8 Fantastic Jobs for Philosophy Majors (and Tips to Land One)

If you have a philosophy degree, you’re probably sick of questions about why you chose that major or what job you’re going to get. And you’ve likely heard all of the super original jokes about philosophy giving you as many career prospects as “underwater basket weaving” and references to the “philosophy factory” joke from That 70’s Show.

Liberal arts degrees don’t necessarily have a preset career path attached to them, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t valuable. They can still lead to jobs in a wide range of fields—both with and without graduate school.

We’ve compiled a list of eight jobs for people with philosophy degrees, but they represent just some of your options. Once you understand what skills you bring to the table with your philosophy major, you can apply them to many different careers.

“It’s crucial to answer the question ‘What does it mean to be a philosophy major?’” says Meagan Savage, a career coach at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s College of Arts and Sciences who advises philosophy students. What skills have you used and developed throughout your education? Many will be transferable to the workplace.

These are some common skills philosophy degrees help you learn:

• Adaptability and innovation: “Philosophy prepares people to think about and understand the fundamental nature and broader purpose of the work they are doing,” says Mitchell Muncy, Founder and Principal of Prospera LLC, a consultancy for mission-driven organizations, who holds a master’s in philosophy and has hired candidates with philosophy degrees for a range of positions. The ability to see “beyond specific functions or tools” helps philosophy majors not only adapt to new environments but also come up with new strategies and ideas and make observations others may not have considered, Muncy says. “I would say that the great virtue of philosophy majors is not that they are particularly good at certain jobs, but that they can be good at any job and, more important, make extraordinary contributions.”
• Analysis: A large part of the study of philosophy is interpreting and analyzing difficult texts, ideas, and larger concepts and societal issues. In your classes, you likely analyzed the merits and strengths of different texts and got to the root of what they were trying to say before using them to inform your own ideas. These analytical skills are valuable in a number of work environments.
• Communication and writing: Philosophy majors are skilled at simplifying complex information and presenting it to others, Savage says. You’ve likely done this both verbally and in writing. Philosophy majors are also used to group discussions that require them to listen actively and understand others’ points of view—which is often as important in effective communication as writing or speaking.
• Critical thinking and problem solving: The bulk of philosophy is critical thinking—really breaking down a problem, idea, or other concept to its core components and examining it from every angle. The skills you honed doing this will help you to “provide a creative, inquisitive approach to problem-solving,” Savage says. In the workplace, you often need to integrate information from multiple sources and perspectives in order to solve problems.
• Persuasion and argument construction: Through your coursework, you learned to develop a convincing argument and present it in a clear, logical way using strong evidence, Savage says. This ability is transferable to many work scenarios, whether you’re pitching a new client as a salesperson, finding the right strategy for your team to follow, or making recommendations to management based on research you analyzed.

If you have a second major or a minor, you’ll have even more marketable skills and job choices right out of the gate. “Philosophy can really help enhance the skills gained in other majors and make students even more competitive,” Savage says. For example, if you’re interested in philosophy but would like to work in tech, “Adding philosophy as a major on top of technical majors is a great combination.”

But even without doubling up, the skills you gained studying philosophy will help you not only land your first job, but also grow throughout your career. Here are some jobs your degree will set you up for particularly well along with salary information from the compensation resource Payscale.