- As freshly minted college graduates look ahead to a tough job market, some may be wondering how useful their degrees might be. But for those looking to climb the ladder in Corporate America, the path to success doesn’t always run through business school. Some top CEOs studied subjects that have nothing to do with their industries.
If you just got a degree in medieval studies, then congratulations. But if you’re not going to pursue that subject further in grad school, then you may be wondering how useful it is in today’s job market.
Buyer’s remorse for new college graduates is nothing new. But those entering the workforce now are facing a slowing economy, high uncertainty among businesses amid President Donald Trump’s tariffs, and AI eliminating many entry-level jobs.
A deep dive into the leadership of the Fortune 500 shows that many, many, many, many CEOs did indeed get a bachelor’s degree in business or a master’s degree in business administration. Also, tech bosses often have engineering degrees, finance chiefs have economics or accounting degrees, and pharmaceutical CEOs have medical degrees.
But there’s still hope. For those looking to climb the ladder in Corporate America, the path to success doesn’t always run through business school. Some top CEOs studied subjects that have nothing to do with their industries.
A notable example is LinkedIn cofounder and founding CEO Reid Hoffman, who has a bachelor’s in “symbolic systems” from Stanford University, which says it integrates computer science, linguistics, math, philosophy, psychology, and statistics. He then got a master’s degree in philosophy from Oxford University.
In 2017, he told Business Insider that “philosophy is a study of how to think very clearly,” and it’s been useful in investing and being an entrepreneur.
“Formulating what your investment thesis is, what the strategy is, what the risks with the approach are, what kinds of things you would be doing with it, are all greatly aided by the crispness of thinking that comes with philosophical training,” he added.
Similarly, Palantir CEO and cofounder Alex Karp got bachelor’s in philosophy from Haverford College, a JD from Stanford Law School and a PhD in neoclassical social theory from Goethe University in Frankfurt.
Despite running a data-mining software company that offers AI-powered platforms to governments and businesses, he has said he learned coding on the job. He told the New York Times last year that not getting a business degree actually helped.
“There’s nothing that we did at Palantir in building our software company that’s in any MBA-made playbook. Not one,” he explained. “That’s why we have been doing so well.”
Karp revealed that “the single most valuable education I had for business” came at the Sigmund Freud Institute, a psychoanalysis research center, where he worked while getting his doctorate.
“You’d be surprised how much analysts talk about their patients. It’s disconcerting, actually. You just learn so much about how humans actually think,” he said, adding that he used that knowledge to help motivate his engineers.
Among Fortune 500 CEOs, Airbnb’s Brian Chesky has a bachelor of fine arts from the Rhode Island School of Design. According to the company, his creative roots are embedded in Airbnb’s culture, product and community.
“This design-driven approach has enabled a system of trust that allows strangers to live together, and created a unique business model that facilitates connection and belonging,” it says.
Here are some other Fortune 500 leaders who have less conventional educational backgrounds:
- Juan Andrade, CEO of financial services firm USAA, has a bachelor’s in journalism and political science from the University of Florida and a master’s in international economics and Latin American studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
- Leon Topalian, CEO of steelmaker Nucor, has a bachelor’s in marine engineering from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.
- Maria Black, CEO of human resources services provider ADP, has a bachelor’s in political science and international affairs from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
- Laura Alber, CEO of home furnishings chain Williams-Sonoma, has a bachelor’s in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.
- Richard Hayne, CEO of retailer Urban Outfitters, has a bachelor’s in social relations from Lehigh University.
