Alexander, specifically, not so much. But I would frame the answer as follows:

Society today, in the 2020s, is the product of thousands of years of history – dating back to biblical and pre-biblical times.

Understanding how leaders acted back then, a drawing parallels to today, help to inform how leader and society will operate today.

One given person – Alexander – isn’t all that important. But knowing about the rise (and fall!) of the Greek empire helps to understand the demise of America now.

Tell the student: history repeats itself. Those who forget their history are condemned to repeat it.

~Just in case you might become a teacher. Or if you need a template for how to take over the planet.

Or the real answer. One does not know what education will be useful in the future. It is thereby best to learn as much as one can if knowledge that is available to oneself. To improve the odds of success and to play the field. If you have the time then it is best to learn how to use as many tools that one can access. Just in case one of them might help you in the future.

If you DON’T know who Alexander the Great was, and your employer is educated and finds out, they may prefer another candidate, because it’s such a basic historical fact, that they may think you are ignorant and incurious. Especially if the job has anything to do with history, such as some game companies.

I really can’t think of how it would help with work unless you are a teacher but I personally believe that a person with a well-rounded educated will find it easier to adapt and contribute at work. Ignorant people who don’t want to learn beyond their own noses often contribute little to nothing. They are satisfied with doing as little as possible for their paycheck and often others have to pick up their slack. You should ask the student why are they satisfied with staying ignorant of the world and the past? Those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. I’m not a doctor and yet I learned biology which came in handy when having to treat myself or learn about illness of love ones. Not everything we learn should have to be job related.

Great answers so far, thanks.

If all you know is how to flip burgers all you are ever going to do is flip burgers.

Because the act of learning things like history prepare the way for you to learn other things that will be required for emoyment. Also if you’re unaware of Alexander the Great you are functionally ignorant when it comes to history. Ignorance is detrimental to employment prospects.

I would say that you do four things when you learn anything:
1. You exercise your mind
2. You use up time and energy
3. You learn the thing
4. You have an emotional response

Specifically when you learn about Alexander the Great, I think that works out like this:
1. Helps your ability to get a job
2. Hurts your ability to get a job
3. Probably neutral but could help a lot in certain situations
4. Who knows? Probably the biggest impact on getting a job is that it affects your attitude towards learning. If you think Alexander is interesting, that’s probably good. Otherwise, probably bad.

Our history is part of our identity. It helps us relate to people, which in turn improves job prospects.

I remember one of the DJ’s on a local rock station, back when I was a teen (WNEW, NYC), saying that when he was in high school, he told the Guidance Counselor that he knew all of the lyrics from all of the Beatles’ songs, and the Guidance Counselor told him that wasn’t going to get him anywhere in life. Long story short, he became a rock DJ on a premier radio station in one of the biggest US markets (NYC) and so there you have it…..

Knowledge is never wasted.

Alexander the Great isn’t even the most interesting person of that time. HIs mother, Olympias, was even more so.

Because you never know what knowledge you will need throughout your life, nor what you might need at your job. Early on in my life I wanted to be a chef. I loved cooking and wanted to learn how to do it very well. I ended up working in nuclear power plant chemistry for 30+ years. Not where I expected to go when I was 18, but suddenly the geometry, algebra, trigonometry, calculus, chemistry, biology, physics and many other classes I could never foresee needing were being used almost daily.

By being selective when you are young about what you will or won’t need to know throughout your life, you are limiting your future in ways you cannot even understand.

It might be the million dollar question in your game of “who wants to be a millionaire”.
Sure would be useful to know about him then.

Most of us have little influence and knowledge beyond our immediate view, in a time when the internet gives us instant contact around the globe. Alexander the Great led armies as far as Iran and India by walking there.

While few of us are capable of such feats, knowing about them makes us see how much a person can accomplish.

Society holds some education as markers of class. A person who isn’t curious or educated enough to know who an extemely important historical figure like Alexander the Great is, is marked for life, and will have more limited opportunities.

Knowing who Alexander the Great was may not help you get a job, but demonstrating that you are capable of learning things like who Alexander the Great was does help you get a job. Furthermore, we cannot teach every possible job skill over the course of a K-12 education, so we instead focus on things that are broadly useful and intrinsically worth understanding even if they never contribute directly to our work lives (things like history, literature, science, technology, and math).

Virtually every educated person on the earth knows who Alexander the Great was. Every high school student is at least acquainted with the name, Alexander the Great. So if a person has never heard of Alexander the Great and has no idea who he was, he will, at the least, be considered stupid and lazy, which could certainly affect his/her job prospects.

I completely agree with @seawulf575. I thought I was going to be a fiction author. I ended up as an administrator of a private surgical practice doing bookkeeping, marketing, IT, writing custom programs, and building custom data analytics dashboards to make business decisions.

One reason for people to learn about Alexander the Great is simply to not look like a fool. Your student doesn’t want to be “that guy” at work, in a meeting with a client, etc. that everyone’s snickering about.

I hate to be a dick here, but maybe he doesn’t want to learn because it’s not being taught in an engaging way? His story was pretty incredible. Maybe it’s not being “brought to life” for the students in a way that elicits passion and enthusiasm?

Alexander the Great, specifically?

No.

But in hindsite I’ve discovered knowing a variety of seemingly trivial information improves communication/networking skills which benefit individuals socially and professionally.