Liberal Arts and the Jobs of the Future

These days there seems to be some debate about the value of a college education and in particular, a liberal arts degree.

The logic is that learning about philosophy or economics or sociology isn’t going to prepare you for immediate placement in a job the moment you graduate. The argument goes on that you should focus on more trade-oriented programs: engineering, computer science/programming, nursing, etc.

Said differently, the marketplace pays you for value you can provide today and as a liberal arts major the value you can contribute when you graduate is… well… questionable.

“I’m a smart person with a liberal arts degree… I don’t know how to do anything… Will someone please hire me?”  – That’s the fear, and from my personal perspective, it is unfounded.

The beauty of the liberal arts degree (and to reveal my bias, I studied psychology and economics at a liberal arts college before later going onto Harvard Business School) is that it teaches you to think about broad issues.

You learn to approach problems from a variety of perspectives or as some people tend to say, “You learn how to think.”

This is important. Being able to think is more important than being able to do over the long term.

Why? Three reasons:

• The rise of the machines
• Changes in technology
• Global competition & uncertainty

The rise of the machines

While you may not believe in singularity (i.e. humans and machines becoming one), you would be hard-pressed to argue that computers haven’t come a long, long way in their capabilities. And those capabilities are growing.

Consider the IBM computer Watson, which played Jeopardy on TV and absolutely trounced past Jeopardy champions. Watson demonstrated that pulling factual data from a host of areas in real time is a current technology.

And coming to your smartphone very, very fast.

Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s new voice system are all massively increasing the information we have at our fingertips. They can schedule appointments, answer questions, plan your day, etc.

It is a scary time to be an administrative assistant.

Now, I’m not saying that administrative assistants will disappear altogether, but I am saying that their roles will diminish.

I recently read an article saying that 30% of most of today’s jobs will be done by computers/machines in the coming decade. In other words, your job won’t disappear, but 30% of it will. It makes sense, because computers do some things much, much better than humans (See this article on computers, memory and productivity).

My point is that the more narrowly defined and repetitive a role is, the more it is at risk for being displaced by computers/machines. And you want to keep an eye on this.

Changes in technology

In addition to career coaching, I currently coach and consult people on how to use the internet to market their coaching and consulting businesses. Yet, can you believe that when I graduated from college in 1998, the internet was basically new? Social media did not exist, Facebook didn’t exist and digital marketing was all based on pop-up ads.

In other words, I have a business doing something today that didn’t exist when I was graduating from college (or even several years later).

But guess what: Internet marketing is all about psychology, statistics and economics—things I studied in college.

Yes, the tools have changed (most of the online tools I use didn’t exist five years ago), but the way I learned to think all those years ago is relevant today and will be forever. It is about the human condition.

In fact, this belief was recently confirmed by an ultra-successful PR professional I met with recently. “People always think their industry is unique,” she confided, “but the industry doesn’t matter. It is all about the same core human needs.”

In other words, learn to think about the broad issues that shape humanity and be prepared to adjust to what the market is looking for today.

Said differently, there is a very good chance that the job you have in 10 years doesn’t exist today in the form it will in the future. As an example, there have always been reporters: at one point they used their voices, then scrolls, later it was printed pages and today they use videos and online platforms.

The ability to adapt is the key variable and that is where a liberal arts education shines.

Global competition

I’m going to say something unpopular. Most of the team that I use to run my business lives outside the United States.

They are in Canada, Greece, Belarus and the Philippines. Do I wish they were in the United States? Sure. I’m also unwilling to pay three times as much (or more) for someone local. Literally yesterday I was quoted $50 per hour from someone in the US for a job that I could offshore for $10 (or less).

What does this mean? It means that as you graduate from college you are going to face an increasingly global set of people competing for your work.

If you are studying graphic design in the US right now—look out. The designers I know that are successful in the US all have partners abroad that do most of the work.

The role of the US designer is to interface with clients and set design principles, not do the actual design work.

My point is that even the market for creative work is increasingly global. What do you need to be able to do? Think… Create… Interact… Adapt.

So what should I do?

If you are in college or about to graduate from college, don’t freak out just yet.

I believe that we are in a very unique time in human history and a time of unprecedented opportunity for those who take initiative.

You see, those machines that are coming to take your jobs away also mean that you have access to the value they create for almost no cost. Fact checking an article is free and takes seconds rather than a trip to the library or a payment to a researcher.

Those changes in technology mean new opportunities are coming up daily. Right now I’m talking to people about the demise of websites—that’s right, websites becoming obsolete for businesses in their current forms.

Leading the charge in that space is an opportunity.

And global competition… well, the beauty of that is that you can have some amazing work done for very little money. I believe it has never been less expensive or easier to start a small business with global reach than it is today.

The changes we are feeling (and very much resisting) in this country are a switch away from job security and consistency and towards the need to constantly adapt to your surroundings with your eyes and ears open.

So, to all my friends with liberal arts degrees, use your skills in sociology, psychology, art history, etc to see the changes that are going on around us, to act on them, and to create opportunities for yourself.

It is truly an exciting time.