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Recently i graduated with a degree in history. The reason i majored in history was because i love to read write and learn new facts. When i graduated, i did not have in my mind to teach or if i was it was to teach just a year or two and then leave. I have very outstanding student loans (over 20k) and now im beginning to think i made a mistake.
I thought that with my degree along i would be able to get a job in business. I did not have to have a business degree per say(but it helps) I read this in my university book as well as from what my professors told me. I would like to work in the business sector. I dont want to be an accountant or a finance analyst, but anything else would be great. I want to make good money 40k+. Right now I am working as an asst manager at a retail making 11 an hour and my boss has a degree in psychology i found out. I dont mind working in retail but its not something that i want to do for the rest of my life. The thing is is that most people that have "good jobs" seem to be business majors..my friends ex is a business graduate and she got a job as a Parole Officer. So I am thinking about going back to school and Im in my 30s with no career or job in sight. So am i just wasting my time and putting myself further in debt? Will a degree in business help me out? Or should i just stick with history and see what happens?
Recently i graduated with a degree in history. The reason i majored in history was because i love to read write and learn new facts. When i graduated, i did not have in my mind to teach or if i was it was to teach just a year or two and then leave. I have very outstanding student loans (over 20k) and now im beginning to think i made a mistake.
If your objective was to make decent money, then yes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by historygrad
I thought that with my degree along i would be able to get a job in business. I did not have to have a business degree per say(but it helps) I read this in my university book as well as from what my professors told me.
Next time, I would research your assumptions about degree marketability a bit deeper than just what you read in one book and what your professors tell you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by historygrad
So I am thinking about going back to school and Im in my 30s with no career or job in sight. So am i just wasting my time and putting myself further in debt? Will a degree in business help me out? Or should i just stick with history and see what happens?
No, yes, and no unless you want to keep working the kind of job you're working now.
well i tried..i did talk to some people and they told me that while the degree does matter maybe at first..in the end..some places just look for liberal arts degree and that some places will just hire you based on your 4 year education alone. While i appreciate your honesty, i must admit it kinda saddens me...i feel like i have wasted 4 years of my life...i would like to have a gf... a family even..and on 11 dollars an hour..i just dont see that happening.
Last edited by historygrad; 03-05-2011 at 12:49 AM..
Well to be fair, your assumptions weren't totally off prior to 2008. Things just suck right now. At this point your best bet might be to get on with some sort of sales profession and work your way up (not that that is an easy thing, either).
yyeah i kinda figured things are gong to get worse..i live in texas..and they are cutting out millions in funding to the university here and around the state when that happens i assume less people graduate with degrees and if thats the case..bad for them but good for us(the ones that have one )
Recently i graduated with a degree in history. The reason i majored in history was because i love to read write and learn new facts. When i graduated, i did not have in my mind to teach or if i was it was to teach just a year or two and then leave. I have very outstanding student loans (over 20k) and now im beginning to think i made a mistake.
I thought that with my degree along i would be able to get a job in business. I did not have to have a business degree per say(but it helps) I read this in my university book as well as from what my professors told me. I would like to work in the business sector. I dont want to be an accountant or a finance analyst, but anything else would be great. I want to make good money 40k+. Right now I am working as an asst manager at a retail making 11 an hour and my boss has a degree in psychology i found out. I dont mind working in retail but its not something that i want to do for the rest of my life. The thing is is that most people that have "good jobs" seem to be business majors..my friends ex is a business graduate and she got a job as a Parole Officer. So I am thinking about going back to school and Im in my 30s with no career or job in sight. So am i just wasting my time and putting myself further in debt? Will a degree in business help me out? Or should i just stick with history and see what happens?
Unfortunately, graduates with liberal arts degrees are a dime a dozen. Lots of people are interested in history or literature, but there aren't as many jobs for those majors other than being a teacher (and even in the teaching field, the market is saturated with history and English teachers.) Other than that, you can be a writer, become a professor... or that's about it, if you're talking specific fields where you need that degree. Other than that, you aren't very employable. Now, 5 years ago, yes, you could have a 4-year degree and hope to find something else, some unrelated job where you received training on site where the degree set you apart, but with the economy what it is now, the market is flooded with people in your shoes.
My advice would be to keep your job in retail. In this economy, you're lucky to have anything. While keeping your job in retail, see if there's a program in your area to get a business degree at night. Some areas have two-year programs for people who already hold another degree. Or you can just wait for the economy to turn around, but who knows how long that will take.
Recently i graduated with a degree in history. The reason i majored in history was because i love to read write and learn new facts. When i graduated, i did not have in my mind to teach or if i was it was to teach just a year or two and then leave. I have very outstanding student loans (over 20k) and now im beginning to think i made a mistake.
Right, you made a mistake. You can read and learn on your couch, the point of college should be either to train you for a job or provide a very good education.
Quote:
Originally Posted by historygrad
I thought that with my degree along i would be able to get a job in business. I did not have to have a business degree per say(but it helps) I read this in my university book as well as from what my professors told me. I would like to work in the business sector.
