Introduction: What Can I Do With a Social Sciences Degree?
At Michigan Tech, a significant number of industrial and government
recruiters make the trek to campus every year, and interview engineering
and business majors for jobs. One reason is that career avenues
in these fields are reasonably well defined. In the social sciences,
the main point to realize is that career pathways are much more
open and flexible – and lead in many different directions.
But students earning a social sciences degree are expected to
play more active roles in defining careers, preparing themselves
to fit those careers, and then identifying and persuading potential
employers – or in many cases, graduate schools – that
they are the right person for the opportunity at hand.
Jamie Holden, who started his education here but finished at
Michigan State, is now an attorney and Executive Vice President & General
Counsel for Oris Medical Systems, Inc As a supporter of the Department’s
pre-law program, he writes, “The most significant thing
in any liberal arts education is learning how to think and learn.
My social science background didn’t train me to perform
my current job. Rather, I was taught how to think creatively and
how to evaluate situations in order to make the most of them.
There are few if any black and white situations in the world.
Learning how to think, instead of being trained to do, allows
me to handle these types of situations without going into an infinite
loop (gratuitous computer reference there!).” His advice
to graduates? “Your education, if you’ve approached
it correctly, should have taught you how to use your mind to meet
any challenge that you face, and to learn how to perform any job
or task that might be asked of you. Have confidence in your education
and your abilities, don’t let people discourage you, and
you’ll do well. Lastly, it’s not about the money.
Professor Mark Rose, late of Michigan Tech, told me once that
it doesn’t matter how much money you make if you don’t
like your work, as you don’t see the money from day to day,
but you sure do see what you’ve chosen to do.
The degrees offered in the Social Sciences Department are the
foundation upon which you can begin developing your career. The
four degree options build on and complement the institution’s
historical role as a technological university. The degrees also
reflect the strengths and activities of the faculty. The general Social Sciences option primarily serves students inclined toward
professional careers in the various social sciences fields by
preparing students for graduate education. The Secondary
Education teaching program prepares teaching careers in various social science
fields. The History option meets the needs of students interested
in historical studies, while the Law and
Society program (previously
referred to as Pre-Law) is oriented toward students thinking of
a range of legal careers, of which law school is only one option.
All of them are predicated on preparing students to read and think
critically, to communicate clearly, and to organize information
carefully. Such skills are the cornerstone of all social sciences
careers and jobs.
While many professional positions
in the social sciences require a Masters degree, there are jobs
for holders of a bachelors degree. The information that follows
directs you to a number of web pages and sites that describe careers
in the social sciences. The list is organized by academic field,
although you will find many of the jobs are interdisciplinary
in nature. All of these (some obvious and some less apparent)
can open out from the degrees you can earn in this department.
They can allow you to chart an original path, limited only by
your imagination and determination. |
Career Disciplines in SS
Career Resources
Teacher and Education Resources
Pre-Law
Information
University Career Center
H-Net Jobs in Humanities and SS
 Gregory Giangrande, The Liberal Arts Advantage:
How to Turn Your Degree into a Great Job (New York: Avon Books, 1998).
Burton Jay Nadler, Peterson's Liberal
Arts Jobs: The Guide That Turns Learning into Earning (3rd edition), (Petersons
Guides, 1998).
Students also will find value in the extensive information
on the Bureau of Labor Statistics web page about jobs and careers
for social scientists. See the Occupational
Outlook Handbook.
You also can find profiles of several Social Sciences
alumni, graduates of the department over the past twenty years or
more. Their careers suggest how some who came before discovered
that a degree like ours can be enormously flexible.
In addition, you might want to look at the publications
above and other materials in the University
Career Center that can help you through the process of defining
career possibilities.
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