So I'm a year into the major courses for Justice Studies, which simply isn't interesting, which I took up in pursuit of a good and potentially interesting job. I'm reconsidering a History major as I'm not yet too deep into CRJU. My interests may be a little outside the scope of this reddit, but I'm sure many of you have a perspective that could help me (If you would be so kind). I have broad interests in history, but am particularly fascinated with mechanical, science, and ancient history. I do know I don't want to teach. I'd really like to be on the ground breaking end of history (Like Indiana Jones without the boulders chasing me), but I've long imagined jobs entailing this were few and far between as well as disappearing. Archaeology as well as museum jobs come to mind as something I might enjoy. I love learning and actually enjoyed writing a paper for the first time in History (Artemesium and Thermopylae). Is there potential in the field for someone like me, or am I off my rocker for considering it?
I'd very much appreciate your insight/advice.
Thank you guys for sharing some insight and helping inform my decision. Very good points about the different majors, I need to look more into what the majors entail at my school (Especially anthropology, which I'm not well informed of). Sorry it took me so long to respond, but I very much appreciate your thoughts.
Hi, history major here. Are you in the United States? If you're outside (particularly in Europe), you'll find that archaeology and history are often in the same department, and that allows for a wider scope of research and technique to be taught to students. At my school, there are a couple archaeological courses taught under the history department. If the archaeology department is within the anthropology sphere at your school, I would recommend perhaps minoring in it, as history classes are largely based on books and not archaeological research (at least in my experience). There is definitely potential in the field, at my school, a professor takes students every year on an archaeological dig somewhere around the world (this year - Bulgaria), there might be something similar at your school, and that would get you started.
History major here: I think it's wise to get out of the Justice Studies (I assume that's basically a criminal justice major), the reason being the colleges are simply flooded with CJ majors. FLOODED.
As for your interests: museum type jobs are hard to find. However, like most things in life, you make your own success. The more you think outside the box and the more flexible and persistent you are, the better the odds. Most people, incidentally, have very few if any of those qualities, which is why McDonald's is never short of applicants.
As ellendegenital said, archaeology is usually not stuck under History in the US, but is elsewhere, particularly Europe. That's not to say you shouldn't look into it though! Much of what determines where you'll end up in archaeology or museum studies depends more on your grad school experience. You'll want a major like History, Classics, or Anthropology, depending on what classes your school offers and in which department.
I've got both Anthro and Classics majors, so here's my experience with them. Classical studies, what with all our surviving texts, often mixes a lot of historical and archaeological practices. However, it is a fairly well-established field. One could argue that Greece exists as a country today because of it. I do most of my research, though, in Peru with the Anthro department. I've met the majority of the people who work on the same culture, even though I haven't even been working for 2 years yet. There's a lot more hands-on work, and practically no true "history" unless you work around the colonial period. It is a little bit more "cutting edge." The Recuay culture I study doesn't even have an English Wikipedia page. So definitely take a look at all the classes your school has and try out some stuff in different areas.