Blog post for Social, Mobile, and Search Marketing

As Interest Fades in the Humanities, Colleges Worry I feel I have a unique perspective on this issue since I have a humanities degree but a career in IT. I don't think there's an easy resolution to this debate. In today's economy, how can you blame a student for pursuing a degree in a STEM field when that is where the jobs and money by and large exist? And since the recession, people are viewing college strictly as vocational training. While it is indeed training for a career, it is also training for how to be a good citizen, human being, and productive member of society. I work with so many brilliant IT people, and what they are capable of doing with computers absolutely blows my mind. But sometimes I am astounded at the lack of communication skilld, both written and spoken, that they posses. It is one thing to create a brilliant piece of software, it is quite another to have the rhetorical skills to effectively sell that software to others. I run into issues like this on a daily basis. My humanities degrees were to enriching for me, and helped land me a wonderful job where I know I am valued in no small part for my writing and communication skills. But I would be kidding myself if I thought my education was the only thing that landed me this job- Peace Corps, for one, certainly helped. I don't have any easy answers, but I wish there was a way to marry the two fields, rather than making it one versus the other. What do you think?