How to Choose a College Major: and/or How to Hire the Best Applicant for Your Business

College students agonizing over what to major in will want to consider the advice of Bill Gates. Or is it Steve Jobs? Or Jasen Walker? Here’s an opportunity to take sides. Mr. Gates, in an address to the nation’s governors in early March, urged “work-related learning,” that the emphasis should be aimed at academic disciplines that are “well correlated to areas that actually produce jobs.” Mr. Jobs, on the other hand, said, “It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough – it’s technology married with the liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing and nowhere is that more true than in these post-PC devices.” Dr. Jasen Walker, President of CEC Associates, Inc., wrote on this same subject in March. The article was published as the Spring 2011 edition of the New Worker newsletter on CEC’s website. In this article, Walker suggested that employers feel they can do the technical training needed for their business if the individual employee brings a positive attitude and resilience to the job. But, to settle the issue once and for all, we’re asking you to vote. You can find the poll on the right side of your screen. Tell us which of the three pieces of advice, Gates, Jobs, or Walker, you favor.