Why would you think that? What would motivate a company to higher a history grad for a business position? History courses don't teach you anything about business. In terms of professors, your typical professor graduated from high school went to college for 8~10 years and then became a professor. As a result they tend to know little about the "real world", not only that their advice is likely to be self-serving. They have a clear bias, not only is it a subject they love but their department needs to maintain sufficient numbers.
Anyhow, the fact that there are some history majors that end up in business doesn't really tell you much. You don't know their particular situations, perhaps their family is very active in business, etc. You seemed to think a degree in history would open doors in the business world, but that isn't the case. That doesn't mean your situation is hopeless, you're just going to need to work hard and work your way up in a company. If your current company doesn't provide any clear paths for advancement then find a new job that does.
If you spend the next 3-4 years working hard, seeking advancement at your job and reading about business/economics then you should be able to achieve your goal. I wouldn't recommend trying to get a business degree "at night", etc, these degrees are unlikely to be worth the paper they are printed on. Knowledge is what matters, you can gain the knowledge with a combination of experience, reading and asking a lot of questions. Here is a book that introduces you to all the core areas of business:
Dear History, (forgive my rant)
Maybe I'm just a jaded newspaper woman, but if I had to work in retail or business for the rest of my life, I'd go crazy. You can make VERY good money working as a history professor, you get to walk through a beautiful campus every day, wearing cool casual clothes (maybe a tie to brighten up things), and you get respect, you get vacations to take photographs of historical places of interest for slide shows on Fridays for your class, you get to hang out with your educated friends in your offices and talk about intelligent stuff like archaelogical finds, ancient towns on the Mediterranean to visit, what does the Sahara look like, and not a lot of mumbo jumbo about the stock market or how are you going to get enough commission that month or what Pink wore to the Grammies.
BE A HISTORY PROFESSOR, you liked history enough to get a degree, and since it involves doing things you like, writing and learning about new things, welllll, what is all this junk about a retail job??? It's like comparing being the President of the United States to mopping bus station floors. You cannot go wrong being a professor... that was my first choice in life, but I did okay with my second choice, but YOUR alternate choice is just... can I say it?.... lame!?! You might just need a teaching certificate, and later on after you haul in your first $30,000 per year as a junior professor, you can throw in night school for a master's, write a book, and your salary can go up as far as you want it to go as a history professor.
Look up what they pay folks at Harvard, if you're that smart. Heck, just working at the school you just graduated from, find out their salaries. Starting out, sure, ANYwhere it will be lower than you want, but you got a very good chance at forever job security, a salary that isn't going to move down since your job isn't money-driven, and you will ALWAYS be in an interesting place, be able to go to even more intereting places, and live in a professor's home... maybe you should drive by where one of your professors lives! It ain't bad living.
But retail, you can fall right straight down to renting a room for $25 a week and sharing a toilet with some maniacs down the hall, living on the wrong side of the tracks, with no car to get to a job you don't have. BE A HISTORY PROFESSOR, and you will be happy for the rest of your life. Then if you want to "expand your horizons," you can spook around at night selling furniture at Quality All-Night Jumbo Couch Sales store as assistant manager where you get to balance the books in a windowless fluorescent blinking room, sell that same okre couch to folks that ain't got no money, and still pray you make a commission on the fake wood side table that goes with it.
GG
Recently i graduated with a degree in history. The reason i majored in history was because i love to read write and learn new facts. When i graduated, i did not have in my mind to teach or if i was it was to teach just a year or two and then leave. I have very outstanding student loans (over 20k) and now im beginning to think i made a mistake.
I thought that with my degree along i would be able to get a job in business. I did not have to have a business degree per say(but it helps) I read this in my university book as well as from what my professors told me. I would like to work in the business sector. I dont want to be an accountant or a finance analyst, but anything else would be great. I want to make good money 40k+. Right now I am working as an asst manager at a retail making 11 an hour and my boss has a degree in psychology i found out. I dont mind working in retail but its not something that i want to do for the rest of my life. The thing is is that most people that have "good jobs" seem to be business majors..my friends ex is a business graduate and she got a job as a Parole Officer. So I am thinking about going back to school and Im in my 30s with no career or job in sight. So am i just wasting my time and putting myself further in debt? Will a degree in business help me out? Or should i just stick with history and see what happens?
I graduated with a BA in History in 2009. If I could go back and do it all again, I would have focused on a science (biology or ecology) and minored in history.
You should try to get into a management trainee or some other type of trainee program. A lot of companies offer them. You will have to search the job boards.
P.S. The person writing be a history professor is clueless. There is no market for being a history professor. Please research before posting.
BE A HISTORY PROFESSOR, you liked history enough to get a degree, and since it involves doing things you like, writing and learning about new things, welllll, what is all this junk about a retail job???
That is much easier said then done. There are far more people getting Ph.ds in History than there are positions for professors. If someone doesn't go to a top program, their chances of becoming a professor are pretty low. And getting into a top program requires top grades, top GRE scores, excellent writing samples and recommendations from well known history professors (who are all working at top universities/programs).
Your comments about retail bizarre to say the least, the OP has a much greater chance finding a reasonable job ($40k+ a more) in the retail industry than they do becoming a history professor. Retail involves far more than cashiers, stock boys, etc. At the business level retail can be rather interesting, psychology, sociology, economics etc all come into play.
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