Shock, horror, surprise - philosophy graduates are in demand in the workplace.
For years derided as navel gazers good for nothing other than, well, navel gazing, philosophy graduates are in demand by employers because they're good at thinking.
Ask the man in the street to name a philosopher and you're more likely to get Russell Grant than Immanuel Kant, or Pluto rather than Plato.
Well what was seen by many as a worthless three or four years reading about thought systems, ethics and morality developed by long-dead white males is coming into its own.
The Higher Education Careers Service Unit has released figures showing unemployment rates for philosophy gradutes have dropped from 9.9% in 2001 to 6.7% in 2006.
Employers in fields as disparate as property development and social work have woken up to the realisation that clarity of thought and analysis are key employee attributes. They're also up to speed on ethics which is increasingly a big deal in those organisations who like to big up their corporate social responsibility credentials.
Therefore I think - or cogito ergo as Descartes would have put it - that the time has come for corporate philosophers to be employed by larger organisations to dispense wisdom and logical thought on the great corporate issues of the day.
I'm sure, had a post-Kantian been employed as resident philosopher at Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs, those disks would not have been lost.
Comments (1)
Finally I can shake off the nagging sense of shame that has always accompanied every admission that I have a philosophy degree!
Three years spent pretentiously pondering the existence of God, the meaning of self and the validity of artifical intelligence (among other headache-inducing considerations) is finally coming into its own.
I await the headhunters' calls with eager anticipation, an inflated sense of self-worth and vastly increased salary expectations.
Posted by Rob | November 28, 2007 3:59 PM
Posted on November 28, 2007 15:59