Career Opportunities

Increasingly employers are seeking people skilled in critical analysis, people with the insight, creativity and imagination to transform information into something meaningful. These are precisely the talents you will develop in undertaking your studies in the Faculty of Arts.

For more information about the many opportunities available to Arts Graduates visit the Careers Centre web site.

Please visit the 17 profiles of Arts Graduates and see the type of studies they did and what professional oppportunities it gave them.

Bachelor of Unemployment?
by Ghassan K.
Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Law student
3 November, 2006

A friend’s brother thought he would be funny and told me a story about his toilets at work. Apparently, someone had written above the toilet paper dispenser:

ARTS DEGREE - please take one

Needless to say, being a proud Arts/Law student, I was fuming…

The Arts degree gets such a bad rap. Some criticise its wide and general collection of humanities subjects as soft. Others say the Arts degree gives you no career focus. Apparently, it’s a Bachelor of Unemployment.

What bollocks! These assumptions are complete myths! And I want to set the record straight (or what ever your preference may be):

Myth 1: The Arts Degree Does Not Teach You Hard Facts And Skills

This is the first myth to explode. The Arts degree – a 3-year program consisting of your choice of hundreds of humanities (and other faculty) subjects – provides you with some essential skills that employers will look favourably upon. All Arts subjects teach you the ability to think critically, argue a point, write expressively and concisely, and research sources to find supporting evidence for your arguments.

Different subjects will also give you specialist skills in different areas. Sociology can teach you how to research phenomena in the social world and understand the implications of your findings. For this, the sociology subject to take: Social Inquiry: Research Methods.

The Arts degree opens up the possibilities for studying some of the tens of languages available in the Arts Faculty. Fancy an international career at the United Nations? Perhaps, French, Italian or Japanese may be useful.

The Arts degree also allows you to combine humanities subjects with subjects from other faculties, including Economics and Business and Science among others. Interested in psychology and sociology? Interested in politics, human rights, economics and social policy? The Arts degree is flexible enough to allow you to mould your degree pathway to reflect your interests and career aspirations.

Myth 2: The Arts Degree Does Not Get You A Job

The Arts degree points you in different directions depending on how you have put your subjects together. These can include working in government, administration, media, human resources, international affairs or research as some options. Statistics show most Arts graduates do find employment upon finishing their degree.

But the real answer to this myth is that no degree on its own will get you a job, but all degrees will help you to get the job that you want. Often, many employers will advertise, “needs a bachelor degree”, without even specifying the degree they are after. What employers are looking for are those generalist skills that allow graduates to be trained into an organisation’s or business’ practice.

Employers are also interested in what you do outside the classroom. It’s about the experiences you have had as a volunteer with community organisations, as a leader in your community and as someone who has been involved in sport, music, performance, debating and clubs and societies. In other words, employers want capable people with initiative, experience and an ability to pursue tasks with commitment and energy. Passing a three year course (hopefully with flying colours) helps to demonstrate these qualities; but you need to do get out there and take advantage of opportunities that display your talents (and at the same time, give back to the community and make contacts in the fields you want to pursue).

The mentality that “a degree equals a job” is misleading. Degrees help you to make yourself more employable, but you can get so much more out of one if you utilise the whole university environment, including involvement in student and community activities, in improving your skills and experience.

Myth 3: The Arts Degree Is Easy

Like all degrees, humanities have their challenging aspects. In the Arts degree you will come across challenging concepts, theories and ideas. You will be required to engage with them, argue for and against them, have an opinion on them and understand (and politely criticise) faults in other people’s opinions. The Arts program is academically rigorous.

More than that, the Arts degree opens your mind to the world. Subjects will consider controversial topics in our society and give you an opportunity to read, research and understand issues before making a response. You will consider the implications for your arguments in wider society, on a global scale and in the era of the internet. You will be personally challenged to understand and see perspectives you’ve never considered before. Sometimes it can be hard, but the end result is a graduate who thinks about the world and can contribute intelligently and creatively to society.

If I ever see a toilet paper dispenser with “Arts Degree: Please take one” written above it, I’ll be the first to analyse the democratic practices that have allowed the author to make their statement in our social world. I will ponder why people seem to always graffiti in public toilets, particularly, with messages that they would not dare to say in public. I will consider the impact of toilet paper waste on our environment. I will consider the important place toilets have in creating private spaces in our busy urban environment. I will consider the history of the toilet as being a place undelayed with Western politics; many countries do not have Western-style toilets, let alone running water to flush them. And at the end of the day, I’ll gladly take an Arts degree. After all, we have toilet dispensers in my workplace too: the job I found because of my Arts degree and all the other experiences I’d given myself the opportunity to try.


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