Job Possiblites with a MA in History?

[tjb122982]

I'm considering going to graduate school for a masters in History. I'm curious to the fact of what can do you with it besides going on for a phd, teaching at a community college or research. I'm really looking specific examples.

[rising_star]

Which do you like more, history or political science? Figuring that out first might help you figure out what the job possibilities are. Without knowing what specifically you're interested in, it's really hard to say about job possibilities.

[eternallyviolet]

I have an MA in History from a fairly decent program at a UC. I have had great difficulty finding a job on the West coast. I teach online community college and but haven't landed a permanent tenure-track position because most of my competition have PhDs.

There is also a lack of funding in MA programs in the humanities, with many offering little to nothing in the way of support. If you are interested in continuing your academic career, I would just go straight to PhD from BA. I wish I had done it!

I am now applying for PhD programs in History and awaiting news!

[Minnesotan]

There are more and more jobs in public history and corporate history opening up these days. Check the AHA website.

[amanda1655]

One area that people always suggest is teaching history in a public or private high school. I would caution you that obtaining a job in secondary education isn't nearly as easy as people think. No Child Left Behind requires that every teacher complete a certification program and take a wide variety of courses, including some that weren't included in my undergraduate history degree like geography. Also, there is a glut of history teachers on the market. Last year, my school district began the school year short 300 teachers, not one of those openings was in history or social studies (I work for one of the five largest school districts in the country.)

On a more positive note, H-Net and the AHA list careers for historians outside of academia. Their lists include: archival careers, editing, publishing,and local history. One other area with which I am familiar as a K-12 educator is writing textbooks for major publishing companies like Scott Foresman and Houghton Mifflin. A lot of the work is committee work, meaning that you would just be responsible for your area of expertise.