By Christina Couch

When Steve Heisler graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri with a degree in psychology backed by minors in math and computer science, he never thought he'd eventually make a living as a writer and editor. However, Heisler reports that the skills gleaned from his multifaceted education have served him even in a profession outside of his major.

“There are people that are good writers, but when it comes to editing their copy, they’re not very strong. When I was doing computer programming, it was all about changing tiny things to get big results,” he explains. “Being able to universalize those skills and to apply them across the board is a very important thing to have after college.”

Diversify your studies, and stand out

In today's competitive job market, maintaining an edge means more than boasting a degree from a prestigious institution. It's all about how you integrate areas of study and use them to your professional benefit, say experts. Whether it's combining writing with technology, health care with business, or management with international studies, combining two disciplines into one course of study can set you apart from your career competition.

Billy Hinton, director of production for HKS, Inc., the fourth largest architecture firm in the nation, states that among of the firm’s top employees are those who have a graduate degree in architecture and an undergrad degree in an alternate subject. "Previous degrees make those applicants more versatile,” he states. “We have one employee with an undergraduate degree in bioscience; when she switched to architecture, she decided she wanted to work in health care facilities. The diversity of her background is a big bonus for us.”

Developing and highlighting his educational versatility also worked for Justin Morgan, a senior analyst for a Fortune 500 firm in Richmond, Virginia. By taking on a hybrid major in engineering physics, a major that focuses on the common crossover between theoretical physics and practical engineering from Case Western Reserve University, Morgan says he learned to incorporate two distinct skill sets. “It’s valuable just to have the uniqueness of the degree. It makes me stand out,” Morgan comments. “I’m not just one more physics major or one more engineering major. It’s something interesting that I can talk about in a job interview.”

Changing majors for a changing world

Heisler and Morgan aren't the only ones benefiting from specialized degree study and the integration of two or more disciplines on the job. Double-degree programs in everything from globalized business to bioinformatics are springing up at both traditional and online institutions across the country. Designed to provide students with an interdisciplinary education, these combo curriculum programs incorporate an element of specialization into otherwise single-subject majors.

Having multiple competences to take into the working world is a timely trait for new graduates, says Sheila Curran, executive director of the Duke University Career Center and co-author of "Smart Moves for Liberal Arts Grads: Finding a Path to Your Perfect Career" (Ten Speed Press, 2006).

“The job market has changed dramatically in the past 10 years; the skills students are required to have today are ones that are going to prepare them for a lifetime of changing jobs,” she states. Citing a recent Duke University study which shows that 43% of the school’s graduates change career paths less than five years after turning the tassel, Curran says that having a multifaceted education--one that develops skill sets in several areas that can be transferred from career to career--is crucial in a marketplace marked by waning loyalty on both the part of employer and employee. Curran confesses that students don’t necessarily need to go for a double major in order to be well-rounded. Instead, she says, students should explore a wide array of subjects that satiate their intellectual interests and supplement their experiences with both extracurricular and workplace experiences.

When searching for the right marriage of subjects, Donald Asher, author of "How to Get Any Job with Any Major" (Ten Speed Press, 2003), believes students fare better when driven by passion. More important than what you study is learning how to learn, he advises--specifically, how to solve problems, analyze situations, consider scenarios from multiple perspectives, and break down ideas to their simplest terms. In short, successful students seek to become educated, not just credentialed. “Your major might get you your first job, but your education gets you promoted.”

Major Additions

Ready to blaze a new education trail? Double-degree areas to explore:

Culinology: Blending culinary arts and food science, students/chefs who make it through this degree program will be prepared to take on positions in food preparation, manufacturing, or testing.

Automotive Service Technicians: Knowing basic mechanical skills is no longer enough to drive a successful career. Armed with a high-tech background, automotive service technicians are required to solve mechanical and electrical problems for anything allowed on the road.

Scientific Photography: Where art meets functionality. Those with a knack for using photographs to document data and illustrate experiments will find myriad opportunities in this burgeoning field.

Technical Writing: Forget writing the great American novel. Technical writers use their flair for the written word as well as their background in one or more technology-heavy fields such as engineering, medicine, or computer science to break down complex ideas for the masses. Get ready to start penning manuals, guidebooks, proposals, and instructional materials of all sorts.