Career Opportunities in Anthropology
Business, medicine, teaching, law, development, social work – Anthropology majors commonly go into these and other fields, drawing on their liberal arts skills and special insight into cultural, interpersonal dynamics. Contrary to traditional assumptions, most anthropology majors are not limited to academic work. In fact, in a survey of anthropology alumni from 32 colleges in the Northeast, 62% said they worked in the profit sector, with 19% employed as administrative managers and another 16% in medicine, communications, and business. In a wide array of professions, alumni cite the benefits of anthropological training in qualitative research methods.
Our Graduates
Recent WU Anthropology graduates have found employment with:- McGraw-Hill, authoring an instructor’s manual and web site for textbook on the anthropology of religion
- Fiori Inc., a consulting firm for the high-tech industry
- Alutiiq Museum, Kodiak Island, Alaska
- Salmon Corps Program, a program of the Earth Conservation Corps that administers youth conservation projects with the Columbia River Treaty tribes
- A non-profit center for children with special needs
- Student Conservation Association
- The travel industry
- A private publishing company
Graduates have joined:
- Peace Corps, Ecuador, Mongolia, Tanzania
- AmeriCorps
- Witness for Peace, Central America
And they have pursued graduate degrees, and become educators teaching:
- Earlham College Program, Japan (teaching English)
- Christy School, Portland
- Middle school
An anthropology degree is useful for:
- The medical field, understanding ethnic differences in medicine in order to better treat culturally diverse patients
- Advertising, anthropology teaches observation of social trends or norms, and observation is needed in order to understand the mass market
- Business, communication, management, understanding cultural trends
- Any field that deals with people, directly or indirectly
So a degree in anthropology can enhance understanding in every field!
News Reports about Anthropological Work
Anthropologists in the Health Field
“[H]ealth plans and medical groups are showing a growing appetite for diversity-training courses.” —Quoted in an article about medical anthropologists who give doctors advice: “Doctors Learn to Bridge Cultural Gaps,” Wall Street Journal, September 4, 1997.
Anthropologists in the Corporate World
“Anthropologists are just as likely to be well-paid corporate consultants as they are to be hanging out with monkeys in the rain forest...Sapient, a company that develops software and electronics, has more than two dozen anthropologists on staff. House anthropologists can also be found at such companies as Intel, Kodak, Whirlpool, AT&T, and General Motors...Three things set anthropologists apart: They’re trained to look at a larger context, they have a multicultural perspective, and they use a technique called ‘participant observation’ (e.g. studying monkeys by joining their clan) that exposes what people do and want in a way surveys and focus groups do not.” —Quoted in “Hot Asset in Corporate: Anthropology Degrees,” USA Today, Feb. 18, 1999.
An Anthropologist Who Works at Intel
Click here for a CNN article about this Intel anthropologist.