Marketing Your Liberal Arts Degree with Confidence
Stop hiding, the modern workforce needs us
My decision about college was made on the heels of the Great Recession. I came from a middle-class family where college was not a given, but an inevitable debt that would follow into adulthood. By all accounts, I should have pursued pragmatism, but it was 2009, Obama was our president and I had hope.
I packed my Dodge Neon and headed to the northernmost university in the continental US, Western Washington University in Bellingham. I was living a Death Cab for Cutie song — falling in love and staying up all night pontificating about the intersection of privilege and Transcendentalism.
But I was scrappy despite my fleeting hipster academia lifestyle, so I knew that I would figure out how to get by regardless of what I studied.
Naturally, I chose English Literature and French.
During college, I sold hot dogs for the minor league baseball team, reviewed live bands so I could see shows for free and babysat in trade for the most beautiful 1985 Volvo that replaced my sacred Neon when it finally overheated for the last time.
The moment I graduated, I knew I would do what I always have done — talk someone into giving me a job.
But for some, un-apologetically framing their liberal arts degree doesn’t come easy, even though the tides are turning in our favor.
New data shows practical ROI for Liberal Arts Colleges
New research from a study by Georgetown University’s Center of Education and the Workforce published in January 2020 shows that liberal arts colleges produce a median ROI nearly $200,000 higher than the median for all colleges. Over the long-term, this study shows these colleges have a 40-year median return of close to $1 Million, which is almost equal to the median of the largest doctoral-level research universities.
This new data is a great step towards proving the value of a Liberal Arts education.
The market is ready to embrace us, especially Tech
Steve Jobs helped lay groundwork for the influx of CEO’s recognizing the imperative of liberal arts in the tech world with the release of the iPad 2 proffering,
“it is in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough — it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.”
Other CEO's have begun echoing similar sentiments,
“A well-rounded liberal arts degree establishes a foundation of critical thinking. Critical thinkers can accomplish anything. Critical thinkers can master French, Ruby on Rails, Python or whatever future language comes their way. A critical thinker is a self-learning machine,”
— David Kalt, founder of Reverb.com
Recruiters are picking up on this, HBR says, Yes, Employers do Value Liberal Arts Degrees:
“Student’s undergraduate experience, and how well the experience advances critical learning outcomes (knowledge of human cultures and the physical and natural world, intellectual and practical skills, personal and social responsibility, integrative and applied learning), is what matters most, with 80% of employers agreeing that all students need a strong foundation in the liberal arts and sciences.”
We cannot be replaced by robots
We are getting into the swing of the 4th Industrial Revolution with an influx of technology; Robotics, AI (Artificial Intelligence), IOT (Internet of Things), AR (Augmented Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality). In the career landscape, of course a data scientist will do well in this world. But we’re hearing about soft skills more than ever because these are difficult to replicate with nuance of a human who has aptitude for emotional intelligence.
Market your Liberal Arts edge or get left behind in this Brave New World.
As you set out to land your first job, next job, make a career change, advocate for a promotion or simply convince your grandparents you aren’t a waste of a person: here are some helpful ways to articulate why your liberal arts education gives you a competitive edge.
So what is your competitive edge?
You read critically, write cogently and think broadly
Princeton University defines a liberal arts education, “by exploring issues, ideas and methods across the humanities and the arts, and the natural and social sciences, you will learn to read critically, write cogently and think broadly.”
As a critical thinker, you learned to distill complex ideas or large amounts of information down to their essence. But it’s easy to get stuck in the vague idea of a Liberal Arts degree.
Tip #1 — Construct a defend-able thesis on your educational path anchored in your unique strengths
I’ve found a lot of success in staying anchored to one career-defining skill that can be applied to multiple disciplines: writing. Almost all career or continued learning paths that a Liberal Arts graduate might pursue can be built on this skill.
Tip #2 — Produce a relevant writing sample
When I applied for my first job in marketing, I knew that I needed to prove that I could sell something with my writing. Instead of sending a less relevant writing sample from a university course or articles I had written on music, I created a case study of two major projects I successfully completed at my last job.
Spend time researching the look and feel of the company to adapt your visual identity and writing style. Demonstrate that you can adopt brand and tone in your writing effectively.
As soon as you assert writing as your core competency, your resume and cover letter should be bullet-proof.
