http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/undergraduate-dh-training-transferable-skills-and-employment-prospects Digital Humanities Questions & Answers » Topic: Undergraduate DH Training, Transferable Skills, and Employment Prospects en-US Fri, 04 Oct 2013 22:10:42 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 q http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/search.php http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/undergraduate-dh-training-transferable-skills-and-employment-prospects#post-1964 Sat, 06 Apr 2013 00:24:49 +0000 scottkleinman 1964@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ <p>Yes, it's important to stress that the humanities skills *are* an asset to employers. The "tech" knowledge students acquire through DH are on their own an added bonus, but more so in combination with humanities training. I think it's also important to articulate what it is about DH that will help students get a "foot in the door". Part of this message has to be aimed at administrators/donors so that they will support DH on campus and part of it has to be aimed at students to attract their interest in courses.</p> <p>Undergraduate degrees in DH are still fairly rare, so in many cases, we're talking about individual courses. At some institutions (mine being one), students may not be able to obtain the kind of breadth you describe through electives, and DH can then play an important access role, allowing students who cannot take (or are intimidated by taking) CS or Stats to obtain some knowledge of these subjects. They may well pick up more than they would in a lower-division course.</p> <p>Regardless, I think your suggestions are a good start at compiling the list I am looking for. Somewhere in between or around framing socio-economic problems and weighing alternate hypotheses, I'd add addressing those problems through technological solutions. </p> http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/undergraduate-dh-training-transferable-skills-and-employment-prospects#post-1963 Fri, 05 Apr 2013 21:17:08 +0000 tedunderwood 1963@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ <p>Good question! I've been thinking about this a lot. I think we can start by giving full credit to the traditional humanistic side. I worked in the private sector before going to grad school (as a technical writer and a bit as a developer), and I recall that the scarcest resources were not technical know-how but clear organization and communication. In theory, those are things we teach in the humanities -- although probably we don't do as much group/project work as we should. But anyway, I can totally see a path to "project manager" or "technical writer" for undergraduates with (some) technical and (good) verbal skills.</p> <p>A little more ambitiously, there are a lot of private-sector data-analysis jobs where domain savvy + basic quantitative chops are more important than an ability to optimize C++. Business intelligence, marketing, consulting, etc. I think a student could get a foot in that sort of door by demonstrating some basic data-mining and visualization skills, plus a really strong ability to frame socio-economic problems and weigh alternate hypotheses.</p> <p>Probably there are other niches that make better use of humanities-specific skills. But honestly if I were advising an undergrad right now, I wouldn't be pushing DH-qua-DH so much as I would be pushing *breadth.* I think they should take Econ as well as History and English and CS and Stats. </p> http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/undergraduate-dh-training-transferable-skills-and-employment-prospects#post-1962 Fri, 05 Apr 2013 20:47:00 +0000 scottkleinman 1962@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ <p>This isn't really a specific question, but more of a conversation starter. I've been looking around for a well-articulated statement of the transferable skills students acquire in studying digital humanities, above and beyond, and in combination with traditional humanities skills. As we try to transfer DH research culture to the undergraduate classroom, it seems to me increasingly important to make a case that studying DH provides skills that are in demand by employers--and that give graduates a leg up in the job market--but one especially geared towards undergraduate, the majority of whom are not going to pursue graduate school. I think many of us treat the advantages as self-evident: coding skills, data analysis, project management, to name a few types of knowledge not emphasised in the traditional humanities. These are all skills in demand. But the undergraduate DH student is not likely to be competitive with one in computer scientist for a software engineering job. Is there a special niche for the humanities students with a DH background?</p> <p>Thoughts or resources are greatly appreciated. </p>