In a climate where specialization and job preparation are becoming increasingly accepted as the default purposes of a college education, many undergrads fall prey to the cliché question, “What are you going to do with that major.
This question most often carries a negative connotation and can be translated “How will your soft major, which lacks a hard skill set, prepare you for the ‘real world,’ assuming you don’t want to become a professor in the subject you study?”
If you have ever been asked this question, you need not worry. This implied criticism of your path of study is unfounded and illogical.
There are, of course, certain career paths that absolutely require one’s course of study be technical and hard skills-based. Aspiring metallurgical engineers better have metallurgical engineering degrees, aspiring marine biology professors should have marine biology degrees and aspiring nurses should have nursing degrees.
Outside of these career paths, however, exists a mass of students who neither have set career paths requiring a technical skill (think doctors or engineers), nor a set pursuit of a passion (think dance or theatre majors). They understandably want to make a living and often do so in any variety of sales, service or administrative positions. These are the people who fall victim to the cliché question about if they are pursuing anything other than a business major.
Chances are, they derive their joy and satisfaction not from the love of the good or service their industry centers around but from a general pursuit of success in whatever that industry may be.
Don’t get me wrong, business majors are incredibly helpful. They can provide you with a greater appreciation of financial systems, teach the latest managerial strategies, and equip you with a necessary “business vocabulary.” To dismiss any other major as unfit for the business world, however, is wrong.
First, consider the fact that regardless of the job one is hired for, he or she will undoubtedly be trained upon hire to execute his or her daily tasks and industry-specific responsibilities. They will learn industry lingo in the workplace if they didn’t in the classroom. The few hard skills that aren’t industry-specific (accounting or aptness with technology, perhaps) can be gained through taking a few of those specific courses as electives.
Second, think of the struggles people in the “business world” might face down the road. I would argue that most have nothing to do with one’s college studies, but even if some do, it is highly unlikely such problems stem from a lack of a business degree.
Struggling salesmen will more likely be struggling from the lack of communication skills or organized thinking habits than from the lack of understanding how a supply and demand chart works. Similarly, poor managers will likely suffer more from a lack of critical thinking skills or from a misunderstanding of interpersonal relationships than they will suffer from a lack of famous managerial theories or from, more simply, the lack of a management degree.
It is ironic, therefore, that these crucial skills — from critical thinking to logical reasoning to interpersonal communication skills — are most often exercised and improved in the very “soft skill” classes that are so often criticized for their irrelevance.
Philosophy majors have no choice but to practice conscious critical thinking on a daily basis. Communications majors are constantly refining their communication skills. Even English and journalism majors constantly practice the art of translating complicated thoughts into clear ideas, which is arguably the most important skill any customer service representative can possess.
When one discounts the use of these majors, what he or she might gain from a business major can easily be lost in that he or she forgoes the practice of consciously honing his or her critical thinking and communication skills.
This would all be a moot point if all the evidence showed otherwise, but it doesn’t. Only one third of CEO’s running America’s largest companies have business administration degrees. Though there are a staggering number of successful businessmen with traditional business degrees, and probably more so than any other single degree, there are certainly many famous counterexamples.
Michael Dell went the pre-med route at Texas. JPMorgan Chase CEO James Dimon majored in psychology at Tufts and former Disney CEO Michael Eisner majored in English without ever taking a business course. Currently, more CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies have dropped out of college than have attended Harvard.
If you plan to enter this realm of business, you should assess the costs and benefits of any major you may so choose, but don’t discount the use of non business-school majors.
Ben Friedman is a sophomore majoring in social entrepreneurship.