Soft skills are relevant and you have them
Soft skills, a term begging for a re-brand, are generally useful across domains and are related to emotional intelligence. These are skills celebrated and practiced tirelessly in Liberal Arts environments.
When I try to communicate my soft skills in a cover letter, on a resume or in an interview I find it challenging to not revert to Office Space antics:
It’s not as simple as, “I have people skills, I am good at dealing with people”. You have to back-up the claim with a real story about how you do this.
Tip #3 — Message your soft skills with relevant keywords and strong examples
Among HR professionals, 75% of those having recruiting difficulty say there is a shortage of skills in candidates for job openings. According to the 2019 Skills Gap Survey conducted by SHRM, 30% cite a lack of workplace soft skills as a top reason organizations are struggling to find suitable candidates.
Of these skills, the top 3 missing soft skills are:
1. Problem solving, critical thinking, innovation and creativity
2. Ability to deal with complexity and ambiguity
3. Communication
Connecting the dots employs your well-practiced critical thinking skills, paired with your soft skills in communication is relevant in any field you choose.
For example, As a Product Marketer in technology, my job often requires taking engineering tasks or requirements from Jira and turning them into a story for end-users that resonates.
Bring forward the real-world examples where you’ve used soft skills in a fine balance to solve a problem. Your broad scope and EQ-minded skills can help you position a stronger together strategy to your future employer, bringing out the best in your teammates.
Other top soft skills trending for 2020 according to CNBC include:
1. Growth mindset: An ability to learn continuously and willingness to adapt to change
2. Creativity: Developing new ideas, applying new solutions to address existing problems
3. Focus mastery: Harnessing concentration to make better short- and long-term decisions
4. Innovation: Improving upon an existing idea, concept, process or method to achieve a desired outcome
5. Communication skills: Interpreting information though speaking, listening and observing
6. Storytelling: Organizing thoughts and data points into a comprehensive, holistic narrative
7. Culture awareness: Ability to effectively interact, work and develop meaningful relationships with those of various cultural backgrounds within the organization
8. Critical thinking: Objective analysis and evaluation in order to form a judgment on a topic
9. Leadership: Providing guidance within an organization
10. Emotional intelligence: Practicing control, expression and observation of interpersonal relationships among people in a workplace
You learn and apply rapidly
“Modern work demands knowledge transfer: the ability to apply knowledge to new situations and different domains. Our most fundamental thought processes have changed to accommodate increasing complexity and the need to derive new patterns rather than rely only on familiar ones. Our conceptual classification schemes provide a scaffolding for connecting knowledge, making it accessible and flexible.” — David Epstein
The most empowering book I have read recently was, David Epstein’s Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. Most of my life I have fought the notion that I am average at a lot of things, as opposed to sticking to one specialization. In his book, he positions the generalist as advantageous in many career trajectories based on the ability to learn more broadly, then apply in new situations and fields.
The modern workforce demands that we function in an accelerated environment with an adaptable learning style.
Tip #4 — Be prepared with a first 30-days and beyond plan for ramping on the job
Most of what you will do for the first 30 days (at least) on the job is taking-in information. This will never end in any job, but the speed of foreign information coming your way will slow as you get comfortable.
Show that you know how to make meaning out of complex information based on your critical learning skills. You can begin making an impression about your learning style immediately by communicating well-researched observations about the position, company and job they are hiring you to do.
You take personal and social responsibility seriously
At Western Washington University, in many smaller-format classes and staff meetings for on-campus jobs, we began by stating our preferred pronouns. This taught me to consider identities beyond my own as a start to greater cultural competency and vocabulary.
Tip #5 — Be a driver for cultural competency in the workplace
The modern workplace desperately needs to evolve to create inclusive and safe spaces. I don’t suggest reductive marketing of social justice in your skill set, but having a framework for true social responsibility is integral to creating the workforce of the future.
Reclaim your Liberal Arts power
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
There’s a lot of advice out there about what you can do to make yourself more marketable with your humanities background. There is nothing wrong with this line of advice, but I think it transcends degree choice and can be applied to technical domains as well to make you a well-rounded candidate.
Tip #6 — Take pride in your chosen path
Where I disagree is, that as a liberal arts graduate, you must make up for a fundamental lack. I truly believe that for the majority, 4-years of Liberal Arts education prepared us to be the adaptive, constant learners with skills that the future workforce demands.
