Career opportunities abound for students with a background in Anthropology. One of the first questions a student will ask is what can they do with an Anthropology major. The easy answer is “anything,” but that can be overwhelming. We emphasize that few students who major in Anthropology go onto careers with that title, but all of our majors use their anthropological thinking and research skills in the jobs and careers that they will do. An Anthropology degree is like having a large Swiss Army knife in your pocket–you have a number of useful tools that come in handy anytime and anywhere. These include cross-cultural understanding, an open-mind, rigorous critical thinking skills, cultural adaptability and empathy, knowing how to ask good questions, effective communication, skills in research and methods, the ability to work with precise details and the broader patterns, an understanding of human structures and how power and privilege are exercised within them, and often foreign language skills.
We have an excellent track record of UVM students being accepted into top graduate programs in anthropological fields, but the thing to focus on is the great diversity of careers most UVM Anthropology graduates have pursued, including:
- social work
- medicine
- public health
- business
- environmental activism
- legal profession
- law enforcement
- cultural heritage management
- teaching
- government policy
- international development
- urban planning
- wildlife conservation
- speech pathology
- food systems
- scientific research
We help our juniors and seniors prepare for life beyond UVM by asking them to take the 1-credit ANTH 3000, Advanced Proseminar in Anthropology, which focuses on career development.