Hi r/askhistorians,
I'm a recent history graduate currently working in the legal field. For most of my college career, I wanted to go to grad school for Assyriology. I thoroughly enjoyed my coursework and even got to intern at a prestigious museum. But toward the beginning of my senior year, I got cold feet after realizing I'd likely be better off burning the $100k I'd spend on an Assyriology degree to warm my house this winter.
The job I'm in now is okay. It pays the bills and all things considered, I could be doing less with my degree. But I'm finding out that I don't love the law like I love history. While in school, I took a wide variety of classes, but especially loved studying political, cultural, and intellectual history, and premodern India, China, and West Asia (specifically the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Iran).
Thinking about it now, pursuing a graduate degree in any of these fields seems like it would be immensely rewarding on a personal level. But is the job market for a scholar in any of these fields any better than the job market for an Assyriologist? I'm fully aware that premodernity isn't exactly a field people are throwing money at and that to get a graduate degree in any of these fields, just as with Assyriology, would require significant financial investment, and plenty of difficult language work. But are any of these fields unlike Assyriology in that upon getting my degree, I can be relatively confident about the possibility of getting a job?
Any guidance you kind folks can offer would be extremely appreciated, since I don't think i can see myself practicing and enjoying law for a living.
PS. If there are opportunities in related disciplines like philosophy, literature, or religious studies, I'm game for those approaches as well.
Grad in history here: a job working at a museum or auction house with very clear career choices and internships during your PhD? Probably. Tenure-track job? Good luck.
The problem (if you're talking about PhDs) is that the job market across the board is bad to the point that it does not justify spending six years of your life training for the job. The follow-up problem is as you've spent your six years training for a job that does not exist you will find it difficult to transition to non-academic positions because you're competing against folks who spent six years training for those jobs. This goes for philosophy, literature, or religious studies too.