Dear students majoring in "professional" majors,

Please reconsider.

A post in Inside Higher Ed makes an argument I have consistently made: that majoring in professional (or, as the author puts it, a "career-aligned") majors is not the guaranteed job-preparer they seem to be or are even relevant to what you will do: a recent study found that just over a quarter of "degree-holders are working in a job that is directly related to their college major."

Look at me: I was an English major, which totally prepared me for running a non-profit organization (insert eye roll). When I went to college, there was no such thing as a nonprofit management major (and I doubt there will ever be one at my college), but I learned a lot in that major that prepared me for the job I have now, including critical thinking, communication skills, and the ability to understand different perspectives.

The world of work is changing so much faster than even the (relatively) short time ago when I was in college. Does anyone really think -- including the faculty and institutions creating these majors -- that a student in one of these very specialized majors will use the knowledge they gained during their course of study even a few years after graduation?

I get it though: pursuing an industry-specific (and often industry-approved or even industry-designed) major makes things easier in terms of getting a job because it's a linear, uncomplicated path from college to a job after college. However, what then? What happens when your field is radically changed or even eliminated? What happens if you end up hating that field once you get that job?

We in higher education would better prepare students to ensure that students leave college with a good thinking head on their shoulders, good communication skills, good interpersonal skills, knowledge of the fundamentals of a discipline or area, and then some supervised and integrated professional experience so they can enter the workplace ready to learn, ready to work, and ready to adapt. Employers will teach the specifics of their industry; they cannot be expected to teach students how to think, how to write, how to speak, and how to interact with others in the workplace and in the world: that's our job.