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Unlike medicine, law or veterinary science, philosophy is not a vocational degree - it does not provide automatic entry into specific professions in the non-academic workforce.

But your philosophy degree can still be of great benefit when joining the workforce.

Studying philosophy will have provided you with an advanced level of generic skills that are immensely useful in a wide range of jobs, in such diverse fields as:

• Journalism and Media,
• Government and Public Administration,
• Computing,
• Law,
• Education, and
• Research.

As a student of philosophy, you will have picked up the following generic skills and attributes:

• The ability to analyse and evaluate arguments. Philosophy teaches you to be able to distinguish between good arguments and bad arguments, irrespective of their subject matter, and thus to be able to make informed decisions and recommendations on contentious issues.

• Clarity of thought. Philosophy helps you to separate distinct issues, consider them independently and think out the consequences of positions on them. This makes the philosophy graduate an effective learner; you will have the general skills for thinking about problems and tasks, and framing and evaluating solutions.

• Advanced communication skills. Philosophy graduates have had to meet very exacting requirements in communicating their ideas, both in written and oral form. You will have learnt how to frame, express and convey ideas, your own and other people's, in a clear and convincing way.

• Breadth of vision. Philosophy graduates are accustomed to being exposed to new and confronting ideas, and have an appreciation of the value of different perspectives on life, society and knowledge.

Although you will have gained these skills and attributes from studying the works of philosophers, they have a general application outside philosophy as well.

For example, many of the principles of argument analysis are universal - what characterises a successful argument in philosophy can be much the same as what characterises a successful argument in fields such as politics, public policy or education.

Further, the study of philosophy requires the processing of difficult texts, and of information that initially may seem obscure, so that you become experienced at gaining insight into unfamiliar subject matter.

Comments from philosophy graduates

Philosophy graduates often mention that the skills they learn from studying philosophy are invaluable to their career, and can put them ahead of other graduates.

"Given that I'm in the business of building arguments and testing hypotheses, deciding how to lay out data based on what I want to argue, and framing research findings, clear and critical thinking is essential. I think that it's not something other candidates for the kind of jobs I do have training in - and it really makes or breaks you in terms of performance..."

"In general I've found that studying philosophy honed skills I've used a lot at work... breaking down complex points into its parts and talking about how they relate. It's also generally useful when communicating with a wide range of stakeholders on a project... I've often resorted to the kinds of analytical skills I developed in philosophy to help people be really clear about what they want or expect from a project as well as challenging interpretations and spin on research findings."

Source: The Australasian Association of Philosophy

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