You decided not to listen to your parents or peers who urged you to study something practical that would lead to employment and instead decided to follow your heart into studying  the great existential questions like who am I and why am I here. But, your studies are coming to an end and now the burning question you need to answer is what am I supposed to do now with the rest of my life. While some would argue that a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy naturally leads to a career of discussing the meaning of life with your customers as you drive for Uber, there are other ways in which you can use the degree as a foundation for a fulfilling and meaningful life.

As Socrates famous dictum that “an unexamined life is not worth living” you can also find a very worthwhile life helping others examine theirs. There is an entire school of therapy that seeks to help people deal with their problems through a rational examination of their own choices. Existential Therapy is used to help people deal with substance abuse issues as well as marriage counselling and life coaching as practiced by the Naya Clinics.

Law is an other natural adjunct for those concerned with the human condition especially if your attraction to philosophy was moral philosophy or you just enjoy a good argument. You could even do a postgraduate degree in the Philosophy of Law. The law is probably the most popular choice to give yourself a well paying career and also will allow you to pose various philosophical questions as you seek to apply legal arguments on behalf of your clients. It can also lead to judicial appointments which will let you apply your philosophy to settling legal disputes.

An area that also offers careers for philosophy majors is in government and is natural place for those that enjoyed the study of political philosophy. So whether your a fan of Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau or even Machiavelli a life in government may be your calling. While you may end up in bureaucratic position where you are powerless to effect change you will at least have the ability to understand the underlying philosophy behind it.

Another area that is becoming increasingly popular especially among logicians is information technology. Whole vast vistas of exciting careers beckon in cutting edge areas of information technology such as cognitive science, machine learning and artificial intelligence. These areas are really growing rapidly and offer the opportunity to be involved with technologies that are destined to change the future and provide a raft of philosophical problems that need to understood and wrestled with.

So if you are about to graduate with your degree of philosophy there is no need to despair, especially if you take the Kierkegaardian attitude that despair is dialectically both both a merit and a defect. There are lots of vital and interesting careers that remain possible for someone that has spent their time contemplating the great questions.