The Undergraduate History Major

Undergraduate History majors are in an excellent position for employment in a variety of careers. As a History major, you have analytical, writing, and communication skills. All of these skills are important assets that you can bring to jobs in business, academia, and non-profits, among others. So, where do you look for jobs? How do you find jobs that fit your skills? Many employers, no matter what the industry, see merit in hiring undergraduate History majors.

The majority of jobs that an undergraduate History major will be eligible for are initially at the assistant level. You may find a job as a marketing assistant, editorial assistant, or museum assistant. Entry level opportunities at many corporations and non-profits call for individuals who have good communication, writing, and computer skills, therefore, as part of your undergraduate education, you should also learn as many software programs as possible to add to the skills you learn as a History major. Jobs at non-profits can be found at http://www.opportunitynocs.org. General jobs can be found in newspapers, therefore, you may want to try http://www.careerpath.com. Other relevant sites include a joint U.S. and Canada site, http://www.careerexchange.com. There is also Canada's Job Bank at http://jb-ge.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca or http://www.canadiancareers.com.

At publishing houses, there are employment opportunities as editorial assistants or in entry-level sales, marketing, and design departments. These positions generally seek individuals who have good communication and writing skills, but also individuals who have a knack for attention to detail. You can find many of these opportunities at http://publishing.miningco.com. There are also employment opportunities with federal and state institutions. For example, if you concentrated on American environmental History you may want to look for employment with the National Park Service. These opportunities along with other federal jobs in the United States can be found at http://www.usajobs.opm.gov. For jobs with Canada's federal government, see http://jobs.gc.ca/home_e.htm.

You can also take your History major and enter into law school, an MBA program, or into a History graduate program. In order to enter these programs you must take either the LSAT, GMAT, or the GRE. If you decide that you want a graduate degree, you may want to take a sample GRE exam and determine your strongest area. If your are particularly good at the analytical section, law school may be the best place for you. If math is your strong suit maybe you should get your MBA (entering an MBA program, however, will likely require course in accounting or economics). There are also schools that offer joint programs. You could enter a PhD/JD program or an MBA/JD program. Whatever you decide, you should check out relevant sites. For law school, you may want to look at http://www.nocall.org/lawschools.html or at the American Bar Association's site http://www.abanet.org. For MBA programs, try http://petersons.com/mba/serach.html. For History graduate school, you should check http://chronicle.com or http://www.matrix.msu.edu.

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