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Juliegmom
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I have a middle schooler who raves about history and "wants to become the next Diana Waring." She is interested in being a history major to possibly become a middle school history teacher.

 

Other than teaching, what kinds of careers are there for history majors?

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History major here. I know majors that teach, work in museums, work for corporations, go to law school, etc. From what I've discovered, museums are looking for regular history majors as well as those with public history/museum studies experience. Each degree brings a different perspective to the museum field. 

 

History is also a nice all around major for businesses that are looking for critical thinkers and people that research and problem solve. 

 

Internships are very important with a history major - they can give you that experience and networking around people that can be helpful. I've interned at our local museum for 2 semester and I started working them part time in January. I had no interview, just would you like this position and when can you start. Another student interned, thinking she would love it. No, it wasn't for her. 

 

We have a history education degree (I did not do this) that helps student prepare for primary and secondary education with semester long student teaching along with select education classes. 

 

History is a reading and writing intensive major that challenges you to analyze sources and then synthesize multiple sources into one cohesive thesis paper. 

 

Languages can also be important for history majors, which one depends upon field, but Latin, French, and German are common for medievalists. 

 

Also, proper grammar is important for historians. I find that many students that struggle with reading primary sources from even a hundred years ago. They struggle to find the meaning of a passage because it's harder to pick out the subject verb in much longer passages with lots of relative clauses. 

 

Anyway, many fields are looking for the skills that historians develop. 

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History major here. I know majors that teach, work in museums, work for corporations, go to law school, etc. From what I've discovered, museums are looking for regular history majors as well as those with public history/museum studies experience. Each degree brings a different perspective to the museum field.

 

History is also a nice all around major for businesses that are looking for critical thinkers and people that research and problem solve.

 

Internships are very important with a history major - they can give you that experience and networking around people that can be helpful. I've interned at our local museum for 2 semester and I started working them part time in January. I had no interview, just would you like this position and when can you start. Another student interned, thinking she would love it. No, it wasn't for her.

 

We have a history education degree (I did not do this) that helps student prepare for primary and secondary education with semester long student teaching along with select education classes.

 

History is a reading and writing intensive major that challenges you to analyze sources and then synthesize multiple sources into one cohesive thesis paper.

 

Languages can also be important for history majors, which one depends upon field, but Latin, French, and German are common for medievalists.

 

Also, proper grammar is important for historians. I find that many students that struggle with reading primary sources from even a hundred years ago. They struggle to find the meaning of a passage because it's harder to pick out the subject verb in much longer passages with lots of relative clauses.

 

Anyway, many fields are looking for the skills that historians develop.

This is very helpful and encouraging. Thank you!

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I have a degree in medieval history.  My post-college job was as a nanny. ;)  I did have some significant coursework and experience in childcare/child development, but I think it probably helped that I showed a variety of skills and interests, especially in the highly academic arena (I was a nanny for a pair of doctors who value education very highly).

 

I had a friend in college who majored in history and pre-med.  Again, well-rounded and interesting.  Point being, you never know where it might be useful.  (Fwiw, I also never had a career path in mind, whether that was a good plan or a bad one.  But I was able to make it reasonably affordable, and I do have a degree if ever needed.)

 

You might encourage your student to look into something like American Studies, which could be partly history and partly arts/architecture, and that might lead to a wider variety of paths.

Edited by happypamama
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My friend who has a history degree is a military chaplain. So, I guess where he went with his history degree was seminary, but the military seems to be a fairly big employer of history majors that is probably not the first thing that comes to everyone's mind.

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