How choosing a joint honours degree can increase your graduate employment chances

George, one of our summer interns here at Sanctuary Graduates, who is studying History and Economics at the University of Oxford, shares his insights on the merits of joint honours degree courses.

Jack of all Trades: An Ode to Joint Honour Subjects

Degree Stereotypes

Universities are full of subject stereotypes. All classics students are called Hugo and wear signet rings, mathematicians have no social life and enjoy playing Pokémon, every economist is a wannabe Goldman Sachs executive with no moral compass, I could go on. Obviously, whilst these portrayals present nothing more than a crude and often wildly erroneous caricature, they do raise a very pertinent point. People will judge you on your choice of degree; they will expect you to pursue a career in related industries, and, most importantly, they will presume your skillset lies within its parameters. Moreover, given the relatively narrow focus of many degree courses and the skills which they focus on cultivating, this common presumption can develop into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Transferable skills over subject knowledge

Speaking from experience here, most 17 year olds have no clear-cut idea of where their skillset lies. Going into his final year at school, the average teenage boy’s focus fluctuates largely between football, girls, parties and trying to get served in the local off-license. Whilst I am exaggerating once again, it is certainly true that very few students have a long-term skillset development plan in mind when choosing their university degree, less still any consideration as to how it will affect their job prospects. In employment terms, subjects themselves matter less than the transferable skills one learns through undertaking them; neither the historian’s knowledge of Henry II’s legal system nor the theologian’s command of Augustinian rhetoric are directly relevant to their suitability for a role in consultancy so much as their ability to assimilate vast quantities of information and then present it in a cogent manner.

Quantity vs. quality – they both matter

Despite this, subject skills are not universally transferable and this can significantly affect your suitability for graduate roles. For example, the quantitative background required for many jobs may rule out humanities students whose development throughout university has had a far more qualitative focus. Similarly, those who choose to study mathematics or engineering may be equally handicapped when applying for positions in which detailed reporting is needed. It really is a disturbing reality that your choice of future career could, to a certain extent, be the result of a split decision made as a naïve sixth-former, rather than one reached through informed consideration.

The best of both worlds

Joint honour subjects therefore, in my opinion at least, provide the perfect refuge for the multi-faceted and the terminally unsure. There is both an absence of pigeonholing and a breadth of development which enables those who are yet to decide upon a specific area of interest to keep their options open. The skillset cultivated will also not be as asymmetrical as a single honours degree, allowing for more rounded development and a versatility which lends itself to a wider range of potential careers. Moreover, used wisely, such a degree can also be used to your advantage in vying for graduate roles. If you are able to present yourself to a potential employer as someone who not only fulfils their primary requirements regarding skillsets but also possesses other complementary competencies, it can maximise your chance of landing the position.

My advice then is straightforward: If you are entirely fixed upon a certain degree and the development of associated skills, then plough on and commit yourself to it. If you are sitting on the fence, unsure where your future lies or ambivalent as to where your skillset lies, at least consider a joint honours course.