Have you ever hired someone where the fact they had a liberal arts degree influenced the decision? What job? Why?
This is for an article about the liberal arts in business.
Answers (10)
I've recruited people into entry-level and trainee roles in insurance and specifically sought students graduating with liberal arts degrees. That would be jobs like Underwriter Trainee, Claim Representative, Employee Benefits Rep. Often, these students had a multi-discplined approach to problem solving that suggested they could broadly think through issues, and deal effectively with complexity and ambiguity. Judgment on the job was more important to me than ability to follow a protocol.
Yes, the fact that a candidate graduated from a top liberal arts school has frequently (positively) influenced my decision to hire. However, it is not necessarily just the MAJOR that drove my decision, but usually the overall liberal arts orientation of the institution and its associated reputation. Just a social studies/liberal arts focus at a big university is not a draw in and of itself.
Why? Generally, in consulting (which is mostly what I have done in my career), I am looking for critical thinkers that have adaptive, innovative and fast learning capabilities. Time and time again, the interactive, broad-based, critical thinking approach to education that top liberal arts schools typically undertake has proven to more consistently attract and produce these types of individuals.
Seymour H
skilled services delivery leader growing organizational competitiveness & sustainability
Yes definitely. I was building a team of consultants who could look at and rethink business processes . I sought individuals from the Liberal Arts side to bring new perspectives and new solutions. And , I am happy to say, it worked well. Whether they had backgrounds in geography, political science, or music they brought a passion and a perspective which helped change things, change processes for the better. I found them to be great "System" thinkers.
hope this helps david
They were well received and thrived . My clients were happy and the Liberal Arts grads learened a lot and went on to greater things
Oliver P
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As a liberal arts major in business, I can tell you that it is a great background for the business world. As others have pointed out, liberal arts trains you to think, to ask questions, and to see the larger picture.
I've hired a number of people in my day, both liberal arts and more technical. The liberal arts folks learn new things. The technical ones have more difficulty. I think today's fast-changing business world demands flexibility and an ability to take on new perspectives.
Howard H
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The answers of one particular person to any of these questions will not help anybody, in my humble opinion. However, if you were to ask about the value of liberal arts education, people could benefit from the answer, so I'll pretend you asked that question.
The answer is that both employers and employees could benefit, primarily in the following way. The main thing I learned from undergraduate programs at university was how to learn. About 10% of people know how to teach themselves things. You go to university, learn things, and then when you get out, you can learn most anything else you need to learn. I'm talking about research skills.
Another valuable thing people get from undergraduate programs with a liberal arts orientation is a lot of general knowledge. That puts them in a position to network effectively with most people, because they have the ability to talk intelligently on most topics.
This comes in very handy with I write resumes for people, because when they talk about their experiences, in whatever field, I can usually relate to them, comment on them, and offer relevant suggestions as to what to put in the resume.
Finally, one hopes that from a liberal arts education one will acquire that extremely rare attribute known as the ability and courage to think critically and independently. A liberal arts education is supposed to teach people to question what others say and use their own brains. Today, I don't see much evidence of that. I wrote an article on this topic and am linking to it, below.
To get an excellent idea of what happens to a society when people fail to think critically and independently, listen to the vague, cliché-ridden, and primarily useless verbiage that comes out of the mouths of most politicians. There is the presumption that when you vote, you are exercising some control over what happens to you in the future. But when you have a choice between "moving forward" and "making progress," with zero commitment to do anything specific and with zero accountability for one's promises, one realizes that what people call "democracy" is of relatively little value.
Imagine a society that actually exercised critical thinking during political elections and demanded both commitment and accountability in exchange for one's vote.
Links:
John James O
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Yes, I do not favour specialisation off the top, rather prefer a broad, diverse background in my teams along with self-motivation, lateral thinking, ability to navigate among a variety of views open to learning and capable of holding a focus on the desired outcome. In the IM domain, generalising, I have found that there is pressure toward specialisation that can be detrimental.
Jeff L
Head of HR
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I've recruited for hundreds of positions and I've never specifically hired anyone because they had a liberal arts degree. I have given preference to candidates with degrees and hired degreed candidates because of their education. However, I have never specifically sought liberal arts candidates. They simply do not bring enough skills to the table to make them attractive. Most employers want more than "well read" candidates. They want specific skill sets.
David: Based on my 30+ years experience, I agree with Jeff Leeth. The degree becomes less important as experience is gained. However, a liberal arts degree is not enough in the early stages of a business career. Companies want usable & relevant skills. Regards, John
Over the years, I have hired mostly for technical positions. Project Manager and Business Analyst positions require that people have good to excellent written and verbal communication skills. I have found that candidates with Liberal Arts degrees, especially pre-law, English, and Communications, will typically have better communication skills than those with technical degrees. However, the same candidates must have additional technical education, experience, and/or aptitude in order to be fully qualified.
David,
I can't recall a time when someone asked for a liberal arts undergraduate degree for a specific position. Liberal arts would default to a candidate with a college degree as a requirement. It is more likely that their might be a request for a liberal arts undergraduate and an advanced degree, MBA or JD.
Having candidates with broad backgrounds is important, but I have not seen the specific request in basic qulifications for a liberal arts degree.
Regards,
Kurt
