Usefulness of College Minors

1. 92

   Jeremy Gillposted 6 years ago

   Hello all, does anyone have any experience with the usefulness (or lack thereof) of a college minor? For instance, have you ever convinced an employer to hire you based on the minor and not the major?

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      promisemposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      A minor helps a job hunt. It's also useful in a topic if you might end up getting a master's degree in that topic.
      
      Let's say you have a major in engineering and a minor in business. Some engineering recruiters look for people with skills in personnel, finance, project management, etc.
      
      After getting a good job in engineering, you decide an MBA will advance your career.
      
      If you don't have a minor in business, you will likely have to take basic courses in business in order to get through or even get into the MBA program.

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      1. 92

         Jeremy Gillposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Glad to here it! If a job search ever gets to the interview stage, I think that may be the best place to convince the company of your minor's value (assuming it's relevant).

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2. 93

   poppyrposted 6 years ago

   I always thought the major was for your career and the minor was for things you're interested in.
   I would say that having some level of understanding in a subject is helpful even if you didn't study it for your entire time in college.

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3. 70

   Aime Fposted 6 years ago

   My minor (English) has never really never come up in any capacity, most of the time I forget I have it.
   
   I was taking pretty much all of my electives in English throughout my degree and found myself at a point where I only needed two more specific classes to declare a minor so I went ahead with those, because why not. I honestly just sort of fell into it as I had not planned on declaring a minor at all.
   
   I don’t think my life would be any different whatsoever had I not done it, though. I guess it’s just one of those things that I thought would be nice to have on the backburner, just in case someone ever thought it was valuable in some way.

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   1. 92

      Jeremy Gillposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Based on what you and poppy have said, a minor seems more of a personal development than anything else. I'm hoping mine might help me land a job, especially since it's not far off from my major, but further education may be needed. Thanks to you both.

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4. 77

   Kathleen Cochranposted 6 years ago

   I have a BA in journalism.  My minor in history gives it context.  May not be critical information, but it doesn't hurt.

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   psycheskinnerposted 6 years ago

   I learned things in my minor that i use in my job today 30 years later.  Don't forget that sometimes the purpose of an education is to learn things

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   AlexisJPposted 6 years ago

   My minor (journalism) gave me much more than I expected. I was going to be a psychologist but one day I received a job offer from writemypapersonline.com It was my first part-time job and it gave me a possibility to combine my experience and skills in both fields.

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