Philosophy majors go on to flourishing career paths in a variety of different fields. The study of philosophy develops crucial transferable job skills — the capacity for reasoning, argumentation, critical analysis, problem solving, and the ability to consider issues from multiple perspectives. Acquiring these skills makes you a creative and nimble thinker, capable of adapting to the ever-changing demands of the contemporary job market and to life in a fast-changing world. In an environment in which most people will have multiple jobs over the span of a lifetime, such skills are, and will continue to be, in demand.

People with bachelor’s degrees in Philosophy tend to earn more over their lifetime than people with degrees in other humanities fields. Philosophy students have one of the highest starting salaries ($62,700) and mid-career salaries ($108,400), according to data gathered by PayScale from 2024.

Many of our students find that Philosophy pairs well with another major at UAB. Some of the most common second majors are: Psychology, Biology, Neuroscience, Political Science, Business, and Computer Science. Double majoring around the country has increased over the past two decades, and for good reason: in addition to providing resilience in changing labor markets due to a diversification of skills, some data suggest that double majoring is associated with significantly higher earnings.