History majors learn skills that make them highly competitive in today’s job market. As a historian, you will locate, collect, analyze, and synthesize data, arguments, and information. Historians can take the general and make it specific, and provide convincing and compelling arguments that influence future decisions. You have the option to concentrate in cultural history or contemporary history.
History majors find careers in the fields of education, government, politics, law, and the private sector. In other words, history majors are not pigeonholed into any single career path. In a rapidly changing market, they have the skill-set to adapt and pursue a number of career options. Being able to communicate effectively, write persuasively, analyze information and argue convincingly, are all crucial traits that employers look for.
Primarily, historians analyze artifacts from the past to derive lessons about the present. This process, however, is far more interesting than memorizing dates, names, and facts. These skills can be applied to academics, education, government and law, but they are equally sought after in the private sector. The skill-set of a historian – which includes outstanding written and verbal communication skills, information analysis, argumentation and persuasion – prepares you to be successful in today’s competitive marketplace.
According to the journal Foreign Policy, the number one field of study for people pursuing careers in international affairs is history. According to the University of Michigan Law School, history is one of the primary majors for future Law students. Job sites such as Monster.com show that history majors begin careers with salaries comparable to other popular university majors such as English or Psychology. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, employers favor graduates with skills learned in history, not technical education.
History doesn’t have any marketability.
Not true! Training for one specific career might help you in the short term, but if the market changes, you may be forced to move long distances, take a pay cut, or find yourself unemployed. A broader educational skill-set, like the kind history provides, prepares you to adapt to any number of employment situations, making you marketable to more than just one field.
History degrees don’t have “real-world application.”
Yes they do! In fact, they open up many doors instead of one. Tech training in one specific skill set (welding, a computer programming language, etc., all of which are important) might pigeonhole you in long run if the market changes. A history degree makes you adaptable to an ever changing market.
A History background shouldn’t lead to questions like “What can I do?” Instead, it should make you ponder “What can’t I do?”
January 18, 2021
The Campus Read Committee is pleased to announce the Spring 2021 Anti-Racist Open Classroom Series, which will complement the selected Campus Read book, Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi.
“We chose Stamped from the Beginning and Stamped as the Campus Read books for this year because Ibram X. Kendi’s work as a historian of racist ideas and antiracism can help provide such a powerful tool with which to think about history and about America’s present moment,” […] Read More
December 01, 2020
Shane Voldarski is a criminal justice major at from Ontonagon, Mich. and recipient of the UP Commitment and Finlandia Merit Scholarships. Below is an interview between Voldarski and Amanda Staege about how scholarships have impacted their experience.
Tell me a little about yourself and your family. Where did you grow up- what was that experience like?
I am a first generation college student, and grew up in Ontonagon, about 45 minutes away from Finlandia. My childhood wasn’t the easiest, I […] Read More
November 24, 2020
Suomi College of Arts & Sciences adjunct professor Dr. Marlene Broemer received her doctorate from the University of Helsinki in Comparative Literature and will return to her alma mater virtually for the biennial Maple Leaf and Eagle Conference in North American Studies. Dr. Broemer’s doctoral studies were on the works of the modernist Finnish poet, Edith Södergran and the Russian, Anna Akhmatova, at the time of the Finnish Civil War […] Read More
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Associate Professor of Biology & Dean of Suomi College of Arts and Sciences
jason.oyadomari@finlandia.eduAssistant Professor, Finnish & Nordic Studies; Chair, Institutional Review Board
hilary.virtanen@finlandia.edu