Why Study French?

What Are You Going to do With a French Degree?

A question you’ve probably been asked by well-meaning relatives who don’t see how a French degree will translate into a job. Maybe you’ve even wondered about it yourself. Keep reading to see where your French studies can take you.

Where Will Your Education Take You?

Study accounting, you’ll become an accountant; engineering an engineer. There are some educational tracks that point directly to a specific career.

Generally speaking, a French degree does not. But that’s not a bad thing! Studying French opens many doors…

Mark Cuban with cited interview with him. Interviewer asked: "What type of degree do you seek in a new hire?" Mark Cuban responded with: "No finance. That's the easiest thing; you just take the data have it spit out whatever you need. I personally think there's going to be a greater demand in 10 years for liberal arts majors than there were for programming majors and maybe even engineering, because when the data is all being spit out for you, options are being spit out for you, you need a different perspective in order to have a different view of the data. And so having someone who is more of a freer thinker. (We especially look for) English, philosophy and foreign language majors."

Business Insider

Humanities majors generally are being sought out by major tech and finance companies because they bring different skills and perspectives.

Slide title: Businesses are looking for your skills. Executives now point to behavioral skills as the most critical for members of the workforce today. A list of skills are mentioned with the following behavioral skills being highlighted. Skill 1: Willingness to be flexible, agile, and adaptable to change. Skill 2: Time management skills and ability to prioritize. Skill 3: Ability to work effectively in business context. Skill 4: Ability to communicate effectively in business context. Skill 7: Capacity for innovation and creativity. Skill 9: Ethics and integrity.

Business are Looking for Your Skills

In their periodic survey of business leaders, the IBM Institute for Business Value discovered that foreign language proficiency is among the top skills businesses are looking for in new employees—in fact, it’s becoming more important every year!

But that’s not all! What other skills on this list are developed better in the humanities than in other disciplines? Ability to communicate effectively, creativity, adaptability…

Business Recruiting

It’s not just talk. Businesses really are looking for you.

Professional School

Thinking of other professions? Medicine? Law? In many cases humanities majors have higher relative acceptance rates to professional school programs than students who studied directly related disciplines.