The answer really is anything you want. History is great general subject to pursue any general career and not specifically tied to history/research/education. Outside careers that require specific areas of study such as Lawyers, Engineers etc you can pretty muh do anything you want. Chances are you will have good research skills, good writing skills, probably have examples presentation to groups etc. As a personal anecdote, with BA in History 18 years ago I have spent my career in intelligence/data/business analysis for police, local authorities, health and security services. I would definitely say that in those first few interviews and months having a degree background in history helped sell the analytical/research approach to my first employers. Im doing post grad study now and i still find crossover of skills with my day job as a business analyst. In fact i find the skills cross over in the other direction too. Basically you can do anything.

I find that my history degree enhances whatever other primary skillsets you acquire. This sounds stupid but stay with me.

I got my 4 year degree and went into the Army as an officer. In the Army, I was one of the more articulate, well spoken, and well written officers. It showed that I could methodically put information together and interpret facts. Around 7 years into my Army career I was at a Division level exercise, briefing my fire support (artillery) plan on a huge ware house sized map on the floor. Other junior officers briefed with lots of uhhs or uhms. They didn't anticipate the questions of the higher leadership the way I did with ready answers. They just werent as good as putting these things together. Do not get me wrong, some were, but many were not and my time as a dedicated history undergrad put me in the latter group, not the former. Side note, a General officer ended up giving me his challenge coin that day based strictly on how well I presented facts and interpreted things. It sounds dumb, I know, but I learned to do all that because I had a passion for history.

I think history degrees will enhance any other skillset you pursue but they are not a skillset in and of themselves. In my case leadership and operational planning were my army acquired skills, greatly enhanced by my history degree.

Later I would leave the military and enter the civilian world. I got into sales and, once again, found those same enhancing skills from my history degree to be helpful but sales ended up not being for me. I am now an Aerospace Engineering Project Manager and know for a fact my history degree has helped me in similar fashions. No, I did not acquire an engineering degree at any point.

Theres no one 'Ah hah!' skill that I can point to that a history degree will DEFINITELY give you that has helped me but I know it has.

TLDR: It will greatly enhance any skillset you acquire, but generally, it is not a career skillset in and of itself.

MDs. Seriously half of the doctors I worked with had history and English majors . Other than the few occasions when they are more pedantic about my grammar, they are every bit as good as the other doctors. Make good money too, all for a good cause .

Just saw the other condition - plenty of leisure time? you will not find it in this career path .

In short, the degree itself won't get you a job. Having any degree will help get your foot in the door for a number of different professions, but it still largely depends on what experience you have with past work.

Got my history degree about a year ago. I focused on Russian and Eastern Europe in the 1800s. Now I work in life insurance.

Okay, how has no one talked about getting further education? Most liberal arts degrees require secondary education to really work in your preferred field. Psych majors needs to get more education to work in the psychology field, English majors need a masters or PhD to do anything except for become a writer.

So, now that we’re talking about furthering your education, law is a big one. History majors go into law a lot, it’s a popular choice. There’s working as an archivist, in a museum, in federal and local government positions. Non-profit organization love and need researchers. Having a degree in history makes you a researcher, a person who has a question, searches for an answer, and can articulate the findings appropriately. Become an independent researcher. When I was working on the bachelors version of my thesis I ran into several independent researchers in the archive who worked for companies, families, or other organizations. Love to impart knowledge but don’t like the idea of a classroom? Become a tour guide! Pick any number of cities and you’ll see that they have several variations of history tours. Some are sponsored by the local government, some are federal, and some are private. Take your pick! And that’s not including teaching, which with online education can open up many opportunities.

As someone who is currently getting their masters in history, take my word for it. Yes you can find jobs in our field, but it’s definitely harder. So many career paths ask for so much experience and education. But you can do it!

Below are some links on jobs and statistics about historians getting jobs. Historians are going to have to work hard to create opportunities for ourselves. It’s not necessarily an easy road, but your passions aren’t always easy.

http://ncph.org/jobs/ - National Council on Public History’s job postings.

https://www.historians.org/jobs-and-professional-development - American Historical Association [AHA] article on jobs and how they’re helping to match historians with jobs.

https://www.historians.org/jobs-and-professional-development/career-resources/careers-for-history-majors - AHA article on different career opportunities for history majors.

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-social-science/mobile/historians.htm - Bureau of Labor Statistics’s page on historians (this page makes it all look bleak but just by looking on the other pages you can see it’s not as bad as this makes it sound).

Good luck to you!

Realistically, there isn't much out there. The skills you learn are useful, but most places aren't going to be interested in hiring you simply because you have a history degree. The best advice I can give you is to talk to your school's career/job placement office. Find out what they do to help history majors, and what kinds of employment you can be directed towards, if any.

And although I don't like anecdotal evidence, I have to tell you that my brother majored in history and he's now a math teacher. I majored in history, now I'm an attorney.

The reality is that your school is probably never going to tell you that you will have a hard time getting a job in a particular major. That would be detrimental to their business model...I mean their 501(c)(3) charitable organization. However, you have plenty of time to consider/reconsider your choices, and if that means a victory lap or two, the sacrifice now may be better in the long run.

Best of luck.

A history major is useful for really any kind of job that involves writing, research, or critical thinking. From my experiences, history carries a kind of esoteric cache that other humanities majors (except maybe philosophy) don't provide. Few employers specifically look for history majors, but in my experience it's something that always grabs their attention.

If it's not too late, I would encourage you to take on a second, more career-oriented major (marketing, journalism, film, public relations, business, finance) which can make you more competitive.

This second major will be invariably easier than history and your history background means you'll be a better writer and researcher than your peers.

Are you American? Are most people here American? The experiences and sentiments expressed here are so out of kilter to my own (a UK graduate in 01') that Im trying to work out if its and age thing? Country? Or industry? The negativity expressed relating to the need for post grad qualification and non arts&humanities is something i have never experienced in my life nor amongst my friends and family.

I'm an analyst in the intelligence community and many of my co-workers have history degrees. Civil service comes with pretty good pay, a ton of time off, and the work is interesting.

As someone with a degree in history, please don’t fall for the “you learn so many skills you can do anything with it!” bull crap colleges are throwing around. Basically, unless you’re become a historian or a teacher, a BA in History is just a stepping stone to a more specified masters degree or law school. I have a BA in history and am now getting an MA in library science because I couldn’t find a good job with just a history degree. Good luck.