Career outcomes for Humanities concentrators face common misconceptions, but the facts tell a different story. The National Humanities Alliance, which represents colleges, libraries, museums, cultural organizations, and scholarly, professional, and higher education associations has just published a helpful new resource: The Humanities Pathway to Career Success. Read full text here: https://nhalliance.org/career-success/
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Article Summary:
Humanities students develop versatile, marketable skills that set them apart in the job market. Here’s how:
- There is a gap between the skills that employers value and the skills they are finding in recent graduates. Oral communication (81%), written communication (77%), and critical thinking (78%) are three skills that most employers desire when hiring. Humanities concentrators develop strong oral and written communication skills by analyzing arguments and synthesizing information in discussion-based courses, and through frequent writing assignments.
- Humanities training also supports success in graduate studies (including law, business, and medicine) and tends to produce higher test scores and acceptance rates.
- Many humanities majors find ways to build careers that are both mission-driven and highly compensated. Humanities concentrators who prioritize earnings are very successful, and are as likely to work in high-paying fields like management and consulting. In most cases, your concentration does not dictate your career. For those that focus on rewarding mission-driven work, the data showed that “overall, their earnings keep pace with other majors over the course of their careers.”
- As AI transforms the workplace, the communication, problem solving, and critical thinking skills students develop through coursework will only become more valuable. According to a McKinsey study “3× more employees are using gen AI for a third or more of their work than their leaders imagine; more than 70% of all employees believe that within 2 years gen AI will change 30% or more of their work.” New graduates will need to be agile and creative to solve new problems and integrate AI ethically into existing workflows. While narrow technical skills may be replaced by AI, the National Humanities Alliance notes that “a humanities education [and the skills that it fosters] will never become obsolete.”
A.G. Lafley, Former CEO of Procter & Gamble recommends studying the liberal arts. He argues businesses should “hire employees with the mental agility, leadership and passion to navigate constant change – in other words, hire those who are liberally educated.”
A humanities concentration isn’t a detour from career success; it’s a direct route to it. Whether you aspire to law, business, tech, the arts, or public service, the skills you’re building at Harvard such as critical thinking, communication, creativity, and adaptability are exactly what employers are seeking and what the future demands. Far from being a liability, your studies in the humanities are an investment in a flexible, future-proof career and a meaningful life.
MCS is hosting several upcoming programs of interest to Humanities concentrators.
- Humanities, Communications, and Creative Careers Panel
- Humanities, Communications and Creative Careers Expo
- January Arts and Museums Winter Internship Program with (Link to Postings in Crimson Careers). This program occurs from January 5-23, 2026 and places students into paid full-time, project-based internships at area arts organizations and museums during Winter break. Participating organizations include the Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Carpenter Center for Visual Studies, Boston Center for the Arts, Dumbarton Oaks, Multicultural Arts Center, Boston Baroque, Pao Arts Center, Museum of African American History, The Signet Society, Charles River Museum of Industry, Plimoth Patuxet Museums & The Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum. Deadline to apply is Sunday October 19th.
Harvard humanities alumni are thriving across a wide range of industries and graduate programs. Here are some examples:
