Publications

Previous Page | Next Page

THE RESPONSES TO THE QUESTIONNAIRE

Respondents were asked to provide their name and where they worked, their employer, job title and principal duties, the non-philosophical background pertinent to their job, how they obtained their job, and the personal characteristics and philosophical skills they use in their job, and further comments.

Stephen Albaugh

Iowa Institute of Philosophy

Non-philosophical Background Pertinent to Your Job: None.

How You Obtained Your Job: I created it.

Personal Characteristics and Philosophical Skills You Use in Your Job: This position requires all of my philosophical skills, as well as skills in publishing, marketing, and speaking.

Comments: I also manage residential treatment facilities for the mentally ill. I use my skills here in developing systems.

Harry K. Armstrong

Defense Personnel Support Center

Job Title and Principal Duties: Defense Logistic Agency's Midlevel Management Acquisition Intern.

Non-philosophical Background Pertinent to Your Job: Immediately after entering the federal workforce, I took advantage of their educational benefits, realizing that an advanced degree in philosophy would not be understood or ignored for its beneficial attributes. I completed my Master of Science in Administration Degree and am currently completing my MBA. This aggressive behavior, and deep commitment to education, has benefited myself, my career, and the federal government.

How You Obtained Your Job: Initially, the federal government hired me off the street as part of their "Outstanding Scholars Program." This is a federal governmental program that selects college graduates, regardless of their fields of study and who have an overall G.P.A. of 3.5 or above, and places them in a two-year, fast paced training environment that ultimately yields competent, highly educated procurement professionals. The program I am presently participating in, for midlevel managers, was obtained through fierce competition and by being nominated by a high-ranking selection committee.

Personal Characteristics and Philosophical Skills You Use in Your Job: Critical thinking and problem solving can be utilized in every facet of life. My philosophical education has allowed me to enter a business environment with a different and untainted point of view, which has enabled me to look at and contribute ideas and methodologies that ordinary business personnel may have either ignored or were totally unaware of. With the aid of logic, and considering an issue from several perspectives besides the traditional short-term bottom-line approach, I have contributed to many leading-edge governmental projects that have paved the way for many agencies to follow.

Comments: I would encourage anyone, especially those individuals interested in pursuing a business career, to be exposed, to the maximum extent possible, to philosophy. New, innovative, and creative methods of doing business are needed in this increasingly competitive business environment and, unfortunately, these ideas will probably not come from those with a traditional tunnel-visioned business degree. Philosophy, on the other hand, has opened my eyes, and other individuals' eyes as well, to more practical and pragmatic approaches to daily activities that saved millions of dollars and have benefited everyone involved.

Eugene Atkin

Oakton Community College

genea@oakton.edu

Job Title and Principal Duties: Coordinator of Research and Planning. Conduct institutional research including academic assessment at institutional and program levels, transfer student transcript analysis, district census information, and various in-house ad hoc projects. Write surveys for current students and alumni, analyze data, and interpret findings. Ex officio member of Program Review Committee. Use SAS and SQL programming languages on mainframe and several PC applications in Windows.

Non-philosophical Background Pertinent to Your Job: Statistics, research design, management skills. A solid liberal arts background from Grinnell College, where I was a History major.

How You Obtained Your Job: I finished my Ph.D. in Higher Education, an interdisciplinary program in the Graduate School at the University of Minnesota. Institutional research is a "natural" for someone with this qualification. My present position was advertised, but networking was a factor in my being employed here.

Personal Characteristics and Philosophical Skills You Use in Your Job: Writing clearly, understanding faculty members from the widest range of disciplines. I am frequently able to make distinctions that bridge different points of view. I use philosophical ideas to translate faculty ideas into survey questionnaire items.

Comments: I confine my "purely" philosophical interest as an adjunct faculty member in philosophy, teaching evenings and weekends for Roosevelt University, Chicago, in suburban Arlington Heights.

