do philosophy graduates generally have good employability

jackjones

i'm thinking about appling for deferred entry in 2010 to
southampton
exeter
cambridge
nottingham
??

Reply 1

837491

key words here: transferrable skills

Reply 2

magicbuspass

^ Agreed, a philosophy degree is extremely usefull and can lead to a lot of job branches, especially in Media. For example Ricky Gervais studied philosophy at UCL.

Also by the time you get a job, the philosophy degree will pull you into it, and they would normally give you the skills to do well in it.

Reply 3

hyper-little-mushroom-men

I'm told that Philosophy is a really good degree for general transferrable skills. It teaches you to think. :smile:

Reply 4

Jigglypuff

Yeah, philosophers are generally known to be quite logical and analytical.

I heard that they generally perform the best on aptitude tests for jobs (after maths graduates), and that employers like them because on the whole they are good at both verbal and numerical tasks. They generally think logically or in a similar way mathematicians do, yet can still write essays, which means they are also good with written communication.

I'm in my final year studying philosophy so I've started to look into jobs. I've found that many companies just ask for a 2.i (sometimes a 2.ii) in any degree. Obviously law, medicine, economics, management etc will lead onto specific career paths, but a degree in philosophy still gives you some employability! In my opinion it's much better to choose a course you're interested in than worry too much about employability.

Reply 5

andy5788

I heard that they generally perform the best on aptitude tests for jobs (after maths graduates)

Haha I'm well sorted then.. Got the top two nailed!

But more seriously, employability is what you make of it anyway. If you get some extra currics down, get involved at uni generally and have a few interests most degrees will get you some decent employment. But philosophy is no less employable (and in fact probably a bit more) than many other arts subjects. If you wanna study it, go for it!

Reply 6

*Honey*Bear*

Not particually but as in the aboce employablity is what you make of it. If you go to an average uni then hmm your degree wont impress employers but say you get into cambridge or UCL well wow your employablity just went up by miles.

Reply 7

2562

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/philosophy/adobedocs/Career.pdf. Here's a useful document written by a professor at UCL's philosophy department about the employability of philosophy graduates, and what you can do aside from the degree to make youself more employable. This bit's really good:

A report, entitled Philosophy and Enterprise lists the following as the skills gained by a training in Philosophy:

1. Reasoning skills.
2. Ability to handle symbolism.
3. Written and oral communication skills.
4. Comprehension of complex arguments and texts.
5. Depth and breadth of view.
6. Reflexivity (i.e. self-awareness and self-criticism).
7. Originality.
8. Co-operatives.
9. Responsibility.

If nothing else, memorising this list will give you a superb answer to that dreaded interview question: what’s the point of doing a Philosophy degree then?