Let's get practical

Jones posits that, based on her experience at the internship fair, “humanities majors are slowly falling by the wayside in fields that were once catered to well-versed writers and literary scholars” and that companies at the internship fair were favoring the science- and technology-minded for positions that were traditionally for the humanities-trained. But most of the companies that were represented on Feb. 17 were either from the financial sector or technological fields. These are not fields that particularly cater to the well-versed writers and literary scholars.

Those, you may have to find on your own. You may have to go to the smaller organized events that Career Services holds for any such opportunities. They will not be overwhelmingly represented at an internship fair because, realistically speaking, there are far fewer such positions out there, and they can fill up fairly quickly. Part of the reason many of us engineers and science majors chose our major was the number of opportunities and the heavy demand for us.

You need to be somewhat technologically-minded for almost any job these days due to, plain and simple, the structure of the world we live in. You may need to take mathematics and science courses, more than the two required Science and Technology ones and the one Quantitative Reasoning requirement, if the positions you want to apply to favor such a background — even if that position is at a fashion magazine.

Don’t discount the fact that it takes much more than the creative to run a magazine. Many of the positions available are honed towards the finances of the company, the technological mode of the magazine, etc.; these are all positions that would inherently require science, mathematics or economics backgrounds. You must be careful in understanding exactly what positions are available and what skills they require before dismissing the company as being completely uninterested in your abilities.

Engineers are required to take seven humanities courses over the course of their four years here. The A.B. science and mathematics students have to take just as many, if not more. General computer science, mathematics and economics classes are available to even the English majors. No prerequisites. You can take these classes and survive. Even then, you may not be able to consider yourself “technologically-minded.” A lot of technological know-how is not limited to what you can learn in any classroom, and students pick it up from general interest in the subject. A fashion internship, for example, might require knowledge of Photoshop or FinalCut Pro, something you must learn on your own time. Similarly, you can really only master computing languages or learn beyond the basic ones by coding independently.

Jones goes on to say that the trick is to market the skills humanities majors have acquired “in immersing ourselves in critical thinking and analytical writing, rather than numbers and figures.” She claims that businesses cannot survive by limiting themselves to quantitative thinkers. But, as an engineer, I find this claim a bit unfair.

We, as engineers, scientists, etc., are specifically trained to think clearly and logically, and not just about our own subject. We are trained to solve real-world problems with clarity and process. We are creative; science requires creativity in its own way. And, often, we know how to articulate ourselves fairly well. Perhaps not all of us can write with as much style as an English major, and we may not be able to think as critically about Sir Francis Bacon. But we aren’t applying for jobs as columnists for the Fiction section of The New Yorker or for the New York Times Book Review and wondering why we didn’t get them. That is, there are positions that humanities majors would be more suited for than an engineer or scientist, and there are likewise positions for which we are suited.

In the end, I suppose Jones and I come to the same conclusion. You have to understand your niche, for what you are suited and about what you are passionate. But be aware. We can all think critically and write analytically. Finding an internship is not necessarily through the haphazard handing out of resumes often associated with an internship fair. It is about understanding just how your skills are applicable and how to acquire the skills that you need.