Rex Clemmensen

American College Testing (ACT)

Job Title and Principal Duties: Senior Test Specialist with Law School Admission Test.

Non-philosophical Background Pertinent to Your Job: Ability to meet deadlines, tact, writing skills, knowledge of psychometric issues is helpful.

How You Obtained Your Job: Responded to a newspaper ad. Now advertise for new staff in JFP, on logic bulletin boards and in newspapers.

Personal Characteristics and Philosophical Skills You Use in Your Job: Tact, organization, logical skills in argument analysis, clarity of expression.

Comments: My staff consists primarily of philosophy Ph.D.s. I have found that skills in analytic philosophy, formal logic, and informal logic are extremely valuable in the construction of fair and defensible standardized tests.

Stephen P. Foster

Central Michigan University Libraries

34NAKPD@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU

Job Title and Principal Duties: Director of Technical Services.

Non-philosophical Background Pertinent to Your Job: MLS degree, library-computer experience, library-administrative experience.

How You Obtained Your Job: Position required a Masters of Library Science plus five years of library experience in a technical services setting.

Personal Characteristics and Philosophical Skills You Use in Your Job: Logic, writing skills, application of reasoning to questions of value (e.g., how to allocate resources, etc.), planning ability.

Comments: Many academic library positions require a second Masters' degree in a subject area. I have a Ph.D. in philosophy, which made me the logical choice to be the library liaison to the Philosophy Department at CMU. I order and select library materials for philosophy.

Robert T. Giuffrida Jr.

State University of New York System Administration through the Research Foundation of SUNY

Giuffrida@CA.SUNYcentral.edu

Non-philosophical Background Pertinent to Your Job: In my 5.5 years with NYSDSS I learned welfare employment programs plus general knowledge about welfare. I am my office's resource person on welfare regulations and administrative practices in NYS. Day-to-day, I have program oversight and technical assistance responsibilities at all of our program sites. I also play an active role in developing new program initiatives, especially in response to changing state and federal welfare policies.

How You Obtained Your Job: I was recruited by my present director based on my work for my previous employer (NYS Department of Social Services, Bureau of Employment Programs) on a joint undertaking of the two agencies -- The Bridge Program. The latter provides training and supporting services to persons receiving AFDC so that they can obtain gainful employment and eventually leave the welfare rolls. Our program operates out of the 10 educational opportunity centers (EOLS) in the State's major urban areas.

Personal Characteristics and Philosophical Skills You Use in Your Job: Ability to absorb large quantities of written information, to analyze complex situations and propose possible courses of action to my director, to write various types of program documents quickly and clearly, to interact successfully with a wide variety of people (both in terms of personality types and professional function), to speak to groups of people in my line of work on current topics, lead discussion groups, etc.

Comments: I find my philosophical training most helpful in enabling me to analyze situations and communicate my thoughts clearly and convincingly. The synthetic function is important too, for grasping the "big picture" pertaining to our work and observing relationships and connections that can be utilized to further our work.

Edwin M. Hartman

Faculty of Management and Department of Philosophy Rutgers University

ehartman@gsmack.rutgers.edu

Non-philosophical Background Pertinent to Your Job: MBA and Consulting.

How You Obtained Your Job: After a short career as an assistant professor of philosophy I got an MBA and then a job as a management consultant. After five years of that I became involved in some ventures, which proved not to require full-time attention. I began a tenure-track job in management in 1984, got tenure in 1989, and over the ensuing years have taught philosophy courses with ever greater frequency -- business ethics mainly, but not only. I am now a full professor.

Personal Characteristics and Philosophical Skills You Use in Your Job: I teach and write about business ethics. The skills are similar.

Comments: Philosophers ought to consider fields with which philosophy can overlap: law and business are the obvious ones. The professional schools pay well, and interdisciplinary work is fun and valuable. Getting the professional degree is a bit of a pain, but a big help.

