Hi all, I'm graduating with degrees in history and elementary education in december. I'm a 22 year old female in NJ. I originally planned to be a teacher, but I found out I hate teaching. So I never planned to use my history degree (my school required a dual major) I just took it because I love history. So I am in a bit of a pickle. I spent my 4 years at college convinced I was going to be a teacher and now I have no idea what I can do with a history degree.
Anything that's really in the history field requires a master's and I really just need a job when I graduate. I'm considering getting my master's eventually to do maybe something in archives or conservation. Anyway, when I went to college I didn't know that most liberal arts degrees need a master's eventually. I just can't go to grad school right now. I will take anyone's advice. I could really use recommendations on industries I could get into or jobs where a history degree could be useful. Please tell me I can do something useful with this degree. I'm interested in any jobs making at LEAST $30,000. The bar is low guys.
You need to sit down with an advisor at your school and talk about what you enjoy doing, what kinds of skills you'd like to use in your job, what kinds of career possibilities are available to you. What kind of things do you like to do during the day? What would be a fulfilling sort of career to ultimately end up at? Do you want a job where you work with people all day, or where you work on your own? Are you interested in working in the private sector or the public? What kinds of fields (business, politics, advocacy, healthcare, education, etc.) appeal to you? These are the kinds of things I talk through with my own students in helping them figure out what they're interested in.
We can't do that online, not just from a listing of what you don't want to do, and from a degree (or even from a geographical location — even little New Jersey is a state of many different places! Greetings from Hoboken!). History is a generalist degree — it isn't about looking for a specific job that wants a history major (there are almost none of those), it's about finding jobs that work for someone with a history major's skills (writing, analysis, research). There are many jobs that fit into that category.
Don't set such a low bar for yourself. Talk with an advisor and work out a strategy to do something interesting, something that will get you some relevant job experience. Your university no doubt provides career counseling services as well — take advantage of them! The problem you have is not that no jobs want history majors, the problem you have is that you don't know what you want to do as a job, and there's no "obvious" path forward. With a generalist major, you will have to forge a path despite the lack of signs. Think about where you want it to end up.
Separately, I might just suggest that teaching is a much broader thing than just elementary education. I don't want to probe how you can know you hate it at this stage (you can't have done much of it yet, can you?) — but just be aware there are a lot of different teaching experiences and environments. Even within a single field or age cohort; experiences can vary dramatically between different schools. And there are many aspects to working in education other than teaching, as well. I am only pointing this out because it sounds like you had a lot invested in the idea of working in education at some level, and now seem rather adrift without that idea.