Although some students might argue that disciplines outside their main field
of study are a waste of time, others say those lessons can provide some valuable
skills and knowledge and should not be omitted. I wholeheartedly believe the latter
is true.
On one hand, it does take some time to get familiar enough to pass the exam
on the subject, especially the one that is not of one’s interest. Investing this time in
more advanced education in something more related to individual’s future job will
definitely make him more qualified. Russian universities, for example, dedicate up
to 40% of their curriculum to the “additional disciplies”. If this time was directed to
the area of expertise of students this would defenitely make a vast difference in terms
of their knowledge by graduation.
On the other hand, previously mentioned employers not always favour the
most proficient and dedicated to their field. Their requirements are usually much
more diverse than that and those miscellaneous subjects, some students do not bother
with, might appear useful. Recent survey conducted by “Linked In” showed that
people with at least some level of knowledge of finances, accounting, tax legislation
and business administration are much more demanded as engineers, than their
competitiors, who might be more qualified in terms of engineering but prove to be
helpless in other matters any company has to deal with daily.
To sum up, there is a trend across students to narrow down their study subject
to just a few topics, however, it is my firm convitcion, that it is not the most
beneficial strategy, since it tends to hurt their image as a potential candidate for a
job.
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