Joanne B. Jarquin, Esquire

Smith, Somerville & Case, L.L.C.

jbjarquin@infosrc.com

Non-philosophical Background Pertinent to Your Job: After having completed my education in philosophy, I attended law school and received my Juris Doctor degree.

How You Obtained Your Job: I obtained my present position as an attorney after having worked as a Summer Associate with my law firm following my second year of law school.

Personal Characteristics and Philosophical Skills You Use in Your Job: As an attorney involved analyzing, synthesizing, and writing about the law. The philosophical skills I rely upon most include the writing, organizational, and analytical skills I developed during my philosophy training. The ability to identify the strengths and weaknesses in positions and to speak and write clearly and persuasively are also very important. My background in the philosophy of science lends an interesting perspective to the scientific and medical issues I encounter in my practice. My philosophy background also benefited me a great deal in law school, since analysis, synthesis and application of the law to facts is predominant in legal studies.

Comments: My switch from philosophy to law gave me both personal and professional satisfaction. A career in law provides the balance of theoretical and practical work I desired.

Deborah E. Kerman

Law School Admission Service

dkerman@lsac.org

Law School Admission Council (LSAC)

Job Title and Principal Duties: Senior Test Specialist. Duties common to all test specialists: perform reviews of test items and test forms (content, statistical, and editorial) to be used on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT); manage the review process, both in-house and for external contractor. Content reviews address both logical soundness and sensitivity to certain population subgroups (women, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Native Americans, people with disabilities, and Canadians). Monitor the performance of test writing contractors. Evaluate and respond to challenges to test items. Engage in research and development of new test item types, formats, and test information and preparation materials. Assess job applicants and interview applicants. As a Senior Test Specialist, I also have the responsibility of managing an item type; mine is Logical Reasoning. This responsibility involves ensuring a sufficient pool of Logical Reasoning items with acceptable content and statistical properties from which create 4 LSATs per year (Logical Reasoning items comprise approximately half of each LSAT).

Non-philosophical Background Pertinent to Your Job: Undergraduate degree in mathematics (helpful but not required); broad liberal arts education; strong communication skills (written and verbal; many of these were developed while I was a graduate student and then an assistant professor of philosophy); experience working closely with people of both sexes and various ethnic and geographical backgrounds.

How You Obtained Your Job: Responded to a notice in Jobs for Philosophers, completed an LSAC work sample, and had an on-site interview.

Personal Characteristics and Philosophical Skills You Use in Your Job: Philosophical skills: logic, both formal and informal; constructing arguments (in writing and in conversation); close careful reading of texts; making conceptual distinctions and determining their relative importance. Personal characteristics: arguing constructively (rather than just to make points to win); ability to separate oneself from one's work; non-perfectionism; paying attention to details; being organized.

Comments: Our work is philosophical, but we are still creating a product with a deadline -- an extreme perfectionist would have a very hard time with this job. More than the specific information, the skills and attitudes learned in philosophy are useful and relevant in this job, though specific knowledge comes in handy too (especially logic).

Jonathon Ketchurn

The Paperless Office

Job Title and Principal Duties: Computer programming

Non-philosophical Background Pertinent to Your Job: Musicology. The code- performance relations in music (where notation is a code) and computing have some similarity. Technical writing abilities also helpful.

How You Obtained Your Job: I started a business.

Personal Characteristics and Philosophical Skills You Use in Your Job: Sense of structure.

Comments: The study of philosophy should begin in high school -- liberated from English departments -- and become understood as a fundamental liberal art. Canada is currently ahead of the U.S. in this respect.

Stephanie R. Lewis

Municipal Capital Management, Inc.

slewis@municapllc.com

202 Carnegie Center, Suite 111

Princeton, NJ 08540

Job Title and Principal Duties: Managing Director, not that that means much in a small firm. We are financial advisors to municipalities and public agencies, helping with planning for, and ultimately financing, projects like schools and sewage treatment plants. We are also our own secretaries, bookkeepers, and computer administrators, and whatever else comes along.

