Professor of communication arts skills for your resume and career

We have found that these skills can be learned through job training, i.e., "hard" or technical skills. In fact, most students who major in something more technical, applied, or "practical" still require this kind of orientation. In this, the philosopher is no different, except with better critical thinking and communication skills.

Philosophy is often seen as a very rarefied activity done by strange types of people. But philosophy done well, in fact, promotes a host of crucial soft and interpersonal skills. These include clear oral and written communication, charitable and empathetic reading and listening, problem-solving in innovative ways, including as part of a group, engaging in productive discussion on all issues, including those that are difficult intellectually or ethically. So the stereotype of Philosophy and its practitioners as stuffy is just false. Given that it persists quite widely, however, while folks should consult career specialists, I think it might be a good idea to emphasize some of how studying Philosophy has given you a host of important soft skills.

Given the way COVID has disrupted college and the workforce, gap years will likely be more common. I think this gives job candidates more freedom to be experimental during their gap years. Working on a new language or learning trade skills is valuable and is likely to make you stand out among cookie-cutter resumes.

When you say "young" graduates, I think I hear undergraduates, but perhaps you mean to include also "graduate students," who are also young and also about to enter the workforce. Regardless, in both cases, I would say that "our" graduates, whether undergraduate or graduate, will not only have a set of skills but a vocation. Philosophers are professionals, but above all, they have a vocation, namely a love of and commitment to teaching. So, our graduates, our passionate teachers. Teaching as a vocation is versatile, by definition. This is why philosophers can assume many roles, i.e., step into many different situations to exercise different skills. By the same token, philosophy graduate students are both ready to acquire new skills and to address different levels of skills, whether they be reading, writing, or speaking in public. These skills are timeless, and we will always need them.

Philosophers teach us to think critically, which means a lot of things, but at the very least, that we can weed through fallacies, and above all, mendacity and ideology. Critical thinking is a skill we develop as social beings and precisely because we are social. This will never go out of fashion or become dispensable. But, there are two additional "skills" that our graduates need to bring to the labor market in order to make them succeed.

First, I would name "historical sensibility." One thing, for sure, is that philosophers learn history, both history of philosophy and the history of how that history came to be. Humans are historical creatures, and learning our history is key to our self-understanding. Philosophers are good at making sense of or attempting to explain our histories. Second, there is the key skill of understanding "difference" - by the difference, I mean things like sexual, racial, ethnic, religious, national, historical, and so on differences. If we are historical, we are also different. Philosophers are good are explaining and studying all those differences and how they make us richer and more human. So, our vocation is teaching, history, difference. There are different skills that get our graduates there.