What type of careers are available for me if I decide to major in philosophy?

Ibanez: What type of careers are available for me if I decide to major in philosophy?
Well, what type of careers are available for me if I decide to major in philosophy?

Answers and Views:

Answer by jeremy
many people who aspire to go into law first study philosophy in college. but it’s always nice to try to pursue a practical major like a hard science (maybe engineering, biology, etc.) if you’re sorta unsure about what you want to do with youre life

Answer by Jimmy
Please reconsider; philosophy is typically a worthless degree

Practical undergraduate degrees: Most engineering, accountancy, criminal justice

Now I know that limits your choice but they will prove much more useful if you want to get a good job

Answer by Symphony
Writer with insight.

Answer by Garand
Have you considered the military?

I was a German major, and did not want to teach German. Then I discovered ROTC, and I’ve found my niche. I was afraid at first of all the stereotypes (“signing your life away”, pr “being sent off to war” without choice), but I quickly learned that most of em aren’t even close to the truth.

I’m not trying to recruit you or anything. I just feel everyone should consider the path. If I hadn’t walked into the ROTC building at my university (curious and scared simultaneously), I wouldn’t be the person I am today. And I certainly would not be happy with my choice of career.

Just something to keep in mind I suppose.

Answer by Ford Prefect
Street sweeping, lap dancer, bar tender, hooker, mailman, cop, bus driver, gigilo, gangster.

Answer by xaxorm
Writing or teaching philosophy. It’s hard and the pay is not that good.

Old saying:
The scientist asks “Why?”
The engineer asks “How?”
The philosopher asks “Do you want fries with that?”

Answer by Let it Heal
Clerk at 7-11. Just kidding.

You’d need to get a Ph.D very likely in order to teach. Many undergraduate majors are basically useless in the “real world”. Computer science, sports medicine, etc. are practical. Many people are simply focusing on the types of careers that may or may not require a college degree, such as being a masseuse, or a paralegal, or something geared towards the healthcare industry, whatever is being projected as a “hot career”.

You could think about social work, social workers are supposed to be in great demand these days, and talk to your advisor about this; maybe you could minor in philosophy and major in something more practical.

Totally up to you! Just giving some input.

Answer by phil8656
When I lived in the Silicon Valley area I had a lot of friends in the biz. The engineer friends had ceilings over their heads, they had to stay engineers forever. My friends who were in management, and could go all the way to CEO, were liberal arts majors.

Answer by Lady Eartha The Arisen
Well I majored in Philosophy. Got a fine First Class Honours in it too. And don’t you listen to the naysayers who will tell you it’s a useless qualification. That it has few if any applications in the job market and that you will be regarded as a navel gazing wannker by most prospective employers when they see your transcripts…. which include Metaphysics of Death,Master and Slave, Feminism and Deconstruction, and shitloads of stuff they will never understand on Foucault.

I mean look to me as your shining example of what a good Philosophy degree can do for a person’s earning potential.
I am unemployed and oppressed, sure. But I bloody well understand WHY…and BY WHOM!!

Answer by Ghostwriter
You could teach it. It may require a lot of education and a doctorate, but if it’s a subject that really interests you then go for it. You won’t be any worse off than anyone else. To be honest, most college degrees are basically “useless,” lol. I have a business degree and 15+ years accounting and general administrative experience and there are people who are making it better than me with nothing but a high school diploma. Such is life *sigh*

lol, Lady Eartha. If one has a useless degree and no one is around to tell you it’s useless, does it really make a difference 😉 That’s my philosophy

Answer by Ω Brian Ω
A lot of these answers are complete sh!t, but a few of them made some great points.

Somebody said that basically all the degrees are useless these days. I totally agree with this. I don’t know why people single out philosophy. If philosophy is useless, then every other humanity degree that you could possibly get is ALSO useless. And there are a lot of them. I don’t understand why people do not see this. Maybe they’re just stupid, or maybe they don’t understand anything about philosophy so they just turn angry and rage at it lol.

Another good point was that somebody said all his friends that were engineers had a ceiling over their heads. They were stuck as engineers in their little cubicle number crunching forever. However, all his liberal arts major friends could get into management and there was no cap to their advancement. They could go all the way up to CEO. I think this is a good point, because I actually did read that this very fact was indeed true. All the management positions in all the large companies including many many CEOs all held liberal arts degrees.

Then everybody who said that you could teach it at a university if you went all out and got a PhD is of course correct. However, very very little will take this route.

The bottom line is that you can do just about anything. Try not to link your major directly to your career. That’s so old school and it’s just blatantly false anyways. As if, if you majored in biology the only job you could possibly get is to become a biologist. Give me a break. You can do anything but you need to work that out on your own. You need to decide what you want to do for a living, and start making that happen. Meet people, start networking, form connections, prepare for that particular career. It’s really that simple. Your little major doesn’t really matter dude. The only majors that lead directly to a particular career that you HAVE to do are the engineerings.