Can a history degree actually lead to a good job?

[Jon1970]

Hi, I'd be grateful for an opinion on the merits or not of doing a history degree. My youngest daughter is currently in A1 doing History, Geography and Economics. She was considering doing Law at Uni (still is, to an extent..) but I think she is gradually drifting away from that, which is fine...at 17 I didn't have a clue what I wanted to do. She has always loved History, and still does. There is a narrative out there on careers pages etc that History teaches you great analytical skills, problem solving and so on, the argument being that a degree in history can lead to "so many" careers. But I'm worried....in the real world, is this actually true?

I'm curious to know if you either did History yourself or someone you know, and did it lead to good opportunities further down the line? I really want to support her in doing what she wants to do and in something she enjoys, but just trying to sanity check that she won't say to me in 5 years time something like "Dad, why on earth did you let met me do a History degree?". I know that she could do a history degree and then a Law conversion course if she does want to go into law, but if she doesn't want to do law, what then?

I am probably slightly haunted by doing a music degree, and then switching later to IT and business.

Similar to me. I wanted to go into arts administration after my history degree, but realised that was a hard road and did an IT conversion course instead. I've met a few other historians in various IT roles as well. Other people I know who did history have ended up in teaching, museums and the national archives.

I'm going to go slightly against the grain here and advise a bit of caution. It is a good, rigorous degree with lots of analysis work. But I wouldn't go into it as a placeholder; I would advise having a bit of a plan for what she will do after. And if I was doing it knowing what I know now, I would try to do joint honours with with something that might have opened a few extra doors like perhaps a language.

My husband and I studied History. He's a solicitor and I'm an accountant, both making good money and we are very comfortable.

Make sure she's aware of all her options, different career opportunities, conversion courses graduate and training schemes etc. She'll find her parh

Sort of history adjacent - I studied English and Classics at a RG university. I work in public and regulatory policy (I did do a post grad diploma in Economics though).

In terms of my peers who studied similar history/classical subjects they are in a range of sectors - commercial property, law, journalism, film, teaching, civil service, museum work, archives, tech etc..

I don't have a degree in history but had medieval social history down as an interest on my CV. When I started a job as an industrial analyst I found that nearly all the other analysts either had history degrees or an interest in the subject. A liking for the subject shows deep curiosity and a readiness to pick and dig for information and then make sense of it, which was exactly what was needed in the role.

Academic?

E.g Economics is a better degree than Business. Tend to have the same perception at A Level.

I did a History/Ancient history degree. No idea what I wanted to do as a career but fell into stockbroking, not very well paid (it was all 'who you knew' at the time) but then got into financial journalism, writing stock market reports and then progressing to wider econ stuff.
It was in a fairly prestigious organisation and was well paid so I think I did ok. I would consider I had a good and worthwhile career. I'm now retired.

Son did History degree at RG university, went into financial services on grad scheme, 7 years later earns £75k in a lower paid area of the country.

I did a history degree and then went into publishing; my mate on the same course did a postgrad librarian qualification and ended up running a major city library; her husband followed a similar career path but is an archivist.

Admittedly that was all back in the 90s. More recent history grads we know have gone into law, civil service, teaching and social work. General graduate schemes are generally not that fussed what degree you have.

In the autumn my youngest DD is (all going well) going to uni to do the same history course as I did (something I wouldn’t have foreseen a year ago!). She has no idea what she wants to do career wise, so figured she might as well do something she knows she enjoys and is good at. For humanities students there’s relatively few vocational degrees. DD2 is studying law and does actually want to be a lawyer, but about 50% of law students don’t go into law (and I would disagree with the poster upthread that law is more restrictive than any other humanity degree).

I think the question you need to ask is 'Of those who have graduated with a History degree, during the last twenty years, and gone on to enjoy rewarding and interesting careers, what was it about them and their university experience that helped facilitate that?'. Variously, it might be:

They are naturally driven, organised and have a strong work ethic.

They went to a competitive entry uni and were spurred on by being with other highly academic students.

They developed leadership and other skills outside their course by virtue of societies, sports and general employment.

They were proactive from the outset in researching career options, summer schemes and placement year opportunities (note few History degrees allow for that but some do).

The list goes on; the point being that for a general degree like History, what you do alongside your degree and the degree context is probably what matters most. If it is likely one or more of the above will apply to your DC and History is their favourite subject, go for it.

As a cautionary note, some 30% of History graduates entering employment immediately after graduating are in non-grad hospitality or retail roles. Some of my best recruits over the years have been History grads but I also come across an awful lot of History grads who appear to have drifted into a History degree and drifted out again. Back in the 1980s, that would have been salvageable and at low financial cost, less so these days.

I did history. Fell into a career in marketing and have stayed put!

Only certain jobs ( medical and law for example) care what your degree was in
Experience and skills are more relevant to getting a well paid job

This thread is giving me strong Mark Corrigan vibes.

My brother did a history degree at Cambridge, then into private equity. He was on over £300k before he was 30. I’d argue a history degree from Oxbridge/UCL/Durham/Edinburgh is far far more respectable than business/accountancy/law from a lesser ranked university.

I did a history degree and work in a global corporate company that has a large grad scheme. We would absolutely consider someone who had studied history.

Of the three history graduate friends I can think of (all Oxbridge), one is a barrister, one works in philanthropy, and the other is a CEO of a charity.

A phrase commonly trotted out to people thinking of doing a humanities degree.
'Would you like fries with that?'

A relative did a history-ilk subject they just enjoyed and is now at the foreign office. Would you have wanted to study business instead of music at 18?

Hilarious.

I did History (special area was France so spent a year in a French uni studying history). I work in the arts (low paid but love it). My fellow students do a wide variety of jobs: academia, teaching, law, environmental policy.

Wow

It’s a good solid degree that teaches you loads of skills.

Like someone mentioned up thread, I then did the Library and Information MA and now work in corporate research and project management.

Interesting. My friends who did History became a top barrister, Master of an Oxford College; Director of Public Prosecutions (not Starmer) and a teacher. Friends who did English became well respected editors, literary agents, successful actors, theatre directors and writers of novels, non-fiction, film and tv, uni professors, politicians and political advisors, ad agency creative directors, tv producers. Most on 6 figure salaries.

But STEM does like to look down on humanities for some reason.

I read a similar subject (Classics). I trained as an accountant in a Big 4 and now work in a policy role at a charity. There were plenty of historians on my grad scheme. I always really valued people with arts degrees too - so much of accountancy and consulting/advisory work is writing compellingly so essay-based subjects are really good training for that.

History is one of the most respected degrees, its generally recognised as being very challenging and history graduates have excellent transferable skills. Many of my accountant and lawyer friends have history degrees , also civil service and other professional and management roles. I would second the fact that it needs to be from a highly ranked university though.

A history degree teaches you how to get into the nitty-gritty of complex written evidence, balance the different arguments and seek out the details that could go missed, and compose a coherent piece of writing laying all this out and explaining what can be concluded from it.

A few examples of careers where a history graduate would be very employable:

Conveyancer - dealing with house purchases either as an employee of a firm of solicitors or as part of a specialist conveyancing provider. Pay grade lower end of middle.

Trust&Foundations fundraising officer - employed by universities and charities to deal with writing convincing bids for large scale capital projects to grant-awarding bodies. Pay grade relatively high once you have a track record of success.

Policy consultancy/civil service roles - many many roles digging into complexities of legislation and working out how to apply or ammend the law to achieve government's goals

Librarianship - more useful in a serious academic library rather than a public library.