THINK AGAIN!

Your passion is philosophy, English literature or American history. That's fine for college, but what does it get you in the real world? Are you doomed to a sequence of random, boring and low-paying jobs once you leave the ivory towers behind?

Not if you know how to translate your education into the world of work.

Emory University reports that, historically, more than 90 percent of job postings at its Career Center and on-campus interview opportunities are open to all majors. Recently, a representative from Goldman Sachs made a presentation on why people who major in the liberal arts make great analysts on Wall Street.

"Liberal arts majors are in high demand by the employers who interview on our campus," said Phil Rockwell, a counselor with Georgia State University Career Services. "Companies want employees with good communication skills. They need people who can think critically; who can write and speak well; who can run projects, interact on teams and sell on paper or in person.

"Liberal arts majors can do all those things. Our challenge is to get them to expand their own thinking — to know their values, skills and interests so that they can put their degrees to work."

He encourages students to plug into the university's Panther Career Net, where they can use assessment instruments such as SIGI 3, which links personal values and skills with actual job titles, or the Vault, which also explores education and career pathways.

"There might be 100-plus job titles for the English major who doesn't want to teach, but the student has to do the research," Rockwell said.

His office also sponsors Career Conversations sessions with industry leaders during the year to spark students' imaginations and give insider points on how to get a foot in the door in various career fields.

"Students will tell me that, if they get a degree in math, they'll have to teach, and I tell them, no, you don't! There are so many things you can do, and there is a universe of tools out there to help you find those jobs," Rockwell said.

A winding road

While it's a straight shot for an accounting major to seek employment with a corporate accounting firm, the career road for a philosophy or English major likely will have more twists.

Todd Wilson graduated from the University of Georgia with a bachelor of arts in anthropology and a bachelor of science in secondary education with a history emphasis.

"I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, so I thought my best avenue would be teaching. Student-teaching ninth-grade world history was the most rewarding and most depressing thing I've ever done," he said.

Because he didn't graduate during the teacher-hiring season, his 100 teaching applications went unnoticed, but a posting on an Internet jobs board led to a job at a small firm that designs Web sites.

That job was an awkward fit, so Wilson fell back on college editing experience and took a job at ProEdit, where he wrote technical and marketing copy for large corporations. That led to a job with IBM's global innovation services group.

Today, he's an account director with nurun | ant farm interactive, a global agency that specializes in Web site and mobile advertising.

"I have a lot of global clients, and it has been enormously helpful to have a varied background," Wilson said. "Anthropology taught me to understand and appreciate differences in cultures and people. History taught me about research and how to analyze materials for their underlying influences, and my teaching courses taught me how to speak in front of a crowd."

Wilson is "thrilled with his education and doesn't regret it for a minute." His advice to liberal arts majors: "Learn to bring everything you study into the real world."

Translating skills

Joe Bechely, senior account executive in integrated marketing communications with Manning, Selvage & Lee, doesn't believe that anything you learn ever will be a detriment to your career. He advises young people to chase their dreams and follow what they like to do.

Bechely chose to major in American Sign Language interpreting at the University of Tennessee because he loved it. He earned a master's degree in college administration at Florida State University because he liked working with students.

While working as the assistant director of student activities at Emory University, he did a weekly radio segment on around-town activities for Star 94, which led to his hosting a talk show with a startup TV network in Los Angeles. The station went bankrupt about two years ago, but, by then, Bechely knew that he wanted a career in communications.

He was ready when the hiring managers at Manning, Selvage & Lee wanted to know how his experience prepared him for the job.

"What we do here is translating complex ideas into something that people can digest — that's where interpreting comes in," he said. "My job in higher education taught me how to manage people, time and projects, and hosting my own TV show taught me how to sell a project."

He got the job, which he believes is a perfect fit.

"The whole point of a college degree is to prove that you're trainable," Bechely said. "Any employer will teach you the specifics of a job, but you need to show that you know how to learn."

Analytical thinking

Having a degree in history and political science from Emory University made him more willing to listen and learn in all of his jobs, said Lee Bradley, managing director of SAMCO Capital Markets Inc.

"I didn't start out with any preconceived notions about business, so in new situations I was adaptable and open-minded. I'd rather hire someone with a liberal arts degree, because they don't know everything, but they know how to think analytically," Bradley said.

He planned to go to law school, but he took corporate and business jobs. When an aunt left him $10,000, he started investing in stocks.

Bradley was running his own boutique brokerage when a client asked him to help raise money for a community bank in Savannah. In the last 20 years, he's become the "Johnny Appleseed of banking," raising investment capital to start 122 banks in 20 states. In 2005, he merged his company with SAMCO.

"I'm still doing the same thing; I just have more resources. I love working in different communities, and this job allows me to meet some of the most fabulous people," he said.

He advises liberal arts majors to get a good education and stay open-minded about where they might end up in the real world.

Major is minor

Students think that their GPAs and majors are the most important factors to employers, Rockwell said, but skills and initiative are what the job market requires. A National Association of Colleges and Employers survey showed that what companies want most from new college graduates are communication skills, motivation/initiative, teamwork, leadership, flexibility, technical skills and interpersonal skills.

Liberal arts students often have more transferable skills than they realize, but it's up to them to recognize their strengths and be able to articulate them. Unless you help him or her, the hiring manager may never make the leap from your study of cultural anthropology to your ability to size up a business market.

The challenge, say career coaches, is that too many new graduates don't know how to make that leap.

George DuPuy, dean of the School of Business Management at Shorter College's satellite campus in Atlanta, became interested in career coaching for students in the 1980s, when he realized that even business majors didn't have a clue about the job search process.

Seeing too many bright kids graduate without jobs, return home to live with their parents and take the first jobs that offered them paychecks, DuPuy wrote "Career PREP-

aration: Transition Guide for College Students" (Prentice Hall, 2003).

According to a Money magazine article in January, this phenomenon is so common that social scientists have dubbed it "adultolescence." More than 65 percent of college graduates return home to live for five years or more after graduation, compared with 53 percent in 2002.

DuPuy recently founded Career Launch (www.welaunchcareers

.com), an Atlanta consulting firm that specializes in helping college students and graduates find fulfilling careers.

"Before they graduate, students need to figure out who they are by using personal assessment tools to discover their strengths, weaknesses, abilities and interests," DuPuy said. "That way, when they research the world of work, they'll have a better idea of what occupations are a good fit."

DuPuy shows students how to look at courses from the perspective of skills acquired. He coaches them in the use of networking and informational interviews to find jobs and narrow down career choices. Students are more successful when they focus on career paths, rather than interviewing with every possible employer, he said.

DuPuy believes internships are a valuable tool, because they provide students with looks at real jobs, help them narrow down career selections and can lead to job offers, if the students impress their bosses.

"When they see the real work environment, not the TV version, they can tailor their résumés to what they want to do and market themselves aggressively to specific industries or companies," DuPuy said.

Far from useless or unmarketable, your liberal arts degree can lead to a range of job titles — not just "waiter," as the old joke states. The key is to move beyond your specific knowledge of Shakespeare and Plato to sell the benefits of your broad-based education.

If you can argue that four years of papers, projects, activities and interpersonal relationships taught you how to think and solve problems, you're well on your way to being a good investment for employers.