Comments on: Want a Job? Don’t Major in Business.

By: Around the Web in 7 Days: 2-20-09

Around the Web in 7 Days: 2-20-09 — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:10:59 +0000

[...] Want a Job? Don’t Major in Business.This Cal Newport post really struck a chord with me – I love the liberal arts! While you’ll still need to market your liberal arts degree to potential employers, Newport makes a good argument for considering the liberal arts if you’re searching for a major. [...]

By: Actual boss

Actual boss — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 22:04:52 +0000

Iris, sorry but I’ve hired many many people and he’s right. You are probably very capable and would get hired. However someone with the mentioned resume would be deemed as management material and end up as your boss asking you to do that analysis.

By: Iris

Iris — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 04:05:14 +0000

It would be difficut for any manager to hire and give the responsibility to a new liberal arts graduate to analyze a business process, find the problem and offer solutions. Would a liberal arts major know SWOT analysis, PEST analysis, Porter five forces analysis, value chain analysis, competitive advantage, etc.? Do you really believe these are the basics skills that can easily be taught at work? I was hired after business school and immediately, the manager had tasked me to conduct several analysis of their existing programs. No one assisted me through the process; I did everything on my own – analyze the data, transcribe it into Excel with graphs and wrote reports. Thankfully, because of business school, I had the necessary KSA (knowledge, skills and abilities) and was able to saved our department several millions in costs because of my recommendations.

Often times, the managers are so busy that they expect the newbie to already have the necessary skills and abilities to do the job. Frankly, as a manager, I only hire new liberal arts graduates as admin assistant unless of course, he or she has other necessary skills such as Excel and Access VBA programming, can create a performance dashboard, has great analytical skills (can think outside the box) and ahas excellent business writing skills. If that person has these skills, then he/she is a great asset to me notwithstanding the major.

To sum it up, it’s not about the major that dictates your success. An uncle of mine barely finished high school, but owns a multi-million dollar business. One things for sure – he does possess the drive to succeed against all odds.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 18:56:02 +0000

I think this is great advice for people who are not exactly interested in a niche career (like most of the business majors I have met) and that having some sort of humanities education beyond the requirement is useful. While I don’t think it is important that every interviewee knows the symbols used in Crime and Punishment, taking a few writing-focused classes would be beneficial. The main problem I see with young job-seekers is their lack of communication skills. Most cannot write persuasively and some cannot even write coherently.

By: Nothing Says “Follow Your Heart” Like A Degree in Business — The League of Ordinary Gentlemen

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 05:29:27 +0000

[...] changes the perspective, to me. People don’t major in business for the fun of it. Maybe they should major in something else, but that’s different than what Tabarrok is [...]

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 06:41:07 +0000

“I believe your chances of moving up in most business is greater with an education in how business make profits, create marketing plans, execute business strategy, reward performance, etc.” so ironic that this guy is ragging on English majors when he doesn’t even seem to know the word “businesses.”

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By: Want a job? Major in what you enjoy. « Casting Out Nines

Want a job? Major in what you enjoy. « Casting Out Nines — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 12:48:00 +0000

[...] reminded of this great post over at Cal Newport’s blog from last year in which he advises prospective business majors not [...]

By: Shen T.

Shen T. — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 22:15:55 +0000

I have to totally disagree with you. The skills that come with a degree in business is helpful in any line of work.

By: Ramy

Ramy — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 16:46:19 +0000

I’m wondering, Cal, what advice you would give to someone who made the mistake of majoring in something that was supposed to be a “tight fit” for a job. If you replace “business” with “computer science”, that’s the boat i’m in.