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ARTS & SCIENCES CAREER EXPLORATION
Considering
Career Options: Getting a Life After College
Career
Planning: Step-By-Step
Identify Your Skills and Objectives
Talk to People
Gain Work Experience
Starting Out
Graduate School
Alumni Advice
Alumni Networking - how to get in touch with Arts and Sciences alumni
Careers After Cornell - survey results of what Arts and Sciences students are doing after graduation
What do I do with this major?
Considering Career Options: Getting a Life After College
What can you do with a liberal arts degree? The
answer is: Just about anything! Your liberal arts curriculum provides you
with broad knowledge, varied skills, and the flexibility to pursue a
number of career paths.
A significant number of college graduates pursue careers with no direct connection to their
undergraduate majors.
While your liberal arts major does not train you
for a specific career, you are nevertheless acquiring career-related
skills from both your academic and extracurricular activities.
According to a September 2004 national survey by the Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive, employers are looking for students with the following
attributes:
Communication and interpersonal skills
Ability to work well within a team
Personal ethics and intergrity
Analytical and problem-solving skills
Leadership potential
Fit with corporate [organizational] culture
Strategic thinking
Well-rounded
Willingness to relocate
Work experiences
Core curriculum
Career Planning: Step-By-Step
Identify Your Skills and Objectives
If you need help figuring out how to connect what
you have to offer with what employers are looking for, College of Arts and
Sciences Career Services is a good place to start.
Figuring out what you want to do in life, or even what you
want to do for the next five years, can be tough especially if you've got
a lot of different interests and talents, as most Cornell Arts and
Sciences students do. To give you courage, and inspire you to meet that
challenge head-on, here are some comments
from recent Cornell grads who started out where you are now, and went on
to survive the job search.
Here's a quick self test and a list of career exploration Web sites that we think will be helpful to liberal arts students. (For those who prefer print, check out
a list of the top ten books for liberal arts students choosing a career, all
in the Cornell Career Services library.) We can also recommend the Developing
Career Goals page.
Talk to People
The majority of people looking for a job get a
position by talking to people in the work world (that's another way to say
networking).
Talking to alumni, or participating in an alumni-based
program will give you real-life information about fields and jobs that
interest you. The best way to find out about a particular career is by
speaking with people who are already pursuing it. They can tell you what they
do every day, how they got where they are, what the lifestyle is like,
what the market looks like, what they enjoy most and what they dislike
about their jobs, and give you a sense of salary ranges and educational
and skill requirements.
By networking, you'll gain a wealth of information
that will help you decide if a particular career is right for you, and, if
it is, how best to target your resume and cover letter. You'll also be
making contacts in your field. Networking is a simple practice, one that
you probably use all the time without noticing. Use it to your advantage
when choosing a career and looking for a job.
Gain Work Experience
As you focus in on your goals for the future,
you'll find that gaining
work experience is valuable both to you and to your future employers.
Pursue paid or unpaid experience that will help you test potential career
directions and give you insights into the work-a-day world. Employers
appreciate the practical knowledge students gain from hands-on experience
and observation.
Many students also gain career-related experience
from active involvement in extracurricular student activities, community service, and from student jobs.
Volunteer or unpaid experience is no less valuable than paid work; what
matters is what you contribute and what you gain from the experience.
Starting Out
Your first job out of college should be challenging and provide you with a
chance to "learn the ropes." But don't expect that you'll be locked into
your first job forever. Liberal arts graduates in particular find that
their job responsibilities and job titles change significantly in the
first five years out of school. Your broad education and mental
flexibility will really pay off a few years down the line, while your
next-door neighbor with the specialized degree may find that his options
narrow as time goes on.
For examples of alumni career paths, compare the immediate plans of
seniors at graduation in the Careers After Cornell first jobs and salaries, to the level of employment of graduates of Cornell College of A&S 5 largest majors
five years later.
Graduate School - An Important
Part of your Career Planning
How should you decide if graduate school is right
for you and when you should go?
First,
think about why you're considering graduate school. Are you trying to
delay leaving school and entering "the real world"? Do you have a specific
goal in mind? Do you want to acquire professional credentials in your
field? Whether or not to attend graduate or professional school, and which
degree to pursue, depends on your answers to these questions, as well as
your particular field of study and the value your field places on
graduate-level education.
Master's and professional degrees might give you an extra boost in the labor market and potentially increase your salary, or
may even be required for some fields (see Education Pays 2004, College Board, page 46). This is generally true for
professional education in fields such as business, law,
medicine,
or policy and administration. Some of these programs, however, prefer
applicants with work experience, so it may be best to wait a year or
more before applying.
If your goal is a career in research or teaching,
you may want to go directly to graduate school. For those in scientific
fields, or for those in the humanities or social sciences who plan to
pursue academic positions, a master's degree does not offer much return
value; you will probably need a Ph.D.
Ph.D. programs can last from four to twelve years,
generally averaging six in the sciences and eight in the humanities. The
decision to undertake a Ph.D. program should not be taken lightly,
especially in view of the fact that the number of Ph.D.s produced annually
in this country now far exceeds the number of academic jobs available in
all fields. In the late 1990's Science magazine reported a bleak
job market for Ph.D.s in science and engineering fields, while the
Chronicle of Higher Education bemoaned the (even worse) situation
in the humanities and social sciences.
More recently, the U.S. News and World Report's America's Best Graduate Schools 2006 Edition echoed these comments concerning jobs for Ph.D. recipients in social sciences, humanities and even the sciences.
However, while recent Ph.D.
recipients may be underemployed or employed outside their fields, few are
unemployed. Many have found satisfying career paths in industry, nonprofits and the government.
According to David D. Perlmutter and Lance Porter in the Chronicle of Higher Education Careers
, "Thinking Beyond the Dissertation" (December 16, 2005),
"What seems to elude some PhD wannabes is the realization that doctoral education is not an end in itself but a way station."
Be sure to investigate opportunities in your field
so that you can make an informed decision. Conduct research at the Cornell
Career Services Library (103 Barnes Hall) and talk with T.A.s and junior
faculty in your department. If and when you decide graduate school is
right for you, check out the Graduate
and Professional School Application Guide for specifics on when and
how to apply.
Alumni Advice
Conduct skill and experience assessment to: a)
decide what sorts of jobs you are most interested in and best suited for,
and b) be ahead of competition by clearly defining those skills for
employers through resumes and essays.
Sociology '95, Consultant
Look diligently for travel and school grants and
fellowships - There are many. Although work is important, don't let life
pass you by. Remember what life is about. If you are deliberating between
art and a standard career (business, etc.), choose art. Life is too short
and precious to do otherwise.
Theater
Arts '91, Film Assistant
Be confident and sure about your abilities. You are
a Cornellian!
Government '91, Associate
Producer, Production Company
Writing is important. If you don't know how to
write, you can't be a good banker. The major weakness in the people I
train is a lack of writing skills. Because those skills benefit from an
accumulation of education, liberal arts students are continually improving
their writing.
History '84, Assistant
Manager, Corporate Banking
Teaching is one of the very few jobs where taking
it easy and interacting with people means that you are doing a good job. I
can serve people and get paid for it at the same time, and I love it.
Patience, mental and psychological toughness, being an extrovert, liking
kids - quantities for being a good teacher.
Chemistry '81, High School Science Teacher
It's hard to say "Decide what you want to do." I
didn't know what I wanted to do when I was here. Take your time; maybe it
will take a few career jigs and jags like we've all had. But eventually
you'll get where you want to be, or at least you'll get in a position
where you know where you want to be, and that's the time to just give it
everything you have.
Government '71,
Foreign Correspondent
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