Future with Humanities: Benefits of Humanities Degrees

Introduction

In colleges like Columbia College, students are taking fewer humanities courses as they are not aware of the benefits of humanities degrees. However, students should be informed about the job opportunities and skills that they can acquire from humanities courses. They can read articles about humanities like George Anders’ “The Revenge of the Philosophy Majors,” which states that technology companies are hiring more people with humanities degrees, or Judith Hertog’s “Why We Need the Humanities,” which explains humanities' relationship with politics and how humanities not only help people to get jobs but can also develop skills to help people become morally good citizens. Columbia College students are especially concerned about jobs. Anders’ article is more convincing because he provides more statistical data, opinions of people who have work experience, and information about the types of jobs available with humanities degrees (Anders, 2017; Hertog, 2015).

The Statistical Advantage

Anders provides more statistical data than Hertog, as he explains the details of jobs available for people with humanities degrees using more statistics. He presents a bar graph to demonstrate the benefits of humanities degrees. Anders’ statistical data offers an overall view of the job market with numerical values. For instance, Anders writes, “as LinkedIn data show, most of the migrants have created nontechnical career paths in Silicon Valley. The list starts with sales and marketing (14%) and goes on to include education (6%), consulting (5%), business development (5%), and a host of other specialties ranging from product management to real estate” (Anders, 2017, p. 45). Details about job opportunities are more helpful for Columbia College students than the enrollment numbers in humanities courses. This example shows that the demand for people with non-tech degrees has increased in tech companies. On the other hand, Hertog does not provide any statistical data about job availability. Instead, Hertog includes numerical data about the decrease in the number of students enrolled in humanities courses: “In 2014, 6 percent of American college students majored in the humanities, according to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, down from 17 percent in 1967” (Hertog, 2015, p. 30). Moreover, Anders presents a bar graph in his article depicting job vacancies for people with tech and humanities degrees. This visual representation illustrates to Columbia College students that there is more job availability for people with humanities degrees. Therefore, Anders’ article is more detailed in terms of its description of the hiring of people with humanities degrees.

Expert Opinions

Anders’ article is more persuasive in terms of expert opinion because he interviews individuals with real-life experiences working in technology companies with humanities degrees. Anders shares the story of “Rache Lee, who graduated from UC Berkeley with a communication degree in 2011; now she is an account manager at Slack” (Anders, 2017, p. 50). By presenting these kinds of personal experiences of various experts in the field, Anders reassures that people with humanities degrees are getting jobs. In contrast, Hertog offers opinions from professors of the STEM field and humanities, but they focus more on the skills humanities teach. For instance, Hertog quotes “Daniel Rockmore, Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science and director of the Neukom Institute for Computational Science, who has been an active supporter of digital humanities” and says, “an understanding of culture and history is the key to understanding all our problems today: fundamentalism, terrorism, racism, fascism-those problems cannot be solved with a technological solution” (Hertog, 2015, p. 35). However, individuals who have followed the path to securing a job with a humanities degree have more experience and knowledge about the job market than professors from other fields, making Anders’ article more effective.

Job Opportunities

Anders provides more details about the different types of job vacancies for people with humanities degrees compared to Hertog. There are many anecdotal examples in Anders’ article that capture the attention of Columbia College students. For example, Anders introduces Shawna Ramona: “she graduated from San Francisco State in 2002 with a degree in English literature. Now she is an iPad-toting ‘restaurant relations manager’ for OpenTable, the online diner booking service” (Anders, 2017, p. 60). Then Anders describes Bess Yount, who has a “bachelor’s degree” and now works at a “social media company” Facebook (Anders, 2017, p. 65). By illustrating these examples, Anders demonstrates that people with humanities degrees are getting jobs in tech companies. Conversely, Hertog in his article explains more about “job security.” For instance, Hertog quotes Zonia Moore, who says, “students are very concerned with job security and do not see a specific job that humanities degrees lead to, so they are afraid of the unknown” (Hertog, 2015, p. 40). Hertog explains that students are concerned about job security but does not elaborate much on job opportunities. As a result, Anders’ article is more persuasive than Hertog’s because he provides real-life examples of various people securing jobs with an arts degree.

Conclusion

In comparison with Hertog's article, Anders' article is more inspirational for students of Columbia College to choose more humanities courses, as it proves that humanities courses help students have greater job opportunities. The statistical data, expert opinions, and anecdotal evidence presented in Anders’ work effectively demonstrate the value and relevance of humanities degrees in the modern job market.

References

Anders, G. (2017). The Revenge of the Philosophy Majors. Forbes, 45-65.

Hertog, J. (2015). Why We Need the Humanities. The Atlantic, 30-40.