Life After College

There are resources both inside and outside of the Department of Philosophy to help students imagine these and other careers and then successfully launch their chosen career path.

PRISM for Philosophy Majors: Every year, with funding from the university’s Career Advancement office, the Department of Philosophy runs a series of events for current and prospective Philosophy majors and minors designed both to help them succeed in the philosophy program and to develop post-graduate plans. For instance, the department has invited alumni back to campus to answer questions about how they got a job in various fields (law, Internet entrepreneurship, academic administration, consulting) and how philosophical thinking still shapes their professional and personal lives.

Career Advancement is the university’s career office for undergraduates. Their career counselors meet one-on-one with students, helping them define their career goals, hone their interviewing techniques, and produce materials such as cover letters and CVs. The office also holds a variety of career-focused events to help students refine their career choices and to give them contacts (especially University of Chicago alums) who can aid them with their job search.

It may be a pleasant surprise for some parents of undergraduate philosophy majors to learn that the logical, linguistic, critical, and rhetorical skills acquired in philosophy classes make our students highly marketable in a variety of careers. Some of our graduates have jobs in non-profits or new media concerns; teach in secondary schools; or work as programmers, technical writers, editors, or consultants.

Here are brief profiles of some of our alums describing in their own words what they do and how studying philosophy at the University of Chicago has shaped their professional interests, career paths, and day-to-day work. Click on the areas of interest to you below to read their stories:

1. Come back to Stuart Hall when you are on campus and say hello!

2. Participate in online programming developed specifically for departmental alumni such as:

Nethanel Lipshitz, Online Workshop for Departmental Alumni, "Evil and Equality," May 9, 2018

3. Sign up for our Philalum alumni listserv to receive recent departmental news and information about departmental events for (or of interest to) Department of Philosophy alumni (click on "subscribe" on the left-hand side of the page).

4. Consider a donation to the Department of Philosophy (in the "Area of Support" dropdown, select "Department of Philosophy")