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16 U. THE NATIONAL COLLEGE NEWSPAPER
Special Report ■ FEBRUARY 1990
THE NATIONAL COLLEGE
NEWSPAPER
SPECIAL REPORT
Report by
Jacki Hampton
U. Editor
This is the second in a series of
special reports directed by U. editors.
After reading college papers from
all over the country, the editors
found that students were interested
in the increasing number of career
opportunities open to liberal arts
majors. Other topics addressed in
this report include first-job reloca
tion and interview techniques.
Future special report topics
planned include campus crime and
gay rights.
Interviews
The $24,000
Question
A job interview is a two-way process.
Recruiters expect candidates to ask
intelligent questions. According to
Victor R. Lindquist, Northwestern U.’s
director of placement and author of the
Northwestern Lindquist-Endicott
Report, appropriate questions show
interest in the particular employer and
an awareness of how you can fill their
needs. Questions should not be so basic
that the interviewer thinks you have
not researched the company. Some good
questions include:
■ How will I be evaluated and pro
moted?
■ Describe my typical first-year
assignments.
■ Tell me about your initial and
future training programs.
■ What are the company’s plans for
growth?
■ Is the company financially sound?
■ What are the company’s strengths
and weaknesses?
■ Is it company policy to promote
from within? Tell me the work history
of your top management.
■ What are your expectations for me
as a new hire?
■ Why do you enjoy working for your
firm?
■ How would you describe your cor
poration’s personality and manage
ment style?
Source: The Northwestern Lindquist-
Endicott Report
The Game of Life
Liberal arts majors make gains in the job race
Almost half
of the Fortune
1,000 compa
nies that re
cruit on cam
puses seek out
liberal arts
majors, according
to a survey conduct
ed at Boston U.
And liberal arts majors may be the
best-prepared to undertake the jobs of
the future, suggests Lawrence H. Smith,
career planning and placement director
at the U. of Oregon.
“I am put off by this notion that so
many new jobs are being created that
future jobs will require totally new
skills,” Smith said. “Unfortunately, some
students react to this information by
resigning themselves to a confused state.
Why learn, choose a major, do much of
anything, because the jobs that will be
available in two to five years, we don’t
even know the titles of.
“Bunk. People get paid, companies
earn money, agencies get funded because
they do two fundamental things — they
produce a product or service and they sell
it. Future jobs may use new tools, but the
skills required to use new tools can be
learned. What remains very stable are
the characteristics of people.”
Smith says majors such as history, lit
erature, anthropology and political sci
ence will best prepare students to face
these jobs because they provide insights
into human behavior.
On-campus recruiting
Employers seem to agree with Smith.
The private sector is hiring liberal arts
students, long-recognized for their com
munication and interactive skills, at the
highest rate since computers came on
the scene in the 1970s. Even fields tra
ditionally dominated by business grad
uates, such as finance, banking and
insurance, are opening to these stu
dents. Thirty-six percent of the gradu
ates hired into these fields in 1987 were
liberal arts majors, according to the
1987-88 Collegiate Employment
Institute Newsletter.
“The biggest problem for liberal arts
majors is that they start off with a neg
ative attitude,” said Arizona State U.
Career Services Director Jean Eisel.
“They come into the interviews assum
ing we have nothing for them because no
one asks specifically for a sociology major
or a psychology major.”
Eisel said these assumptions are false.
“More and more employers are willing to
look at liberal arts majors.” Thirty-six
percent of the companies recruiting 1990
ASU graduates are looking for non-tech-
nical majors, as opposed to about 25 per
cent five years ago, she said. Employers
are looking for students to fill positions
in sales, retailing, publishing, editorial,
customer service and management
trainee programs, Eisel said.
Smith describes these entry-level posi
tions as “window jobs,” providing win
dows into other areas of the organization.
Barbara Koplin, career services direc
tor at Marquette U., said she has
watched liberal arts graduates move
through the ranks in advertising, public
relations and insurance sales. “One
young lady with a liberal arts degree has
become tremendously successful in a
manufacturing company in a rather
technical area,” she said.
Who’s being hired?
Like Eisel, Glenda F. Lentz, director of
career development services at U. of
South Florida, sees employers coming to
campus that “never would have come
years ago.”
“They used
to use a hit-
o r - m i s s
method, with
newspaper
ads, etc. But
they weren’t
getting the
caliber of
people they
needed to pro
mote within the company,” she said.
Recently, employers such as Kraft Food
have shown an increased interest in lib
eral arts majors at USF, Lentz said.
“They need people who have the back
ground to move into management.
They’re looking for people with an eye to
train them for the future. Liberal arts
majors have that broad background
they’re looking for.
Roy Chapman, manager of college
relations for JCPenney, said, “We really
recruit on an individual basis, regardless
of what piece of canvas is hanging on the
wall. If a student displays leadership and
enthusiasm, they’ll fit well into our man
agement program.”
Chapman said JCPenney consistently
looks to liberal arts majors to provide
these attributes. 'They've always had
great opportunities with us — our last
chairmaft of the board was a music
major,” he said.
Other skills that liberal arts majors
offer, according to Lentz, are the ability
to think critically, do analysis and make
judgements, and communicate.
“Companies also are looking for the abil
ity to write a persuasive letter or to make
a persuasive presentation.”
Eisel said some personal qualities can
be equally important. “At a lot of schools,
liberal arts majors tend to be the campus
j leaders, and companies are looking for
| that leadership,” she said.
What can undergraduates do?
Koplin said liberal arts students must
develop these desired skills. They need
to get involved in extracurricular activ-
| ities, but in a meaningful way — either
j by holding offices or taking charge of a
project and seeing it all the way through.
“They need to find ways to demon
strate the qualities that employers are
looking for,” Koplin said. “Liberal arts
majors are normally hired because it’s
I perceived that they have better interac
tive skills with people. They can even
demonstrate those through a part-time
] job. I’ve known employers to be
impressed with a student who was bar-
tending ... or waitressing, because it
shows they can deal with people in
adverse situations.”
Koplin also urges students to gain
experience in their field. “I would tell all
liberal arts majors to get exposure to the
j field they’re interested in through an
J internship, to get some real meaningful
j work experience under their belt.”
Lentz added, “I think it behooves lib
eral arts majors to get some technology
training in their background. There are
many liberal arts majors who end up on
the management track and then they
need it. That’s just the way of life today.”
She said creative thinking also wins
| points with employers. “Liberal arts
| majors are in many respects more flexi
ble,” she said. They’re more willing to
be creative in getting the job done than
a student who’s spent four years study-
| ing for that job specifically.”
TOM CASSELL THE DAILY ILL1NI. U. Of ILLINOIS
Some not-so-trivial pursuits
work with at home. After a year, it’s
KATHY HAVEMAN, THE BATTALION, TEXAS MM U.
In her latest book, Going to Work, Lisa
Bimbach presents research on 50 com
panies in 11 cities, exploring their hir
ing and promotion practices, benefits,
salaries, and work environments.
Through interviews with employees
and descriptions of each city, Bimbach
gives readers a real-life picture of each
firm.
Some of her unusual findings
include:
Best perk: Each employee of
Apple Computer in Silicon Valley,
Calif., gets to select any computer to
his to keep.
Most fun dress policy: At Levi
Strauss & Co. headquarters in San
Francisco, employees wear jeans to
work.
Most unusual recruitment
inducement: Dayton Hudson in
Minneapolis gives watches to all their
MBA recruits.
Most generous vacation policy:
Covington & Burling in Washington,
D.C., gives four weeks leave to all
employees, plus unlimited sick days.