15 Useful Skills You Learn As An Art History Major

President Barack Obama is taking a lot of heat for his recent snub of art history majors.

Speaking in Wisconsin late last month, Obama told the crowd that "folks can make a lot more potentially with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they might with an art history degree."

"Now, nothing wrong with an art history degree - I love art history," he quickly qualified. "So I don't want to get a bunch of emails from everybody."

So much for that. Since then, art history advocates far and wide have risen in defense of the study, and the president offered a handwritten apology to one professor who took particular offense to his comments.

While art history might not prepare students for coding-intensive careers at Google, it certainly teaches plenty of skills that employers value. We checked out career guides for art history majors at a number of universities to see what those are.

Here are 15 of the most important ones:

• Critical thinking and analysis
• Presentations and public speaking
• Strong writing skills
• Comfort adapting content for different audiences and users
• Intensive research
• Problem-solving and decision-making
• Attention to detail
• Organization
• Time management
• Ability to work independently or in teams
• Listening and asking insightful questions
• Open mindedness
• Aesthetic and design consciousness
• Broad historical and cultural knowledge
• Creativity

Next time you're looking for an employee, consider an art history major.