But rather than just lay out the same tired arguments for the liberal arts, Anders outlines in detail fast-growing fields in which skills from the liberal arts are required, such as project management, market research and fundraising.
“Those jobs require people who can think on their feet, improvise, work through ambiguity, write clearly, speak persuasively and connect with other people,” Anders said. “A liberal arts education tends to be a great place to get prepared for a career in what I call the empathy sector or the rapport economy.”
Too many students think their major equals a specific career. They only look for jobs with certain titles or in particular sectors. The one advantage of a liberal arts degree, Anders said, is that it doesn’t train students for a clear-cut job, so searching for employment can be as broad as graduates want it to be.
“The biggest surprise for me is how far the liberal arts skill set could travel,” Anders said. Classics majors are popular among Wall Street banks, he said, because of their ability to closely read texts. Anthropology majors are hot hires for technology companies expanding their user-research efforts.