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.

My DP has a history degree, he’s had/has a really good career in journalism and now in PR.
he recruits quite often and usually only interviews graduates with degrees in PR. That wasn’t an option I think back when he graduated but now there are specific degrees then employers can be choosy.

i work for NHSE, in strategic sector. I don’t have a specific degree in this but I have nearly 30 years of very relevant experience.
i also interview and select candidates and we usually only interview people with specific, relevant degrees (definitely not history!). We don’t look at unis- this information is not available to us.

so- in my experience only- it was possible in the past to get a good job in lots of industries with a history degree but not anymore.

other industries may be different of course.

A degree in PR? Why would any company not look at grads who don’t come ready trained but probably have other skills they can use for the job? Group think sets in. Just being one dimensional in terms of selecting those with a narrow vocational degree not offered by top unis sounds odd. I bet the bosses have other degrees!

You absolutely can find interesting jobs in law that pay well. DD loves what she does.

Cameron is not a history graduate. Cameron did the same degree I did - Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE).

He did not do OK. Much of the mess we are in is down to Cameron.

A degree just in PR is so depressing, sorry to anyone working in PR. You can surely do a degree in something you really like the then work in PR if you really want to.

It’s Osborne who is the history graduate. I wouldn’t let that fact put anyone off doing history though.

My DP has a history degree, he’s had/has a really good career in journalism and now in PR. he recruits quite often and usually only interviews graduates with degrees in PR

I'm not buying that.

If they're that desperate- sorry, keen - to work in PR, then presumably PR would have been the something that they really liked, in which they chose to do a degree?

To answer your question these days no.
There are so many graduates with higher respected degrees than history who cannot find a job. Many of my dd's mates have a first in engineering, maths, physics from a RG and are now serving coffee.
In the 80's maybe but no more.

That seems an oddly unlucky cohort. Did they not do apprenticeships or other work experience?

I am guessing they are not prepared to relocate .Either that or they are immature or lazy.DS (engineering) had multiple options within a couple of weeks of finishing and he had zero work exp.eithin a couple of years he had bought a house.i mean if no t hing else they could do a scitt amd teach.

A lot of talk about history grads being ' management consultants'. That is being self employed and hoping you can blag work here and there on the strength of their experience.

Yeh me neither. I’ve worked in PR and no one I knew had a degree in PR. Some had degrees in journalism and others had degrees in, yunno, English and history and other such.

This is a little naive. These days, large companies with a lot of applicants are using AI and/or agencies for the first sift so need to be more specific about what they are looking for. For now, there are still jobs that look for "any degree" but their proportion is less than in the past, and there are far more graduates with "any degree" to compete for them.

To the pp who referred to David Cameron etc, it's no good holding up successful history graduates from past generations as role models - this is 2024 and the graduate job market has changed.

According to the Sutton Trust, history graduates are among the lowest graduate earners on average, which suggests that they are not in high demand: https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Earnings-by-Degrees-REPORT-1.pdf

I know money isn't everything, etc etc, but averaged across a population, it is indicative of history graduates' relative ability to get graduate-level jobs rather than lower paid jobs.

Also if that’s true, then he is excluding any candidate over about 35, which seems a bit shortsighted.

My DH did history and international relations, and is now a lawyer in quite a niche area.

He thought of doing Law at uni but followed his no 1 passion instead, and did the law conversion afterwards. He has never regretted it.

This is what one famous history graduate had to say about his degree (screenshot from https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jun/01/euan-blair-from-pms-son-to-700m-business-and-an-mbe).

I did a history degree and work as a university lecturer. I absolutely love it.

Sure, but before there were degrees in PR, it was necessary to recruit from any degree. Now it isn't, because there are degrees in PR.

Agree - for non vocational subjects WHERE you study is equally important. Aim as high as possible

@obleek I absolutely agree with you. It’s clear where some degrees sit in the earnings league produced by the IFS. However it’s also true that some of these grads get very decent jobs but also have a very decent CV. They are also graduating from the very best universities and have clear career goals. Many of DDs barrister friends have non law degrees. However none went to a second division uni and all put a great amount of effort into their careers. Other history grads DD knows are high achievers too but maybe that’s who she’s friends with!

Far too many teachers (and you see it on MN all the time) say that dc should pick a uni course based on content, and not on prestige of uni. I think that’s not the best move for many “arts” and humanities grads. English degree holders and others need to be much clearer about careers much earlier and employers are not bothered about your interest in Stalins Russia. It’s important not to sit back and think jobs come to you. They will be competing against those with business or even PR degrees! So sitting back with no work experience isn’t a good idea.

Any stem grad who doesn’t get a job doesn’t really want one or has decided to live a life outside a structured career. Many do. No loans interest to pay.

“ has decided to live a life outside a structured career. Many do. No loans interest to pay.”

🙄 at the idea the only way to make decent money is a “structured career”. MN can be very naïve at times. Many of the world’s wealthiest weren’t on grad schemes.

Where does that leave me tho? And anyone younger than me but older than 35?

Also how many unis actually offer a degree in PR? I've searched a couple of RGs and they don't.

It's a bit shortsighted of anyone to assume that the person they want to recruit will have known at 18 that they wanted to go into PR. Someone with specialist knowledge of STEM or history or MFL might be a much better candidate.

The idea obvs that a degree in PR is necessary to go into PR is laughable. Same for a journalism degree - it might help you get a job, but there is no need to spend three years studying journalism to be a good journalist. Otherwise there would be no decent journalist under about 35, as I say.

If she doesn't know what she wants to do, then history is as good an option as any.

She doesn't already have a profession in mind and it sounds like she's not a maths/ physics/ tech type person.

I would encourage her to reflect on why she wants to go to uni in the first place though, if she doesn't really know why/ doesn't know what she wants to do with her degree.

University is so expensive these days that it's becoming less of a sensible decision to just go for the sake of the life experience.

Most people over the age of 35 are not looking to get their first foot on the PR career ladder. But if they are, then a PR apprenticeship would be a good option. Those are not restricted to school-leavers.

And the best way to get into journalism is just to start writing, whether you're paid for it or not. It's not a well paid profession for the masses, because there are so many freelancers producing content.

As per this Euan Blair quote from my post above, employers are increasingly now calling a spade a spade, and recruiting non-specialist graduates into actual apprenticeship roles (obviously on lower starting salaries than skilled graduate roles):