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At the risk of oversimplifying the OP, I think we're beyond the days of spending four years or so at the university and then dozens of employers line up to hire you. I think any career that pays a decent, livable wage requires an advanced degree of some kind or another. Otherwise, skip college altogether, find a business of some sort and try to work yourself up the ladder.
Oh, there are several things your brother can do on the side to improve his position when he graduates as a history major. There is a cousin to history called archaeology, and he could go on digs right in his state just about anywhere there is an old building, or Native American campsites, or history mysteries places. Also, he can tutor students at his Junior College or his new Univ for a small fee, and if he will take some time to get to know his professors, they may ask him to return to teach a class or two, AND he can ask his professors what he can do to intern or otherwise improve his chances to become a teacher or professor.
He can get a teaching certification for high school and college levels when he's not in regular classes, and then he can apply to be a substitute teacher on the basis of his A.A. degree. He can do some writing and get published in a history journal of some kind about a particular subject within history that particularly fascinates him and that he has already done a lot of studying on, and he should ask a professor to edit it for him (and pre-edit with journalism student if need be). He should get ahold of perhaps the Harvard or Yale or some other Ivy League School booklist for history students and read what is interesting to him from that. He could also take a short trip to perhaps Europe, take photographs of ancient places, keep a journal of his trip, and come up with a slide show presentation for interested students on campus, put together an info sheet to give out, advertise it in the campus paper and on history department bulletin boards, plus tell the professors, and do it for free one afternoon in one of the library meeting rooms with permission. Someone else already mentioned museums, his idea now, but I think there are many ways for him to stick pretty close to history, build his reputation and relationships with professors, and if that school really likes him, they may ask him to return to teach with them at some point in time.
I would definitely rethink this...employers nowadays are looking for hard technical skills that can benefit whatever corporation or business that they work at. Why would they hire a liberal arts grad to do what a business one can do? With a BA in history, all one can do is teach and if you even want a history job, then your brother will need to get a masters at least and even then the field is highly competitive. Tread with caution on this one...
I've worked in banking for 16 years. Two prior co-workers had degrees in music. One of my current co-workers has a degree in philosophy. I have a B.A. in economics. There are a ton of fields in which employers simply want people with degrees because of the skills gained in earning a degree. The major itself is unimportant.
There's another point that seems to get lost in these discussions -- Yes, college is a major financial investment, so one should hope for a commensurate return. But it's also a major investment in time and energy, so I say study what truly interests you, then figure the rest out. You can gain a lot of important professional skills through part-time employment while attending school.
My alma mater is pretty typical of a lot of state schools in that business majors tended to be greater in number. No doubt that was because of the general belief that that's the degree that brings in the $$$$. Still, I couldn't help but notice that so many of those students seemed to hate their classes. Why go through four years of college and spend all of that money only to hate it?
I tried the banking circuit. Since im not very good in math, i found the test i had to take to get hired a little hard. Once in, i was given a book and locked in a room and told to study for a month and then i would take the series 6 test. But what kind of stuff is this? i ended up not passing the test and they wanted to make me just a teller which is just a fancy, professional version of a cashier imo....
I tried the banking circuit. Since im not very good in math, i found the test i had to take to get hired a little hard. Once in, i was given a book and locked in a room and told to study for a month and then i would take the series 6 test. But what kind of stuff is this? i ended up not passing the test and they wanted to make me just a teller which is just a fancy, professional version of a cashier imo....
I started out as a teller because all of the management training positions were filled at the time. I wound up moving up to branch manager in 15 months. Today I work in a corporate support role at a rate of pay twice the national average. Don't knock it.
i guess every bank is different but our experiences shape us, and giving me a book and telling me to go study for a month with no practice test or retests seems kinda wierd. I also was not guaranteed a lower position if i did not pass the test. I was told that we would most likely be fired. That kinda puts unnecessary and undue stress on a person that is supposed to be putting all their concentration and energy towards studying. While this may not be your experience, please do not discard the experience of others who have worked in the same industry, no matter how unpleasant
I also was not guaranteed a lower position if i did not pass the test. I was told that we would most likely be fired. That kinda puts unnecessary and undue stress on a person that is supposed to be putting all their concentration and energy towards studying.
But in your case, it sounds like the Series 6 was a requirement for the job, so the demand doesn't seem unreasonable. In fact, I believe this tact is pretty common for new hires in the securities industry.
I also hold the Series 7, 24 and 66. For each exam I was provided a study manual w/ practice exams, and I was afforded the opportunity to take a live review course. Certainly I may have benefitted from working for a better company.
But I think we're both proving the point that individual skills are usually more important than the degree. And while business degrees are often considered professional degrees, you really don't gain skills in b-school.
I knew 2 people who majored in history. One got a job as a food service manager in a hospital...
the other went on and got a master's in library science. I think the food service guy makes more, but the library guy is happier...........
My cousin got a BA in history and never got a job in the discipline. However, he was a big athletic guy with a great brain as well, and a buddy got him on at his oilfield environmental cleanup firm. This was several years before the BP Horizon too. Needless to say, he's doing very well financially - mainly doing work in the Gulf but has made trips to South America and Africa too, big foreign service premiums, etc... all skills learned on the job. I think that might be a common story for history majors. It's really just a piece of paper saying that you have a good brain, good work ethic, some cosmopolitan polish that you won't embarrass the company working with clients and then a chance to learn on the job at the kind of companies whose work really can't be taught in a university major. On the other hand, my cousin got into the business more than 10 years ago, and increasingly guys in that trade have Health Environmental and Safety Engineering degrees (even though it isn't taught at many colleges yet).
If I were your cousin I'd switch to a practical major teaching you practical skills and read about the geopolitics of WWI and European Alliances of the Middle Ages in my den at home with a glass of port - more for a hobby.
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