any day. At least I studied something tangible.
Language isn’t tangible. Nice try though! Better luck next time.
Clearly, disliking philosophy has made him a terrible thinker.
Philosophy degrees are very employable. Its an entire subject dedicated to critical thinking, argument articulation and clarity of expression.
Oh, another thing you might want to consider developing is your mathematical concepts. They will tremendously help you in the real world. If you can barely multiply 9×9, then you’re not going to be able to calculate any sort of metric and won’t be anything more than a cleark, ever.
Dear Math and Science Majors,
Have fun competing in this job market against the myriad of foreigners with your exact same degree and in many cases more determination.