The Humanities Major

Resources, Strengths, Career Paths, Skills

Transferable Skills:Students of The Humanities end their education with superior communication skills, a rare and highly valued commodity in today's job market. Humanities Majors also possess:

• Analytical and Critical abilities
• Rhetorical Skill
• Intermediate Knowledge of a Foreign Language
• Extensive Technical and Creative Writing Experience
• Didactic Skill

Career Paths:The Major in Humanities provides students with an optimal platform for entering a variety of fields. Students with a strong background in the Humanities are viewed favorably by varying fields such as medicine and law. Here are some fields a Humanities major may pursue:

• Journalism, Publishing, and Technical Writing
• Law
• Education (Elementary, Secondary, and Higher ed.)
• Advertising
• Public Relations
• Business / Industry

Resources & Professional Associations of Interest: Check out the following websites and consider joining at least one of the professional associations in your field of interest to boost your career and give you a competitive edge on the job market. These are just a few so don' t hesitate to do some research on your own!

• Idealist - tons of opportunities for idealistic people
• mediabistro - a great site for media minded professionals
• Ed2010 - get your foot in the door of the editing world
• Chronicle of Higher Education , Inside Higher Education - great sites for academics
• National Council for Teachers of English - a must for serious English teachers
• Law School Admission Council - a necessary hit for all law school applicants

Employers: The following companies and institutions have hired/accepted Stony Brook students of Humanities:

• Stony Brook University
• "The Improper Hamptonian"
• Harvard Law / CUNY
• Duke University Medical Center
• Newsday
• Simon and Schuster
• Wells Fargo

Sample Job Titles:The following are some sample job titles that would be appropriate for a student who has majored in Humanities. This is in no way a complete list. If you're surprised at some of these titles, you shouldn't forget that a student who majors in Humanities gains skills that can be used in almost any industry!