But though several U.S. agencies have warned their employees that reading the classified documents puts them at risk of losing their jobs, no one from the federal government has explicitly stated that reading, circulating or commenting on WikiLeaks content could hurt students applying for first-time jobs.

The emails sent at each school, including Boston University’s School of Law, Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, claimed to be sent at the recommendation of an alumnus.

WikiLeaks, an international non-profit organization that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources and leaks, has published classified reports in venues as public as the front page of the New York Times.

But since WikiLeaks documents are still classified in the eyes of the federal government, reading and distributing these documents is a violation of Executive Order 13526, which concerns classified national security information.

Many continue to question the government’s judgment in its continued treatment of WikiLeaks as classified information.

“This is a case of technology outstripping conventionally accepted practices, and to some extent, the current legal system,” said Ewan Harrison, a lecturer in foreign policy at the University.

Mark Smith, director of the Career Center, said that students should be careful about how they use social media. Still, Smith said, the documents’ omnipresence means that it would be highly difficult for the federal government to actively penalize any student applying for a government job who has been exposed to WikiLeaks.

“They’re getting re-printed in the paper…it’s hard to avoid this stuff. The crime is reading something that’s a classified document, but does that make it a crime to read the New York Times?” Smith said.

Sophomore Anna Appelbaum, a former White House intern, pointed to the irony that the best candidates for government jobs might be the students most interested in keeping up with American foreign policy, including what is revealed in the documents that WikiLeaks has exposed.

“[The government] should be looking for people who are interested in and aware of what’s going on around them. Reading WikiLeaks may simply mean being aware of the news as it breaks. If a student isn’t interested…that’s a better reason not to hire them,” Appelbaum said.

Smith said that the need to be careful about social media use shouldn’t be news to students applying for government jobs.

“I don’t see [viewing WikiLeaks] being that big of a deal. No one’s been clear that that would disqualify you,” Smith said. “I’m much more concerned about what I see students posting on their Facebook pages and the pictures they put up than I am about them reading WikiLeaks.”

Smith encouraged students to come to the Career Center if they have any questions about how reading WikiLeaks could affect their job applications.

According to Mark Smith, director of the Washington University Career Center, pre-professional majors may be more practical than other degrees in terms of finding employment after graduation.

“If you want to go into accounting, you’re not going to be able to do that without some kind of advanced degree in accounting,” Smith said.

Catalin Roman, chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, also stressed the value of pre-professional degrees.
“Salary offers for bachelor’s degrees [in computer science] are as high as $80,000 or $90,000,” Roman said. “That’s just for a bachelor’s.”

Despite the lack of jobs for liberal arts students in highly technical fields, Smith said that students with liberal arts degrees can still pursue a variety of careers.

“Some will go into corporations that have a training program,” he said.

In addition to securing careers immediately after graduation, liberal arts students may also enroll in graduate school.

“Typically it’s around 40 percent that will go straight out, and then you’ll see another third of the class will do it in one to five years,” Smith said.

“The most common outcome for history majors is to go to law school,” said Andrea Friedman, director of undergraduate studies for the history department.

Besides providing students with job opportunities, liberal arts majors teach students crucial skills that employers look for in job applicants.

According to Jean Allman, chair of the department of history, studying history teaches skills that are valuable in the workplace.
“You learn how to do research, you learn how to think critically, you learn how to write, you learn how to reference, you learn how to analyze, you learn how to debate—and these are things that translate to all different fields,” Allman said.

“What companies are looking for is future leaders,” Smith said. “People always need people to problem solve.”

Still, pursuing interdisciplinary studies puts students at an advantage when applying for jobs.

“There is a huge need for people that can cross disciplines,” Roman said. “If you are an anthropologist and graduate with an A+ GPA, and you’re from a great school, you’re going to have lots of opportunities, but you’re going to compete with all the others.

“On the other hand, if you actually have combined that with something else that makes you distinctive, that’s going to put you in a much better market position.”

According to Smith, while liberal arts degrees “can be practical, there are things you can do to make your liberal arts degree even more practical.”

“I would encourage a liberal arts student to think about where they might want to go in terms of a career, then think about what skills would be highly valued,” he said.

Smith suggested that students build specific skill sets through coursework and extracurricular activities, while Roman emphasized that “it is very important for most people today to have a computing background.”

“It is not a matter of use of computers. I use a computer the same way you do. But you understand the world, and you understand opportunities because of understanding what could be done,” Roman said.

A motivation to pursue liberal arts that is perhaps more influential than the job market is a student’s personal interest in a certain field.
“You should study what you love,” Smith said. “College is a time to learn, to think, to expose yourself to new ideas. We don’t know what the job market will be like in 15 years.”

For the most part, students at the University are doing just that.

Sophomore Greg Papakyriakou enrolled himself in the Text and Tradition program.

“I enjoy reading. I enjoy learning about how ideas have developed and progressed,” he said.

Sophomore Ella Fishman plans to declare an English major because she loves to write.

“I’ve considered going to law school,” she said. “It’s not really my passion, which is writing, but if I have to go to law school and become financially secure before I can write a novel then so be it.”