3 Strategies to get Hired With a Liberal Arts Degree

Parents remember when liberal arts students were recruited for coveted jobs. High GPA’s and strong leadership profiles from well-respected colleges were the building blocks for a good career. Companies hiring liberal arts graduates would develop extensive internal training programs, investing in new hires to build the skills required to succeed in their organization.

Those days are gone. Today’s employers are looking beyond coursework and grades — placing a greater focus on skills-first hiring. Employers need relevant technical skills. Where does that leave today’s liberal arts majors?

Liberal arts students may have soft skills — problem-solving, critical thinking, communication, adaptability, collaboration, and leadership — that prove incredibly valuable throughout a career. Employers know these capabilities are important to long-term success in the marketplace, but they’re also faced with a significant gap in hard skills.

How Will You Get a Job?

Here are 3 strategies liberal arts majors can implement to significantly strengthen their appeal as candidates for internships and entry-level jobs.

1. Combine your liberal arts major with a minor in a more technical area. Having a more technology focused or quantitative minor can help make your skillset more relevant to employers.
2. Apply to internships that will help build relevant industry skills.
3. Research the requirements of the jobs you are interested in pursuing and start acquiring the necessary technical skills. This can be accomplished through online coursework and training, bootcamps, or acquiring certifications.

While soft skills improve productivity and give you the ability to successfully acclimate in the workplace, hard skills are needed to do a job.

At Priority Candidates, we develop personalized strategies to help our clients balance the need for soft skills while making sure they acquire the requisite hard skills for their chosen career. In addition to providing academic guidance, we also research the resources for building the hard skills they need that are not provided by their college curriculum offerings. This combination of soft and hard skill development helps our clients to stand out in the interview process and succeed in getting hired.

Let’s talk about how you can find career success