​Lighter Side: What good is a philosophy degree?

How many resumes cross your desk with a philosophy degree? LinkedIn’s new feature shows the degree may be more useful than it sounds.

​Lighter Side: What good is a philosophy degree?
There aren’t a lot of jobs that list a philosophy degree as a requirement, or even a possible qualification. However, a Hootsuite blogger says it’s more useful than you might think.

LinkedIn recently launched a new feature called the Field of Study Explorer, aiming to let high school and college students determine what major will lead them into a field that interests them.

Hootsuite blogger Even LePage thought he’d test out the program with the ever-popular BA in Philosophy. While Adelaide has a Thinker in Residence, and most universities have a Philosophy department, there’s not much call for a philosopher in today’s business world. Or is there?

LePage  found that IBM has 600 philosophy grads in its workforce, with Microsoft and Google each employing about 450. It seems the computer world is interested in deep thinkers – or it could be that the overlap between logic and computer science means many programmers have a philosophy background.

From senior marketing managers to technical support leads, events and program managers and client advisors for IBM, it seems there are more job opportunities for philosophers than the boomer parent might expect when telling their millennial to get a “useful” degree.

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