Blair Grant
Bachelor of Arts (Hons) Philosophy, Politics and Economics
When Blair Grant left school he had absolutely no idea what he wanted to study.
“When I saw Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) was an option for a major, it grabbed my attention straight away. It was something I was interested in, which I think makes studying infinitely easier, and it was something I thought would be pretty flexible post-uni.
“I liked how PPE makes you realise how ignorant you are. Each year you learn a little bit more and you look back on yourself a year prior and think "what an idiot". And at some point, it hits you that what you don't know absolutely dwarfs what you do, and it always will. So that's humbling but also exciting, as there's always something new to learn.
“Doing three different subjects means you can't fall into the intellectual biases of any one discipline - you're forced to be a critical thinker when the different subjects sometimes tell you different things, or at least, emphasize different aspects of the same problem. For example, the statement "free markets are the best way to structure an economy" can be supported and attacked in different ways from the different disciplines, which means you can't just accept one perspective as correct.”
Blair now works as a writer for Castleford Media, a content marketing firm.
“We create content like blog posts, e-books and infographics for companies to put on their websites; my job is to write that content. We have a wide variety of clients, so you have to be quick on your feet to get up to speed with a new subject area.
“I love writing and researching, so the best part of my job is getting paid to do those things. It's a bit like doing what I did at Otago, except the subject area is broader and the time pressure greater, which makes things exciting.”