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The Harvard Salient |
October 21, 1996 |
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Cover Story | |
he culture of
liberal arts encourages us not to think about careers, but rather
simply to learn. The commitment within the ivory tower to liberal
arts is not a helpful one, though, for it nurtures within us a belief
that specialization is below us, a petty grabbing at monetary
rewards. Once we leave the shade of the ivy, however, we are going to
find that the liberal arts ethic which burns crimson in our young
souls is an ultimately useless energy source.
To make matters worse, many Harvard graduates find that to continue right on to graduate school can be an unappealing option. So we package our liberal arts education in résumé form. Firms who come recruiting will claim that they love to hire English majors. But are they English majors who choose elective photography classes and beach vacations, or English majors who have taken Ec 10 and held a summer job on Wall Street? Our spin on liberal arts as insulated from the job market fosters a false perception that a smidgen of everything qualifies us for anything. We know how to think, and could learn anything on the job &emdash; but most employers don't want to be professors. There are some exceptions, such as investment banks that offer summer accounting classes, but in general, the Justice Department won't hire you if you can't prepare a legal brief.
clear sense of
direction is becoming more and more important in the increasingly
glutted employment market. By encouraging us not to think about
careers until our senior years, many students find themselves
woefully unqualified for certain positions, and many ultimately view
the previous four years as having been squandered.