Non-philosophical Background Pertinent to Your Job: The MBA was a necessary step in making the transition from philosophy to public finance, not so much for what I learned in business school as for the culture shift and getting the qualification for getting hired. The rest was on-the-job training.

How You Obtained Your Job: This is the third job in my non-academic career, and the story really begins with the first job. It all began with the decision to go and get an MBA and tool up for something other than a marginal academic career. I majored in finance at Wharton and did a minor in decision sciences, thinking that some computer skills would bring me more notice from recruiters than a finance major alone. (This was in the early '80's, when personal computers were just becoming a part of the scene, and my 1960's computer skills were hopelessly obsolete.) I wound up in public finance more or less by chance. My first job out of business school was in public finance at Kidder Peabody, and came through the placement office at Wharton and the usual set of interviews. What got me hired was the combination of a finance degree from a major business school, the computer and analytical skills, and the department head's thought that a humanities type would bring a long view of things. I left Kidder for a job with a firm in Princeton, and after nearly six years with that firm, another of its employees and I decided to quit our jobs and set up a new firm on our own. That was in early 1991.

Personal Characteristics and Philosophical Skills You Use in Your Job: This answer is much longer than the one above, and sounds like a list of skills and characteristics that are important to philosophy. Some important ones: primal analytical ability, middling mathematical ability, ability to deal with complex issues and keep the various threads separate, ability to present a position clearly and articulate it, ability to argue coherently .lucid prose style, being a self-starter, long attention span, ability to do forty-five things at once, a liking for talmudic conversation with others in the profession of similar intellectual style (in my case it's tax lawyers, who are the closest things to philosophers that I routinely work with).

Comments: I want to make two points. First, I firmly believe that aptitude for and training in philosophy fit a person to train for and do more or less any other kind of work. True, other kinds of jobs, such as mine, require a switch in career style that not every academic finds congenial. Other people set the problems and issues I work on for me, and there is no such thing as an eternal verity. But the important thing is that, compared to teaching and scholarly work in philosophy, most other things are easy. Second, I also believe that it is not possible to identify existing career paths for philosophers who want to do something that isn't academic philosophy. My case is typical: a decision to abandon an academic career for something completely different, a training program with a new credential at the end of it, and then sheer happenstance.

Stephen W. Luebke

Law School Admission Council

P.O. Box 40

Newtown PA 18940

sluebke@lsac.org

Job Title and Principal Duties: Director of Test Development. Develop test questions and test forms for the Law School Admission Test, a major standardized admissions test required for applicants to most U.S. and Canadian law schools. Acquire test questions. Review, revise, rewrite, edit, and process test questions. Assemble and review test forms. Review and reply to challenges to test questions. Monitor statistical performance of test questions. Hire and oversee staff doing similar work. Participate in test-related research and in test planning and development with psychometricians.

Non-philosophical Background Pertinent to Your Job: Some knowledge of statistics or educational measurement is useful in this job, but not necessary -- the necessary knowledge can be acquired on the job. I did some graduate course work in psychometrics while working. My previous work administering a grant project and a consortium was useful in the managerial and administrative aspects of the job.

How You Obtained Your Job: I conducted a search for "education-related" jobs for which my graduate study and teaching experience provided an appropriate background. I had held several such positions since leaving teaching. I found an ad for a position at LSAC in the Chronicle for Higher Education. The initial position involved reviewing reading passages and handling copyright issues, but I was quickly moved into a management position and then became director of Test Development. After some reorganization my position became Senior Test Specialist.

