And as a humanities major, there are a number of potential benefits:
- A humanities major may be the strongest investment you can make in your future.
Predictions about the future job market strongly suggest that liberal arts majors will be in demand. According to billionaire investor Mark Cuban, "The nature of jobs is changing. … I personally think there's going to be a greater demand in 10 years for liberal arts majors than there were for programming majors and maybe even engineering, because when the data is all being spit out for you, options are being spit out for you, you need a different perspective in order to have a different view of the data. And so having someone who is more of a freer thinker [will be crucial]." Former Google exec Jonathan Rosenberg agreed with Cuban, adding, "We need more traditional liberal arts grads,” not just for their creative and critical thinking skills, but also because looking ahead to an increasingly automated economy, the jobs that require strong cognitive abilities and analytical thinking, are the least likely to be replaced by artificial intelligence."
- The myth of the unemployed humanities major is just that – a myth.
As a recent Fortune article puts it, comparing unemployment rates, hiring data and salary distributions for humanities graduates vs. all bachelor’s degree holders shows that "critics are wrong about liberal arts degrees." In fact, "the median salary for those with a terminal bachelor’s degree in the humanities was $50,000 in 2013—a little lower than the median salary for all bachelor’s degree holders ($57,000), but still much higher than the median salary for those with just a high school diploma ($35,000). These findings echo those detailed in How Liberal Arts and Sciences Majors Fare in Employment: A Report on Earnings and Long-Term Career Paths (AAC&U and the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, 2014). The report shows that humanities and social science graduates earn only slightly less than their peers with degrees in professional fields upon graduation from college, and by mid-career the earnings of humanities and social science graduates surpass those of graduates with professional degrees. Humanities majors are also more likely to go on to earn graduate degrees, a move which takes their median annual salary up to $71,000."
- In fact, more and more tech companies are actively recruiting humanities majors.
One tech startup cofounder and CEO says, "I'm still hiring more humanities majors than STEM grads, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon." Why? Because developers only make up 15-25% of tech companies' workforce; most of the jobs waiting to be filled require broader skill sets, such as critical thinking, understanding of other people’s perspectives and motivations, a "deeply contextual understanding of human behavior," creativity, adaptability and artistry.
- Humanities majors cultivate “soft skills” like empathy, curiosity, creativity, adaptability, critical thinking, communication, awareness and understanding of other perspectives, and problem solving, that are essential to success in today’s economy.
Multiple recent studies have found that, among measures of workplace success in high-tech companies like Google, the "hard skills" acquired by majoring in a STEM discipline are less important than is often assumed. Instead, "soft skills" like "being a good coach; communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others (including others’ different values and points of view); having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues; being a good critical thinker and problem solver; and being able to make connections across complex ideas" are the seven top characteristics of success at Google (being a STEM major came in last on this list). And in another Google study, the company found that its best and most productive new ideas come not from teams composed of top scientists, but rather from teams who exhibit the skills of "equality, generosity, curiosity toward the ideas of your teammates, empathy, and emotional intelligence” – skills that humanities majors excel in. In response to this data, Google has enlarged its hiring practices to include humanities majors. Other tech companies are following suit. In fact, comparing hiring data for college graduates with STEM degrees vs. those with liberal arts degrees yields the surprising finding that "people without a tech degree may be benefitting the most from the tech boom."