What careers can you have with philosophy, given that it's not vocational or one of the sciences? Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police. Now everyone can shut up about the utility of my degree. :woo:
A degree in Philosophy is basically a degree in logic and reasoning. The only real question is what you cann't do with it.
Nah. I looked up Sara Thornton, the Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, and noticed her education.
I was going to say attorney. If you can research all day without cracking, write persuasive papers, and explain your position orally, you can do multimillion dollar civil litigation. That's the long and the short of it. I majored in history (with a focus on medieval Europe) and minored in comparative religion. I'm now a litigator with the largest firm in southern Oregon. The substantive material I studied has nothing to what I do for a living, but the skills I built in undergraduate are used all day, every day.
I have a friend who has a bachelors in business management, minored in banking, had a 3.8something or other in college, and worked for the same retail company (sears maybe, I don't remember) for 6 years. She applied for a low level management job at First National Bank (a major bank in Nebraska with branches elsewhere). She was turned down for someone who apparently had a lower GPA, worked only off and on, and majored in Philosophy.
Whether it impresses a potential employer is a different issue from whether it will enhance your ability to excel at a chosen profession. I personally am glad my background is in philosophy, because it has been CRITICAL in helping me sift through all the ridiculous nonsense that pervades the fitness industry. I find myself surrounded by trainers and coaches that just don't know basic reasoning and get suckered into the latest fads and crazes because they don't know how to determine whether or not it's actually legitimate. I can see a philosophy education helping anyone rise to the top 5% of their field by being more rational and open-minded than their peers in the field.
I had 30 yrs experience in federal contracting along with a degree in Marketing with a minor in international business. My forte was medical contracting, but when the stateside company I worked for decided to hire a new individual to take over the job as director, Their masters degree in education over rode my experience and degree... She worked for commission only.. One account, she made over $90K in one year.. Now I left that field with no regrets and currently work as a law enforcement operative.. Martial combatives training and security consulting comes to the head of the pack..
One of my mates did his PhD in Buddhist Philosophy and ended up teaching for a little while and now works for a bank, not your average high street bank, but one of those secret ones you have to be a gazillionaire to even walk through the doors... Meanwhile, another one, who did his first degree in philosophy (I'm not sure of the full title of the course, but he got First class honours), is now entering his 13th year of unemployment... I say unemployment, but inbetween he's worked as a window cleaner, door to door mail order catalogue guy and filled in the time with various "courses" courtesy of the Job Centre. Still, I guess it's about finding the right job at the right time...
Get into law school. Philosophy is accepted as a pre-law degree.Another option is to just minor in philosophy and get another degree. Or, be a teacher in philosophy.
I don't think philosophy can teach you any skill set that you couldn't learn through other degree programmes. If you study it because you love it, then fair play to you, but please don't try to cast philosophy graduates as intellectual behemoths.
Ahhh but you could also say that no other degree program covers a subject that is not covered by philosophy (I'm currently reading "An Introduction To Philosophy" by George Stuart Fullerton)
Mathematics? Physics? Chemistry? Biology? Engineering? Architecture? Business Management? Computer Science? Languages? Literature? Even Sequential Art covers a subject that isn't covered by philosophy. Note that I don't think philosophy is useless at all, I just don't think it's particularly special other than as a framework to look at other subjects/the world.
