Employment Guide: Liberal arts education critical for employment

I actually enjoy Shakespeare. I know, I know, but whenever Shakespeare is mentioned, I never contribute to the chorus of groans sweeping the classroom. I actually enjoy Shakespeare. I know, I know, but whenever Shakespeare is mentioned, I never contribute to the chorus of groans sweeping the classroom.

Of course, unpacking his text to the last stanza and then developing new theories of character development is not my idea of enjoying literature. My approach is more cursory. I read simply because I need a release from all the technical courses that seem to occupy my schedule. Understanding the exact molecular mechanism governing how a neuron releases a transmitter is important in its own context. But there has to be more to my day than just that. I need to get lost somewhere — like 16th-century Venice or a farm where pigs are curiously behaving like humans.

It’s not just literature courses that offer me this escape from my normal routine. I am currently taking a class called The Archaeologist Looks At Death — a course dedicated to observing how different cultures bury their dead. It’s a topic that usually doesn’t come to mind when a college education is mentioned, yet it will be a part of my education — and it will, contrary to popular opinion, benefit my employment prospects.

In the United States, a college education in the traditional sense means a liberal education, which seeks to empower individuals with a broad knowledge of natural and human issues. Its completion signifiies proficiency not just in a technical field, but also an awareness of the greater context of scholarship.

After World War II, more emphasis was placed on science, mathematics and technical training in colleges. The liberal arts took a back seat for the time being. Eventually, however, colleges re-adopted the aforementioned goals.

If you’re an Arts & Sciences student, you must demonstrate this attainment of scholarship by fulfilling general education requirements. These requirements offer you “the knowledge, understanding, analytical tools and communication skills you need to become perceptive, reflective and intellectually self-conscious citizens within a diverse and rapidly changing world,” according to the school’s website.

Although we often find ourselves frustrated with gen-eds — there are too many policies governing them to make them a truly liberating endeavor — I still think one can enjoy these courses, if they’re picked properly. If nothing else, they too help bolster a candidate’s credentials.

Imagine you’re an employer looking at a resumé, and under the list of strengths you see “excellent writing and oral communication skills.” This qualification is relevant to almost any job. But how do you demonstrate it? Well, certain English courses which fulfill the literature requirement could show you know how to write. Or maybe that public speaking course demonstrates that you have some formal training in oral communication.

You might also see another sought-after quality: the “ability to lead a small project.” It’s rare to be given the chance to do this in a technical course with 250 students. On the other hand, those small, 20-person humanities and social-science classes give you the opportunity to interact with others in an effort to produce collaborative work — a skit, a presentation or a short story.

General education requirements are not always the first courses we want to take, but if you consider what they might offer you, it will make them that much more enjoyable. In this job market you can never be too careful, so you want to present yourself as having tested the waters in a diverse range of subjects. That tells employers you are, at the very least, able to adapt.

I plan to take a gap year before graduate school, and a job would be a productive way to spend it. That means facing the 11 percent unemployment rate back home in Rhode Island. I need every chance I can get to show the suits I’m the best hire. If that means braving the foreign territory of Kant or “Dante’s Inferno,” then so be it.

Email Abdul at aba24@pitt.edu.