quick survey: how many of you out there have a liberal arts degree? I do, a Bachelors of Science in Criminal Justice, and I’ve been in the industry for 18 + years. Any others?
Liberal Arts degree here as well, B.A. in English. It has proved extremely valuable over the years. Being able to communicate both verbally and in writing has been an asset. Some folks, particularly the Fauz Newz viewers, don’t appreciate an educated mind. They are under the misunderstanding all college professors are communists or something. I never heard 1 political view from any of my teachers. My daughters go to an excellent public school here and no teachers are trying to teach any particular political view. Sure, there are some instances of teachers trying to use the classroom to share political science, but it happens from both a liberal and conservative perspective. It’s disingenuous at best to intimate the classroom, particularly the college one, is a place to be avoided. Education is great and I wish I had the time and money to continue mine. Learning is one of my favorite activities.
I have degrees in education and social sciences, so I guess they would be close. If i had it to do over I’d go straight into the business out of HS, possibly do a little schooling for college or maybe CPCU/CIC in my early 20s.
Yes, I am so glad I knocked out CPCU in my mid-20’s. I encourage my eldest to continue on her paths with science and math. I wish I would have done more with science, myself. She used to talk about becoming an astronaut, so if any of that type of aspiration still lingers, she better be well versed in the subjects I am encouraging. She loves to write, too. Given the onslaught of Twitter and the like, writing is becoming a lost art. I will always encourage reading and writing. Multiple languages if possible.
October 12, 2017 at 12:58 pm
UW says:
Like or Dislike:
1
3
I would have done business too but as a double-major, primarily because most hiring managers don’t know what economics (my degree) covers and think business, which is much easier, is a difficult quantitative degree and give it more prestige than it deserves.
Liberal arts degrees specifically emphasize critical thinking, creativity, understanding people which is necessary for good people management, and cognitive flexibility, along with using much more coordination with others than most degrees. Understanding others is of course a critical requirement to be an effective negotiator. So genius I think they’ll be alright as far as the skills go. Of course you have shown nothing here indicating that you are educated but will make a lot of stupid claims about Millenials I’m sure.
I have a BA in Economics. The diploma was a ticket to get a job (1972). The degree in economics only helped me comprehend books by Thomas Sowell and Adam Smith. Most people with a good understanding of economics are not going to be liberal, as they seem to have little insight into cause and effect.
That’s not even close to true. Look at the surveys in the paper “Economists’ policy views and voting,” (2006) by Klein & Stern. They found economists are Democrats over Republicans by a 2.5:1 ratio. Other studies have shown about the same 70% of economists being liberal.
Also, Sowell is good at explaining supply side economics to the masses, but much of that has been disproven including things he still pushes. He’s not much of an economist and good economists have been “Laffing” at him for years.
Marc, you are probably aware of Milton Friedman as I am. One of the greatest economists of the past century. He didn’t care much for Progressive Socialism since it is the biggest failure ever as an economic system outside of Communism which is twice as bad.
Much of a Friedman’s work has been proven wrong or flawed, including his biggest works. His primary theory, the Permanent Income Hypothesis doesn’t hold up. How next 2 biggest, the k-percent rule and inflation being solely a monetary phenomenon are pretty much dead since 2008. The last one seems to be true in high inflation scenarios only, and definitely not in lower bound scenarios. They were important ideas but mostly wrong.
Nope. Freidman’s work is deemed imperfect as recent research has refined his work to better reflect the data. That is very different from ‘wrong’ or ‘flawed’. For you to post such shows the lengths you will take to discredit someone much smarter than most pros in his field.
You can be generous, which is why I provide this link, and try to be as lenient as possible,eg giving the quantity theory of money decent grades by counting bonds, etc, but that’s not really what his theory called for. QE pretty much debunked this but you can say it works in normal times, or before 2000-08ish. But it hasn’t held true since then in basically the entire industrialized world. But, it was innovative at the time and provided a foundation to critique and build upon, even though it was largely wrong in the main area it tried to explain. Carter/Reagan/Volker proved this in the early 80s
October 10, 2017 at 5:15 pm
25+UW says:
Like or Dislike:
7
0
Anyone worried the new staff lack the first two skills simply because they can “look up” the answer and/or ask Siri?
I’ve found most critical-thinking, A.K.A. Out-Of-The-Box Thinking, is discouraged in most corporate-style settings, especially if you are new or lower management.
Companies that have multiple locations across the United States forget that each location comes with it’s own set of challenges like location, type of customer in that area, interior set-up, and available staff in the area. Rather than giving management, the people that actually work in the location every day, the ability to be creative with the business to make it significantly more profitable, they spurn the idea that you can’t make your 1800 square foot location look just like the 4500 square foot location at the corporate office.
I’ve had one good corporate manager that allowed me to put my creative systems in place, provided I told no one that I obtained permission from her to deviate from the strict set of corporate regulations, and sales soared, customer’s were immensely satisfied, and the staff was ecstatic. She let me continue to do this, and it pushed her into a promotion. I would have had a promotion too, if regional manager above her, hadn’t decided to promote her old college friend instead of a tenured employee who showed promise. Needless to say, sales took a significant dive after the new manager enforced the old regulations, yet no one in corporate cared to look into the systems that generated results or compensate me for the creativity.
But that’s the way the cookie crumbles, skills or no skills…
Gee, I wonder how the Liberal Arts degreed crowd will survive in the future when they have no job skills.
Gee, I wonder how the blue collar crowd will survive in the future when automation takes over all of their jobs.
See how inane a statement that is?
