As business leaders warn students away from "impractical" degrees, three CEOs are making the opposite case: humanities majors like English and comparative literature may be the best preparation for a career in business—and even the path to the C-suite.
Three CEOs, One Message
Stephanie Mehta — CEO & Chief Content Officer, Mansu Ventures (English major)
- Her humanities training sharpened her appreciation for nuance and originality—traits she looks for when recruiting.
- Literature seminars taught her that people can read the same text and reach wildly different conclusions—great practice for managing divergent views on a leadership team.
Nikhil Deogun — CEO of the Americas, Brunswick (English & economics major)
- "A liberal arts education teaches you how to think—how to make an argument, question an assumption, get to the heart of an issue, and explain why it matters."
- The CEO's job: make sense of complicated things, decide what matters, and bring people along.
David Risher — CEO, Lyft (comparative literature major)
- Great literature asks what taps into universal needs—for adventure, love, relevance. Successful businesses do exactly the same.
- "A liberal arts degree vaccinates you against irrelevance."
Why Now?
- Enrollment in English and history has fallen by roughly a third over a decade, while career fields like health sciences and engineering have surged (*The New Yorker*, "The End of the English Major," 2023).
- **AI may reverse the trend.** Machines can supply answers, but not judgment:
- Asking the right questions
- Thinking independently
- Forming a point of view
> *"AI will know all the answers. But you'll learn to ask the right questions, to think for yourself, and to come to a point of view—skills that will never go out of."* — David Risher
Bottom Line
An English degree won't just help you get a job—it might land you the top one.