Humanities degrees could be set for a comeback

As an undergraduate, I read a lot of poetry. I majored in English with a focus on modernist writers. Exploring the works of William Butler Yeats and T. S. Eliot felt like an incredible privilege, almost like I was getting away with something. You mean, they’re actually going to give me a degree in this?

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The problems only started when family would ask me what I planned to do with my degree. It was a tough thing to answer. Most of my friends had majors that mapped directly to specific jobs. Accounting, Management, Marketing. There weren’t any such jobs for someone who simply read a lot.

I treasured my coursework, but I also felt the tug of practicality. I often thought during this time that perhaps I should study something a little more career oriented. But today, looking back at the career I’ve had over the past 15 years and, probably more importantly, ahead to what my future roles may look like, I don’t think I’d change a thing.

The pace of change in today’s economies is more rapid than ever before. The simple truth is we don’t know what the jobs of the future will be. Around 15 years ago, almost no one had heard of the data scientist role, yet it became one of the hottest jobs of the past decade. As the generative AI revolution continues, we’re likely to start seeing all kind of jobs emerge that don’t exist today.

As a result, the types of jobs companies are hiring for are constantly shifting. It’s hard to know what roles will be in demand five to 10 years from now. The question then becomes: how do you prepare for these jobs when we don’t even know what they’ll be? Well, there’s one safe bet for the future— learning skills like critical thinking, communication, problem solving, logic, and creativity. In other words, the classical liberal arts education may be the most future-proof degree in the age of AI.

We’re already starting to see early signs that a narrow focus on discrete technical skills may not get job applicants as far as it used to. Tech leaders are saying they want engineers who can connect the digital work they’re doing to broader business problems and that extensive coding knowledge isn’t enough.

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That’s because generative AI is starting to give a wider swath of people coding skills, just as it’s turning more people into writers, designers, and presentation specialists. This includes people who never specifically studied these skills. Some young people are starting to wonder if it’s even worth pursuing education when whatever they study may be outmoded in a few years. I would argue it’s more worthwhile than ever.

It turns out, there’s still a great deal that AI can’t do well (for now). Leaders surveyed in the latest State of GenAI in the Enterprise report say that some of the top skills they’re looking for as they roll out AI applications are critical thinking and problem solving, creativity, communication, and the ability to work in teams. These are some of AI’s largest areas for improvement today. They’re also the things that a classical liberal arts education excels at teaching.

Working toward my degree in English, I wasn’t simply reading poetry. I was learning to imagine others’ perspectives, make connections across subject matters, analyze text for meaning, and lead discussion with peers. People who major in philosophy, religion, sociology, and most other humanities will have similar experiences. These capabilities are only becoming more valuable to employers – not less – and may help future-proof careers going forward.

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As tuition costs soared over the last couple decades, it was understandable that students expected to see a return on their investment. Interest in majors that led to well-compensated jobs surged. The idea of spending tens of thousands of dollars to improve your thinking skills in a general way didn’t make economic sense. But we may be at point where the high-paying jobs of tomorrow demand broad thinkers, people who can understand business context, write up project proposals, use AI to build new capabilities, and drive conversations with customers. There isn’t likely to be a single major that directly teaches all those things, and even if there were, employers might be looking for a whole new set of skills in a few years. As a result, once-maligned soft skills are swinging back into focus as the uniquely human capabilities that will endure even as technology takes on more and more of our tasks.

As it turns out, all those years ago, I had a good answer when my family asked what I planned to do with my degree: Take on the careers of the future.  

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Ed Burns | Deloitte Office of the CTO Journalist