Im in the final bits of highschool right now and im currently planning out my future. History is a big passion of mine, though i hear bad things regarding getting a job with your masters degree. Im planning to use my masters degree in history to work as a librarian in a nice big library , or to work as an archivist. Should i stop and rethink before i get in to deep? or is this a good idea to keep going with? Would love to hear from people who possibly have already been thru the process and have some advice for me, if not i'd still love to hear your guy's opinions. Cheers!
A undergraduate history degree might be useful for you, but if you want to work in a library/archive/museum, you probably want to look at a master's degree in library science or museum studies. I have several friends with those degrees, sometimes with history degrees as well - I know one person with a PhD in history who had no luck on the history job market, so she went back to school and got an MLS too!
There's a lot of technical things involved in curating a library or museum that a history degree will not help with at all.
Note:- I can only advise you specifically with regards to the UK. If you're in the US, there may be some variation. That disclaimer added, I work at two academic libraries, and have a lot of archival experience from my history doctorate. I also know several archivists personally as friends.
With my experience/knowledge, I'd say not to bother. There are several formal job routes into information science/management if that's your eventual aim, be it through a CILIP certified scheme, an apprenticeship or a dedicated masters in it. An advanced history degree on the other hand is useful if you're going into academia or the curatorial heritage end of things, but is of little utlity or benefit otherwise. Do it if you want to do it for the pleasure. But don't expect to reap any material career advantage from it in job applications beyond the generic 'You have a masters and therefore are probably slightly smarter than an undergrad on balance of probability'.