advice by identifying the importance of deriving skills from majors more than twenty years ago. But unfortunately, his brilliant ideas have been turned into trite lists of commonsense skills from majors: for example, English majors are great writers, history majors are great researchers, and so on. You need to get beyond identifying basic skills such as communication and thinking because it’s all too easy to apply them to any major. Business majors can be just as good at writing as English majors, depending on the individual. It’s more important to focus on what you learned and what skills you have developed from your classes and your major, rather than accept a few stereotypes (which every interviewer has heard a million times from other students, by the way). Here are just a few examples of what you could derive from some classes you might have taken: English
• What books did you read? Did any book stand out for you? Why?
• Were the books written from a particular ethnic, cultural, or other unique perspective? What did you learn from that perspective? How could your knowledge apply to the increasingly diverse workplace?
• What characters did you analyze? What did you learn about those characters? Into what situations were they placed? How did they respond? What motivated them?
• Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird has inspired many students to become lawyers.
• Langston Hughes’s poetry often speaks to the hard work of the laborer and would help managers better appreciate the life challenges of the people who work for them.
• Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman is an interesting study of the role of the salesperson in a company, and the need for strong training and human resource services.
Sociology
• Did you study the concept of social Darwinism? How could that theory be applied to a workplace? Why and how do certain organizations survive while others fail?
• What about structural functionalism? What structures exist in a company because they serve a purpose? What structures have outlived their purpose? Is the company able to see this? If so, how does it go about changing the situation?
• How does self-fulfilling prophecy apply to the stock market?
Biology
• How would you apply the scientific method in the workplace?
• Why is it important to follow a logical thinking process?
• How do you analyze a situation?
• When decisions are made, are they based on sound research or on hypotheses, beliefs, or guesses?
Economics
• How does Pareto’s 80/20 rule apply to the workplace? What could it say about productivity in the workplace?
• How does the concept of supply and demand apply to the career field you’re pursuing?
Anthropology
• How do cultures operate in a workplace?
• Have you ever worked for an organization that has a union? Did you notice a cultural difference between the union workers and the management? Did any communication difficulties arise? How were they handled? Was each culture appropriately validated or did you perceive a power struggle?
Psychology
• What do you know about motivation?
• What factors influence an individual’s behavior?
• How might the concept of extinction apply in the workplace?
• How could cognitive behavioral techniques be applied in the workplace?
• How could your knowledge of psychology help you reduce stress in your employees?
History
• What period did you study? What significant events and changes occurred during that time period? How did it influence today’s situations? What did society learn from the events?
• Who were the leaders during the period? Were they strong, weak, charismatic, memorable, egocentric? How did their leadership style affect the events of the time?
• History teaches us to pay attention to who’s in charge and the scope of their influence. The same holds true in the workplace. Who’s in charge and how do they lead? What language do they use?
• Studying Martin Luther King’s speeches, for
• What books did you read? Did any book stand out for you? Why?
• Were the books written from a particular ethnic, cultural, or other unique perspective? What did you learn from that perspective? How could your knowledge apply to the increasingly diverse workplace?
• What characters did you analyze? What did you learn about those characters? Into what situations were they placed? How did they respond? What motivated them?
• Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird has inspired many students to become lawyers.
• Langston Hughes’s poetry often speaks to the hard work of the laborer and would help managers better appreciate the life challenges of the people who work for them.
• Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman is an interesting study of the role of the salesperson in a company, and the need for strong training and human resource services.
Sociology
• Did you study the concept of social Darwinism? How could that theory be applied to a workplace? Why and how do certain organizations survive while others fail?
• What about structural functionalism? What structures exist in a company because they serve a purpose? What structures have outlived their purpose? Is the company able to see this? If so, how does it go about changing the situation?
• How does self-fulfilling prophecy apply to the stock market?
Biology
• How would you apply the scientific method in the workplace?
• Why is it important to follow a logical thinking process?
• How do you analyze a situation?
• When decisions are made, are they based on sound research or on hypotheses, beliefs, or guesses?
Economics
• How does Pareto’s 80/20 rule apply to the workplace? What could it say about productivity in the workplace?
• How does the concept of supply and demand apply to the career field you’re pursuing?
Anthropology
• How do cultures operate in a workplace?
• Have you ever worked for an organization that has a union? Did you notice a cultural difference between the union workers and the management? Did any communication difficulties arise? How were they handled? Was each culture appropriately validated or did you perceive a power struggle?
Psychology
• What do you know about motivation?
• What factors influence an individual’s behavior?
• How might the concept of extinction apply in the workplace?
• How could cognitive behavioral techniques be applied in the workplace?
• How could your knowledge of psychology help you reduce stress in your employees?
History
• What period did you study? What significant events and changes occurred during that time period? How did it influence today’s situations? What did society learn from the events?
• Who were the leaders during the period? Were they strong, weak, charismatic, memorable, egocentric? How did their leadership style affect the events of the time?
• History teaches us to pay attention to who’s in charge and the scope of their influence. The same holds true in the workplace. Who’s in charge and how do they lead? What language do they use?
• Studying Martin Luther King’s speeches, for
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