Is No Depatagonia wikigree Better Than A Liberal Arts Degree
Since Forbes hired me in 1995 to write a legal column, I ve taken advantage of the great freedom the magazine grants its staff, to pursue stories about everything from books to billionaires. I ve chased South Africa s first black billionaire through a Cape Town shopping mall while admirers flocked around him, climbed inside the hidden chamber in the home of an antiquarian arms and armor dealer atop San Francisco s Telegraph Hill, and sipped Chateau Latour with one of Picasso s grandsons in the Venice art museum of French tycoon Franois Pinault. I ve edited the magazine s Lifestyle section and opinionpatagonia wiki2 pieces by the likes of John Bogle and Gordon Bethune. As deputy leadership editor, these days I mostly write about careers and corporate social responsibility. I got my job at Forbes through a brilliant libertarian economist, Susan Lee, whom I used to put on television at MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. Before that I covered law and lawyers for journalistic stickler, harsh taskmaster and the best teacher a young reporter could have had, Steven Brill.
A new study by Forbes contributor Dan Schawbel, who runs Millennial Branding, a one man research and consulting firm in Boston that s focused on millennials (born between the early 80s and the early 2000s), released a study today that comes to some conclusions I find startling. At the same time, fewer than 2% of hiring managers said they were actively recruiting liberal arts grads.
There is a bit of an apples and oranges problem with these findings. One survey question asked hiring managers what degrees they preferred. Only 1.6% said liberal arts. The top majors: Other, which included mechanical engineering, math and education, engineering and computer information systems (27%), business (18%) and medicine/nursing (13.3%) Weirdly, accounting, which in other surveys frequently scores near the top, was just above liberal arts at 3.5% and finance and economics, which also usually makes a strong showing, scored just 4.7%. Says Shawbel, there was so much other interesting data that we just looked past those two results. But just last month I wrote up a survey by the Nation Association of Colleges and Employers, which polled some 1,015 of its employer members, and found that accounting and economics were among the most sought after diplomas, with 59% of respondents saying they wanted to hire accounting major and 28.5% saying they were looking for economics majors. It could be a reflection of Schawbel s smaller sample size of just 280 hiring managers. Humanities majors fared a bit better in the NACE study, with 13.9% of employers saying they would hire them.
A separate question in Schawbel s study asked about the importance of a college degree. That s where 64% of hiring managers said, it s important but I d consider a candidate without one. Nearly 8% said, It s not important. I m looking for the candidate with the best experienpatagonia wiki1ce. Schawbel s conclusion: You don t really need tpatagonia wiki3o have a college degree.
Demonstrating the skills that employers want is more important, he says. When asked about the top three attribpatagonia wiki0utes they want in a candidate, hiring managers said a positive attitude (84%), communication skills (83%) and an ability to work as a team (74%). I would argue that successful humanities majors demonstrate those attributes, but apparently, when an employer sees the degree, she gets turned off.
Schawbel says you can make up for an English or history degree with a section on your r called relevant courses. If you re going to be a humanities major, you have to take other copatagonia clothes new york cityurses to round yourself out, he says. He recommends classes like business, marketing, and operations, to broadcast to potential employers that your skills go beyond parsing Middlemarch or opining on the forces that led to the end patagonia outlet store 13of the Hapsburg Empire.
More info in the survey that I found startling: 45% of HR managers said that job boards were their preferred mode of finding candidates. I ve written many times that I think posting on job boards is a colossal waste of time, but Schawbel says, try everything. He adds,patagonia atom sling 4 for sale You never know what will work. On the other hand, 71% of hiring managers said that referral candidates get high priority. I believe the most effective way to use job boards is to find a potential opening or even justpatagonia discount code eastbay locate an employer that interests you, and then network your way in using LinkedIn, Facebook and real life tools like friends, family and new acquaintance you might meet at a party or industry event, to find a connection to the company where you want to work. Gather intelligence and ideally, a referral. But you have to get out from behind your computer and make those connections happen. Schawbel agrees.
But Gen Y job seekers are used to finding everything online, so nearly a third, 28%, said they hunt for work on job boards. Again, scan those sites but the time you spend networking and researching companies is much more effective.
Which leads us to a finding that is not at all surprising: In answer to the question, When interviewing a recent graduate or entry level candidate, what is your BIGGEST turnoff? the greatest percentage, 36%, said they are unprepared. Of course that is easy to fix. Two hours of prep may do the trick. Read everything you can find on Google News, scour the company website, and talk to as many people you can find at the company. It s also helpful to hunt down former employees. Rather than spending that time sending a dozen r out into the job board ether, drilling down on one company is much more worth your while.
The other thing you can control is your attitude. That s what employers say they find to be second most important in candidates, at 32.5%. Hunting for a job can be incredibly hard and ego crushing, so it may even help to enroll in an acting class. Because that s what you need to do: Act like this is the job that you want more than anything in the world and communicate that you will do anything it takes to succeed. Humanities majors can do patagonia guide jacket to wearthat as well as anyone.
I went back to school in 2009 as a community college graduate(with a degree with Liberal Arts from the community collpatagonia guide jacket 2 poetryege my YOG was 1997) in the hopes for a better job. Mind you, times have changed and so did thepatagonia guide pants around your knees dynamic of the classroom. Graduation has not helped my job search. I did have an good career in retail banking before I went back to school. The doors were not suddenly opening for me, age (42 at graduation)and a weak degree (Liberal Studies) employers were not breaking down doors to talk to me. Every morning I do get an email from Beyond showing me jobs available and the big word I see time and time again is High school graduate Overqualified for some jobs under qualified for otherpatagonia guide pants 80s.
Achedemics can do all the studies they want but productive people, people who actually understand hpatagonia infant bunting tutorialow things work in the world know humanities degrees are little better than toilet paper. Save a mind, discourage anyone from going into the humanities brain scrambling.