Personal Characteristics and Philosophical Skills You Use in Your Present Position: Reviewing, revising, and editing test questions draw heavily on the analytical skills taught in analytic philosophy -- close reading and analysis of texts, careful drawing of implications, identifying ambiguities and category mistakes. Since much of the LSA T consists of reasoning questions, my specific training in logic and informal logic was directly applicable, along with the general philosophical skill of argument analysis. Working with reading comprehension questions calls upon philosophical skill in understanding and analyzing texts. Other skills used include the ability to see multiple readings and multiple sides of an argument and a sensitivity to issues of fairness and the concerns of various population groups. Writing and editing skills and experience writing questions for classroom tests -- particularly multiple-choice questions -- are directly applicable to writing and revising questions, although for high-stakes admissions tests the standards are much higher than those usually applied in classroom tests. The job draws so heavily and directly on philosophical skills and training that one of my colleagues likes to call what we do "applied philosophy."

Comments: When I found this job, I immediately thought that this was an ideal non-academic job for a philosopher, directly applying philosophical skills. And many philosophers do the job very well. Training in analytic philosophy, informal logic, and philosophy of language seem most directly applicable to reasoning testing. The major tasks in reviewing test questions are to make sure that they are clear and unambiguous, test for the appropriate skill, and have one and only one best answer. The job is intellectually challenging and many interesting philosophical questions arise in reviewing test questions. There are several major testing companies and several smaller ones. Most of the larger ones already have some philosophers on their staffs. For other companies it might be necessary to demonstrate how philosophical training applies to editing test questions. Some companies advertise positions in JFP (in the past this has included Law School Admission Council, American College Testing, and Educational Testing Service). This is the kind of job in which philosophers can both use their skills and find some fulfillment.

It should be noted that another kind of job that is available to philosophers is writing test questions on a free-lance basis. Currently, the primary user of these questions for LSAT type tests is American College Testing in Iowa City, Iowa, but most other testing companies also buy test questions from independent writers for a wide range of tests ranging from K-12 achievement tests to admissions tests to professional qualifications tests. Many of these tests involve reading and reasoning questions for which training in philosophy provides a relevant background. Testing companies also use test editors who have backgrounds in a variety of academic disciplines, and philosophical training would also be a useful background for these positions.

Robert Pendleton

First National Bank of Chicago

Non-philosophical Background Pertinent to Your Job: Jobs in computer systems development are largely granted based on specific technical skills. Modern examples would be computer software developers with education or experience in Microsoft Windows programming, or in PC development languages, such as Basic, Pascal, or C++. Investments in training in these and other emerging areas (such as network communications) will be worth the cost in terms of job possibilities. Such education may be necessary, for few corporations today will offer the kind of ‘on-the-job’ training that would allow immediate access to the best computer systems jobs. Other skills that will help once you've gotten your first computer job are: communication skills (you'd be surprised at how few technical people can effectively explain what they're doing), and people skills. Effective project leaders and systems managers are always in demand.

How You Obtained Your Job: I am a computer systems analyst and designer. This is my second job in computer systems development. I first entered the systems field through a l6-week training course offered by a former employer. I obtained my present position because of the skills I had developed in several years in my prior job. Being a good communicator also helped.

Personal Characteristics and Philosophical Skills You Use in Your Job: I feel that I have an advantage in my systems career in terms of having a certain type of philosophical skill, and I assume the type of skill involved is the ability to figure out complicated problems of logical variety. Added to that are the kinds of communications skills usually found among philosophers at the graduate level. A large part of my job involves explaining technical options and designs to relatively non-technical managers and business leaders.

Edward I. Pitts

Clark, Daly, and Pitts, Attorneys-at-Law

How You Obtained Your Job: Left college teaching. Attended law school. Worked in various law firms as an associate. Developed a specialty practice in workplace injuries. Formed present partnership in 1992.

Non-philosophical Background Pertinent to Your Job: Negotiating skills. Verbal skill combined with ability to think on my feet acquired while teaching. Writing clarity acquired in graduate school.

Personal Characteristics and Philosophical Skills You Use in Your Present Position: Ability to organize complex factual patterns; analytic skill; writing to convince; organized approach to complex daily schedule -- all of which I attribute largely to graduate school training in philosophy.

Comments: I find working for myself in a non-academic setting very fulfilling. I'm actually able to see the concrete results of my hard work. The pay is better, too.

