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The Value of a Liberal Arts Education

June 13th, 2016

For many years there has been a great debate over whether a liberal arts degree is as valuable as a career-ready degree such as engineering or computer science. The major you declare does have an impact on career opportunities available, but so do the “soft skills” learned while in school. With a little ambition and drive in addition to the analytical, reasoning, interpretive and communication skills learned in a liberal arts degree program, students are much more marketable than one may think. Liberal arts students are often life-long learners and their own best teachers.

David Kalt, founder of reverb.com, has found great value in hiring people with liberal arts degrees. His opinion is that students studying the liberal arts are often great critical thinkers, well read, and overall well-rounded. Kalt believes that these “soft skills” are difficult to teach in the workplace, yet the specific skill sets needed on the job are teachable once hired.

Many of you know that the Shrop Ed philosophy espouses that what students learn in a liberal arts program is an amazing preparation for life. We believe it helps broaden a student’s worldview and deepen their appreciation for life by educating the whole person and not just training for a specific job. In this global world we live in, it is important to see the world from a different perspective and to learn about other cultures and their way of life. Having a broad knowledge of the world we live in leads to flexible and creative thinking which is exactly what employers are looking for in this global and fast-changing economy that we live in.

Article published June 1, 2016

Written by: David Kalt

As the demand for quality computer programmers and engineers increases, conventional wisdom assumes we need more students with computer-science and engineering degrees. Makes sense, right?

I’ve been preaching this exact message for the past 10 years as I’ve fought to recruit the best programmers. Recently, though, I’ve realized that my experience has proved something completely different.

Looking back at the tech teams that I’ve built at my companies, it’s evident that individuals with liberal arts degrees are by far the sharpest, best-performing software developers and technology leaders. Often these modern techies have degrees in philosophy, history, and music – even political science, which was my degree.

How can this be?

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