What to do with my Humanities Degrees?

Indeed, what to do with my humanities degrees? Three of my four degrees are in music, which is part of the performing arts, a subset of the humanities. I love my degrees; I became an adult attaining these degrees and they transformed me into the musician, the academic, and the person I am today. The only problem with the super-majority of my degrees is that my full-time gig is no longer music. I came to terms with this in my previous article My Complete Failure, but for many who have humanities degrees and do not work in the field, this is a difficult problem.

My other degree is an MBA. I completed my MBA from University of Phoenix Online a few years ago and I learned a great deal. Not only was I exposed to the ins and outs of business, I now understand the business mind-set that was foreign to me for so long. Along with the knowledge and skills that I have acquired on-the-job, my MBA has been a valuable asset that I will use every day.

Now the big question: what do I do with my humanities degrees?

I should rephrase this; how do I market myself in my professional life? Do I present myself as a humanities person with business experience? Do I present myself as a business person with some humanities chops? Or do I throw out my musical training and portray myself as 100% business?

I ask these questions because I have known many humanities graduates who struggle to know how to market themselves in non-humanities environments. *When I use the term market, I mean presenting oneself to possible employers or knowing how to network in a current job. Struggling in non-humanities environments is an understandable conundrum; humanities is about thinking, reflecting, and being creative, three skills that generic, aggressive business types overlook. Humanities majors, in the business setting, often come off as thinkers who can be perceived as negative and ask too many questions. This is funny because the brightest leaders in business always ask...no beg their people to take the time to think, reflect, and be creative to help make their organizations better.

As for me and my background, I chose to market myself as a humanities major that is guided by practical business principles. Since I work in higher education there is no need to toss my humanities persona in the trash although it did take me a a few years to realize this. If I was going to work for a company like Verizon, for example, I might need to market myself first as a business person who has sharp critical thinking skills and is creative because of my humanities background.

Finally, how you market yourself when getting a job or career advancement is largely up to you, but you have to be authentic. If you are not on your resume, CV, or during an interview, employers can recognize this and even if they don’t during the screening process, they will when you show up for work. Be comfortable with who you are and learn how to focus the unique skills that have been acquired during your humanities studies.

But be warned; being authentic does not always equal a better job or promotion. Some employers will not hire you just because of your humanities degrees and will choose an MBA because it is a safe and understood personality type.

Getting a job is one of the hardest and most stressful endeavors one can go through and getting the ‘right’ job is even harder. Going for a promotion this is equally difficult because you are a known quantity and competing against co-workers that are often equally as capable. But as long as you are authentic, work hard, network, and strive for self-realization, you will find a place in this big crazy world that not only respects you and your humanities background, but allows you to use your talents and have a job you can be proud of.