Welcome to the General Studies Career Community!
A general studies degree is an open and flexible pathway that allows for a diverse range of careers. People with general studies degrees work across many fields, including business, healthcare, technology, education, non-profits, and more.
Start Here: What Can I Do With My Degree?
A general studies degree gives you the freedom to choose a broad range of subjects that you can study. As a result, this is usually a hands-on degree program where you are active in choosing the classes you would like to take as electives. If you’re not sure what direction you want to take with this degree, try asking yourself these questions:
- What is it that I want to do?
- What are my current skills and background?
- What classes can I take to develop useful skills or knowledge for my future career?
Explore your career opportunities!
If you’re stumped on where to begin with a general studies degree, we recommend using the O*Net Interest Profiler Tool to explore your career interests and see what careers could be a good fit for you.
Consider your strengths: General Studies and Liberal Arts Strengths
What opportunities are possible with a general studies degree? The truth is that there are probably thousands of different jobs where a general studies education is useful. General studies is both open-ended and flexible, which means you can choose classes that match your goals and interests, while also completing general education classes that contribute to a well-rounded education.
Not sure of the career path you’d like to take with a general studies degree?
Explore career ideas, then search for jobs on Handshake
Entry-point roles exist across all industries. When searching for entry-level jobs, you might want to look for terms like junior, assistant, associate, trainee, coordinator, or clerk. These words are usually a sign that a job is an entry-point role. There are thousands of roles that could be a good fit, so try to think outside the box when you search.
Here are a few possible starting points:
Bank Teller or Client Services: Helps clients open, access, and manage their financial accounts and information. Assists with answering questions, trouble-shooting issues, and offering basic financial advice.
Manager in Training: Manages other people, projects, and/or operations in retail, financial services, healthcare, education, or other fields. Management training programs can be a great option for someone who wants to grow into people leadership.
Human Resources Specialist or Recruiter: Entry-level human resources professionals focus on recruitment, onboarding, training, and retaining staff within an organization.
Healthcare Administrators: Healthcare organizations exist within every community and are major employers. There are many entry-point healthcare administration roles, including things like scheduling, patient coordination, and communicating with insurance companies.
Mid-level roles will ask for a few years of relevant experience and skills. Here are some examples to get you started with searching, but this is just the beginning:
Marketing Specialist: Research sales conditions in markets and determine plans for the marketing and sales of goods and/or services.
Project Management Specialist: Manages projects from initiation to completion, managing teams, and ensuring project goals are met.
Training and Development Specialists: Develops and delivers training programs for employees, leveraging knowledge of training and discipline-specific knowledge.
Financial and Investment Analysts: Analyzes financial data, preparing reports and providing insights for decision-making.
Nonprofit Fundraising: Leads fundraising campaigns, donor relations, and contributes to the financial sustainability of the organization.
With a general studies degree and a number of years of specialized, in-field experience, you can grow into senior-level careers.
Here are a few possibilities:
Chief Executives: Chief executives like CEOs (Chief Executive Officers), CFOs (Chief Financial Officers), COOs (Chief Operating Officers), and CTOs (Chief Technology Officers) manage the strategic direction and operations of organizations, utilizing their specialized knowledge and leadership skills to focus on leading their departments and supporting the goals of the organization.
Social and Community Services Managers: Social and community service managers often lead nonprofit organizations, managing others, setting strategic goals, and overseeing nonprofit operations.
Director of Public Relations: Directors of Public Relations (PR) lead PR teams, managing communication strategies, and enhancing the public image of organizations.
Director of Operations: Directors of Operations manage the functioning of various operational aspects within organizations.
Policy Analysts: Individuals can become policy advisors or analysts in private business or government, providing expertise, analysis, and recommendations to shape organizational or government policies.
Handshake Employer Collection: Liberal Arts
Handshake is SNHU’s job board for online learners and alumni! We’ve collected a list of top employers targeting talented Liberal Arts professionals like you. Browse and use these lists to discover companies and explore job opportunities.
You must be logged into Handshake to view this collection.
Liberal Arts Degrees and AI
With the rise of new automation technologies, many people worry that their education will be less valuable because automation could one day do their jobs. In reality, human skills like critical thinking, creativity, and emotional intelligence are likely to be more useful than ever. Click to read more in the article below:
How To Gain Experience Before the Job
You’re looking for your dream job, but you keep seeing that it asks for 2 – 3 years of experience. You might get frustrated and think: “How can I get experience for a job without landing a job?”
There are many options and strategies you can use to gain experience in your chosen field. Knowing the types of experiences available can help you determine which ones are right for you, based on your interests and career goals.
Watch the webinar below, and then explore the accordion menus to consider different options for gaining experience before you land a job:
Internships and SNHU Challenges
Internships are short-term educational work experiences offered by employers which allow interns to receive hands-on experience related to their degree under the supervision and guidance of a qualified leader. Be sure to watch Internships 101 if you are thinking about doing an internship while you are at SNHU. SNHU also offers a number of smaller ways to gain experience, including academic challenges and virtual projects.
Volunteering is a low-commitment way to get a foot in the door and start to build experience. While internships are great when they are an option, some people do not have the time to do a full-time internship while in school. Volunteering can be a less intensive way to build skills, meet people in your future industry, and even land job offers.
Best of all, no matter where you live there are organizations that need volunteers near you. Here are some places you can start your search, but don’t forget to look around your local area and ask family and friends for ideas:
Top Virtual Volunteer Opportunities for Students
Free and Charitable Clinics and Charitable Pharmacies – Healthcare
American Heart Association Volunteers
Social Work Volunteer Opportunities
Cyber Volunteer Resource Center
GitHub – Open source STEM projects looking for volunteers
Freelancing, or contract work, is a type of self-employment where someone offers their goods or services for a short or long-term project. Freelancing can be a great way to begin to gain experience in fields that require work examples or a portfolio. Some of the positives of freelancing can include things like setting your own schedule and rates, and gaining experience in a variety of areas. The possible downsides of freelancing include things like handling your own taxes, not receiving company benefits, or having times when work is less available. Here are some common freelancing sites:
Explore Careers By Major
What Can I Do With This Major? features 100 major profiles with information on common jobs and career paths, types of employers that hire in the field, and strategies to maximize opportunities. Scroll to the bottom of each profile for links to professional associations, occupational outlook information, and job search resources.
