I know that different people have different experiences. I just want to have a general understanding of what to expect. I'm graduating what is equal to High School in the US this year, and I have to previous experiences at a University.
English is not my primary language. Sorry for any grammatical errors. I'm also sorry if I've broken a rule or two. Still new to this whole reddit thing.
Edit: I'm from Norway and expecting to study in Norway.
BA in History and Political Science here. GPA of 4.1. Been working security for 20 years. Good luck.
BA in History (in the US) here.
It was in the last year of my degree that I decided I didn't want to pursue history as a profession. I don't know how other programs do it, but the final years of a history degree at my university started to focus less on "learning history" and more on "learning to do the work that historians do".
Learning history is still a fun, fulfilling and a lifelong hobby for me. But, the actual work of a professional historian is mind-bogglingly tedious. I still recall hundreds of hours spent pouring through thousands of pages of primary sources in the faint hope of finding a nugget of information that might be useful to what I was researching.
The research and analysis skills I learned have been very useful in my career (management consulting for nonprofits), and a good understanding of history is useful in countless ways throughout life.
Where are you from? Perhaps one of our subscribers is from the same place and could send you a PM about their experience getting a BA in History.
I got my BA in History as well. GPA wasn't great. I was a huge History buff, hence my studying primarily History courses, but I thought I would/I planned to pursue a career in Law after university.
Very difficult to make a career out of History, besides being a professor. If you want to work in museums, you will need to volunteer and maybe so some not-for-profit work.
Have a masters, working as a sales manager. Key is have no debt, move long distance for an internship. Impress the hell out of people by getting experience in museum and non profit work.
Chances are you'll still be doing something totally different, but if you stay debt free and work for free long enough you stand a shot. It's the only real way to network in the historical field. Move to a big city if you're not in one already and learn a wide variety of skills to stand a shot at anything history related.
Graduated with an honours degree in history (focused on Scottish medieval and Victorian history).
Loved it but couldn't see a job in it other than academia - becoming an expert on one very precise area held no appeal - so got a "real" job. Eventually carved myself a bit of a niche as a researcher/analyst which was pretty cool, and allowed me to move from Scotland to New Zealand.
Now studying for an MA in museum and heritage studies, volunteer at a local museum and just about to go do a 5 week internship as a public historian.
I'm still slightly in shock that people get paid to be historians. Determined to get me some of that action though!!