SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Career Paths for History Majors
After reading this page’s heading you might think, “Careers for history majors? What careers other than teaching?” Because it is easier to associate a vocational major like accounting with a specific job, you may assume that vocational degrees offer better preparation for employment, but a closer look reveals that this is not so. You probably agree that graduates of elite colleges have the best job prospects, but did you know that none of the top five national universities or liberal arts colleges in the US News and World Report’s rankings offer an undergraduate degree in business? A large number of students in these institutions major in classic liberal arts disciplines like English and history, and most of them are not intending to become teachers. Why would they make this choice?
Education in a liberal arts discipline like history emphasizes developing basic analytical skills and communication abilities. Furthermore, it initiates you to a well-established field of knowledge in which you learn to distinguish truth from falsehood and to create new knowledge yourself. These transferable skills give you the capacity to understand complex problems and find innovative solutions to them. A vocational education, by contrast, teaches the tricks of a specific trade. It might offer reasonably good training for a specific job, but if the market for that job collapses—which is precisely what has happened to many manufacturing jobs in the Great Lakes region—it will leave you ill-prepared for other opportunities. Further, because it focuses on job-specific skills, it does not prepare you for advancement to positions that require different skills and knowledge. Liberal arts majors, on the other hand, are much better equipped to handle change because they have learned how to learn. History majors can do a lot more than teach history. In fact, they can have careers in nearly anything, including business. A number of CEOs of the world’s largest companies, such as Carly Fiorina (Hewlett-Packard) and Alan Lafley (Proctor & Gamble), were undergraduate history majors.
Following the best practices of the American Historical Association, the Penn State Behrend history major offers a first-class liberal arts education. To enjoy all its benefits you must be fully engaged in your own education. The more you put into your education—by doing the work assigned in courses and seizing the opportunities offered—the more you will learn and the better your post-Behrend prospects will be. Beyond excelling in coursework, completing an original research project or internship will significantly increase your career opportunities.
Recent graduates have gone on to careers in fields as diverse as business, the law, the military, social services, politics, and education. They have also continued their education in M.A. and Ph.D. programs in history, anthropology, political science and museum management; teacher certification programs for secondary education; law school; and theological school.
Graduate and professional schools recently attended by Penn State Behrend’s history program alumni include the University of Delaware, University of Minnesota, University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia, University of Wisconsin, Ohio State University, Marquette University, Michigan State University, Duquesne University, West Virginia University, SUNY Buffalo, University College London, and Scotland's University of Edinburgh.
For further information about career opportunities for history majors talk to one of the history faculty or read the American Historical Association’s online guide to careers for history majors.