I never wonder about such highly unlikely scenarios.
Jobs evolve over decades and centuries.
Know any farmers in your neighborhood? Know any typewriter salesman? Know any conservative teachers in your school system?
quick survey: how many of you out there have a liberal arts degree? I do, a Bachelors of Science in Criminal Justice, and I’ve been in the industry for 18 + years. Any others?
Liberal Arts degree here as well, B.A. in English. It has proved extremely valuable over the years. Being able to communicate both verbally and in writing has been an asset. Some folks, particularly the Fauz Newz viewers, don’t appreciate an educated mind. They are under the misunderstanding all college professors are communists or something. I never heard 1 political view from any of my teachers. My daughters go to an excellent public school here and no teachers are trying to teach any particular political view. Sure, there are some instances of teachers trying to use the classroom to share political science, but it happens from both a liberal and conservative perspective. It’s disingenuous at best to intimate the classroom, particularly the college one, is a place to be avoided. Education is great and I wish I had the time and money to continue mine. Learning is one of my favorite activities.
I have degrees in education and social sciences, so I guess they would be close. If i had it to do over I’d go straight into the business out of HS, possibly do a little schooling for college or maybe CPCU/CIC in my early 20s.
Yes, I am so glad I knocked out CPCU in my mid-20’s. I encourage my eldest to continue on her paths with science and math. I wish I would have done more with science, myself. She used to talk about becoming an astronaut, so if any of that type of aspiration still lingers, she better be well versed in the subjects I am encouraging. She loves to write, too. Given the onslaught of Twitter and the like, writing is becoming a lost art. I will always encourage reading and writing. Multiple languages if possible.
I would have done business too but as a double-major, primarily because most hiring managers don’t know what economics (my degree) covers and think business, which is much easier, is a difficult quantitative degree and give it more prestige than it deserves.
40 years in the biz. BA in Journalism
School of Hard Knocks – Major in Geometry – I know all the angles.
brilliant response. Have an upvote.
Liberal arts degrees specifically emphasize critical thinking, creativity, understanding people which is necessary for good people management, and cognitive flexibility, along with using much more coordination with others than most degrees. Understanding others is of course a critical requirement to be an effective negotiator. So genius I think they’ll be alright as far as the skills go. Of course you have shown nothing here indicating that you are educated but will make a lot of stupid claims about Millenials I’m sure.
I have a BA in Economics. The diploma was a ticket to get a job (1972). The degree in economics only helped me comprehend books by Thomas Sowell and Adam Smith. Most people with a good understanding of economics are not going to be liberal, as they seem to have little insight into cause and effect.
That’s not even close to true. Look at the surveys in the paper “Economists’ policy views and voting,” (2006) by Klein & Stern. They found economists are Democrats over Republicans by a 2.5:1 ratio. Other studies have shown about the same 70% of economists being liberal.
Also, Sowell is good at explaining supply side economics to the masses, but much of that has been disproven including things he still pushes. He’s not much of an economist and good economists have been “Laffing” at him for years.
Marc, you are probably aware of Milton Friedman as I am. One of the greatest economists of the past century. He didn’t care much for Progressive Socialism since it is the biggest failure ever as an economic system outside of Communism which is twice as bad.
Much of a Friedman’s work has been proven wrong or flawed, including his biggest works. His primary theory, the Permanent Income Hypothesis doesn’t hold up. How next 2 biggest, the k-percent rule and inflation being solely a monetary phenomenon are pretty much dead since 2008. The last one seems to be true in high inflation scenarios only, and definitely not in lower bound scenarios. They were important ideas but mostly wrong.
Nope. Freidman’s work is deemed imperfect as recent research has refined his work to better reflect the data. That is very different from ‘wrong’ or ‘flawed’. For you to post such shows the lengths you will take to discredit someone much smarter than most pros in his field.
You can be generous, which is why I provide this link, and try to be as lenient as possible,eg giving the quantity theory of money decent grades by counting bonds, etc, but that’s not really what his theory called for. QE pretty much debunked this but you can say it works in normal times, or before 2000-08ish. But it hasn’t held true since then in basically the entire industrialized world. But, it was innovative at the time and provided a foundation to critique and build upon, even though it was largely wrong in the main area it tried to explain. Carter/Reagan/Volker proved this in the early 80s
Anyone worried the new staff lack the first two skills simply because they can “look up” the answer and/or ask Siri?
I’ve found most critical-thinking, A.K.A. Out-Of-The-Box Thinking, is discouraged in most corporate-style settings, especially if you are new or lower management.
Companies that have multiple locations across the United States forget that each location comes with it’s own set of challenges like location, type of customer in that area, interior set-up, and available staff in the area. Rather than giving management, the people that actually work in the location every day, the ability to be creative with the business to make it significantly more profitable, they spurn the idea that you can’t make your 1800 square foot location look just like the 4500 square foot location at the corporate office.
I’ve had one good corporate manager that allowed me to put my creative systems in place, provided I told no one that I obtained permission from her to deviate from the strict set of corporate regulations, and sales soared, customer’s were immensely satisfied, and the staff was ecstatic. She let me continue to do this, and it pushed her into a promotion. I would have had a promotion too, if regional manager above her, hadn’t decided to promote her old college friend instead of a tenured employee who showed promise. Needless to say, sales took a significant dive after the new manager enforced the old regulations, yet no one in corporate cared to look into the systems that generated results or compensate me for the creativity.
But that’s the way the cookie crumbles, skills or no skills…
I think that’s a good point. I would add that many smaller offices don’t seem to have this problem, even if they are part of a large national company.