Earning a degree in history will help you advance in a wide range of career paths. Employers in many fields highly value the research, analytical, and writing skills that you develop as a history major.
Our students acquire transferrable skills through their course work and internships. Critical thinking is central to employers, and the ability to analyze and then prioritize information is vital to decision making. Internships opportunities not only provide insight into new areas of work, they also give student the opportunity to network and make new contacts within the field. With such a wide range of knowledge and skills, history graduates are by no means limited to just history. While some of our graduates become teachers, many others go on to work in history-related fields, e.g. working for museums or providing political training. Some chose to work in academia. However, they can also be seen working for newspapers, television broadcasters, publishing houses or in social media. Others work for interest groups or political parties, while more and more go on to work for industrial companies in the human resources, policy or public relations departments. In short, a degree in history can open up countless doors.
Many majors use their historical knowledge as teachers, museum curators, public historians, archivists, and publishers. Others successfully pursue careers in fields such as law, government, non-profits, business, advertising, and journalism. Whether students apply their degrees in the history profession or another diverse field, their immensely marketable skills and expertise make them desirable candidates in a competitive job market.
Fig. 1. Data source: ACS 2010-14 5-year Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS). Includes
individuals who stated they were in full-time emplyment, between the ages of 25 and
64, had achieved a bachelor's degree or higher, and had either history or US history
as the field of study for their bachelor's degree.
Fig. 2. Data source: ACS 2010-14 5-year Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS). 
Fig. 4 Data source: . Methodological note: The ACS survey records undergraduate major by a free-response
text block, with no apparent guidance on how to represent a person's degree. As a
result, the number who reported their major as "history" may also include some who
studied US history. The overall number of US history majors reported in the ACS is
very low, to such a degree that they may make statistical analysis problematic. It
is for these reasons that US history and history majors are combined in the analysis,
though the American Academy of Arts & Sciences does not.
Fig. 5. Data source: ACS 2010-14 5-year Public Use Micordata Sample (PUMS). Includes
individuals who stated they were in full-time employment, between the ages of 25 and
64, had achieved a bachelor's degree or higher, and had either history or US history
as the field of study for their bachelor's degree.Figures 1, 2, 4 & 5: National data from U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 2010-2014 five-year Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS). Source: Paul Sturtevant, 鈥�,鈥� American Historical Association Perspectives, April 2017.