Would you like a side of fries with that?

If you're a philosophy major, you may have heard the old saying that you won't be able to get a job with a degree and you'll end up working some shitty job like fast food. Being a philosophy major people may think you'll be asking would you like a side of fries with that? But this simply is unlikely the case because there are studies that show philosophy majors make more money on average than any other humanities majors post-graduation. In this study out of 50 majors calculating the average money made by each major philosophy ranked 16/50 while many people would make you believe philosophy wouldn’t even make the top 50.

The big knock on getting a philosophy degree is that it doesn’t prepare you for a specific career path unless you go on to be a professor which is extremely competitive, to begin with. But this study shows that this isn't the case since you can still make pretty decent money by getting a philosophy degree and this is because the degree polishes your critical thinking skills and helps you creatively get jobs that others may have a degree for or maybe even start a business. Philosophy helps you think inside as well as outside the box which can be an advantage in getting solid monetary returns since most other majors have a plan when they graduate since their degree will most likely get them a job when they graduate. Philosophy majors must get creative in what they want to do but there are jobs that you can get with the degree it isn't hopeless like some people want you to think.

Some jobs you can get with a philosophy degree besides being a professor are jobs in business, journalism, law, computer science, public administration, health care, and public policy. While the degree won't just land you the job automatically, but the philosophy degree institutes the skills needed to land the job through persuasion and the ability to be a jack of all trades which will make you a versatile employee. And if being an employee isn't something you want to do you can always start your own business it doesn't matter the degree you just need to acquire the business skills needed which a philosophy major should be able to do easily.

Many notable philosophy majors went on to have very successful careers in their given fields, some of these people being Steve Allen, John Elway, Harrison Ford, and many others. This shows the adage being a jack of all trades isn't a bad thing like many people believe because most people don't know the whole quote. Most people just know it being a jack of all trades is a master of none which gives it a bad connotation. The whole quote, however, is a jack of all trades is a master of none but oftentimes better than a master of one. This is because it could be an advantage to have widespread knowledge of many topics. After all, you are more versatile compared to someone who knows only one thing or one area of knowledge. Philosophy is the perfect image of this quote because it may be one discipline but it engulfs so much knowledge through many subsets of the discipline and your knowledge is all over the place which makes you a versatile candidate for any job you'll just need to argue this in an interview.

As always stay curious!

Sources

https://umaine.edu/philosophy/career-planning/famous-philosophy-majors/

https://dailynous.com/2019/01/03/philosophy-majors-make-money-majors-humanities-field/