How I’m using my “useless” political science degree to be a better creative.

Higher education is a funny thing.

There seems to be (there is) an expectation that everyone should go to college right after high school, even if you don’t know what you want to do. I believe this is the main reason that a large majority of my friends are pursuing professions that don’t at all align with their degrees. Not only that, but they’re loaded with debt, useless credentials and a bad taste in their mouths. (Thanks America’s education system, you’re doing great things!)

See: A First Look at the Employment Experiences 4 Years On and take a look on page 3 where it states that 15% of graduates are either unemployed or out of the labor force (which is a different way of saying unemployed).

Fortunately for me, in a twist of dumb luck, my ‘useless degree’ in political science has actually turned out to be the cornerstone of my infant career.

I’m in branding: corporate identity, messaging, design, development. Creative stuff.

I really enjoy it and I couldn’t be happier with what I do, but how I got here is totally incidental. It’s a long story, one that’s not the focus of this post, but I originally wanted to be a lawyer and go to law school. That is, until I realized I hated school.

• I graduated with a BA in political science from Belhaven University in the spring of 2009
• I dropped out of West Georgia’s MBA program in the spring of 2010

I didn’t hate school for the sake of learning. As it turns out I absolutely LOVE learning. No, I hated school because I felt like what I was learning wasn’t at all relevant to legitimate real-world applications or experience. I felt like I was being forced through hoops of tedious to-do-lists, so that I could prove I was capable of conquering tedious to-do-lists. Alexander the Great would be so proud of all of his fellow conquerors.

And I think the business world would agree. I’m assuming that’s why a college degree has become the new high school diploma. A growing number of graduates are unemployable, because they haven’t been equipped with the right skills. I believe this is yet another layer to why myself and thousands of other college graduates are doing things they didn’t go to school for.

What I’m saying here is that if you go to school for X, there’s a good chance (like really good chance) you’ll end up doing Y professionally. Admittedly my own experience and friends’ experiences provide a limited view on overall trends, but the data does seem to give it some gas.

See: Despite an Improving Economy, Young Grads Still Face an Uphill Climb. Specifically, “For young college graduates, the unemployment rate is currently 7.2 percent (compared with 5.5 percent in 2007), and the underemployment rate is 14.9 percent (compared with 9.6 percent in 2007).”

This means that 25% of graduates are only able to grab a part-time job or require multiple jobs to supplement their income. In other words, only 75% of graduates find full-time employment.

So, how has my useless political science degree empowered my career in branding?

I’m glad you asked!

My professors in college were really good at encouraging us (students) to ask questions and look deeper into policy (social, economic, foreign). One example: if we were discussing war, we were taught to look at every aspect of that war.

• Was it a just war? What’s the criteria for a just war? Is there such a thing as a just war?
• Was it an ethical war? What makes a war ethical? What makes a war unethical?
• What were some of the unintended consequences of that war?
• What was the underlying foundation of that war?
• What were its goals? Did it achieve those goals? Were those goals worth the price paid?

Rather than looking at a situation with answers, we were taught to ask questions. We were taught that being in a position of not knowing is empowering, because you’re then able to ask the right questions. Asking the right questions, can lead to the most enlightening answers, which can then lead to the most appropriate course of action.

In much the same way, branding isn’t about having the right answers. Branding is about asking the right questions. In the same way I was taught to look at social, economic and foreign issues, I am now able to look at businesses, organizations and UI/UX problems.

Mark Twain wrote, “What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.”

This is true in politics and branding, just as it is in life. When we operate off of what we know, that just ain’t so, we find ourselves doing the wrong things to solve the wrong problems and are ultimately ineffective.

So, is my degree worth its weight in gold (around $80,000, including scholarships)? Probably not (hell no). However, I would say that because it’s provided me with a lens through which to see the world, one that allows me comfort in not knowing, it is far from useless.