Reginald Regis

Eastern Futures Inc. (commodity brokerage firm)

Job Title and Principal Duties: Manager of Branch Office and Commodity Broker. Duties include supervising of office personnel and marketing commodity futures and options.

Non-philosophical Background Pertinent to Your Job: Business background. Since my graduation from the University of Texas in 1965 with a BA in philosophy, my professional life has been spent in the brokerage industry, where I developed my communication skills.

Carol Roberts

CarolRoberts@rnixcom.com.

Self-employed copy editor and back of the book indexer.

Non-philosophical Background Pertinent to Your Job: Good editing and indexing skills, thorough familiarity with the Chicago Manual of Style, familiarity with a variety of marketing techniques, solid computer skills, knowledge of publishing methods and schedules.

How You Obtained Your Job: I took an indexing course, practiced a lot, worked in a publications office for three years, and built up the business gradually.

Personal Characteristics and Philosophical Skills You Use in Your Job: Personal: ability to schmooze, attention to detail, ability to handle pressure of tight deadlines, flexibility, good writing skills (especially for editing), patience, neat hand writing (for editing), accurate typing (for indexing), tact, good research skills. Philosophical: analytical mind (especially for indexing), familiarity with several branches of philosophy, familiarity with philosophy jargon and philosophers' egos, good grasp of logic (baby and formal) and familiarity with logical notation.

Comments: Not everyone who works with words is either cut out to be, or enjoys, editing or indexing. Moreover, the skills involved are quite different from writing and must be mastered before you can get even your first assignment. On the other hand, once you have some training, there is plenty of work for free-lance editors and indexers, and it can be approached initially as a part-time job. Although the mental work involved is quite different from doing philosophy and, let's face it, the job doesn't carry the same prestige as professorship, I find this kind of work has the following advantages: it's challenging and intellectually stimulating; the drudgery is minimal; it's portable (i.e., you can move around the country with little interruption of your business); you have lots of control over the kind and amount of work.

John Shier

Bellin Memorial Hospital

Non-philosophical Background Pertinent to Your Job: Ten years as a Professor of Philosophy -- teaching is a large component of the nursing profession. Eighteen years as Chief Professional Officer of a not-for-profit corporation -- skills in management, supervision, leadership, time management, etc.

How You Obtained Your Job: Having volunteered in hospice as a patient care-giver while in previous employment, I was given strong consideration when I completed my Bachelor's in Nursing.

Personal Characteristics and Philosophical Skills You Use in Your Job: The needs of patients and families are never simple. One can treat only disease or injury or one can attempt to respond to the whole complex of problems presented by patients. My background in philosophy encourages, even demands, that I approach my patients in a holistic manner. The intellectual discipline demanded by philosophy is very supportive of the ability to manage the diverse roles of the nurse who is a skilled provider of care, a middle-level manager of resources, including nursing assistants, LPNs, and a variety of other specialties, a subordinate or partner to physicians, and an independent problem-solver responding to both physical and psycho-social needs of patients and families.

Carol Bosche Tucker

Educational Testing Service

Rosedale Road

Princeton NJ 08541-0001

ctucker@ets.org

Non-philosophical Background Pertinent to Your Job: Computer programming for research in mechanical translation (at MIT) and visual perception (at Bell Laboratories). Teaching English composition and history of philosophy at a junior college (Union College, Cranford, NJ). Civil Rights activity.

How You Obtained Your Job: Word of mouth (from a philosopher who knew that a philosopher would be leaving), then promotions.

Personal Characteristics and Philosophical Skills You Use in Your Job: Ability to analyze assumptions and generate hypotheses relevant to doing research on mental processes and to proposing new modes of testing. Writing ability relevant to writing publishable prose, revising and editing work of others, and communicating with organizations. Ability to see the point of material in other subject fields. Ability to judge social and political sensitivity of issues. Knowledge of limits of formal logic.

Previous Page | Next Page