I’m really conflicted on which major I should pursue. I have loved all of my history and government classes in high school and have found them to be easier and more enjoyable than my math and science classes. On the other hand, none of the careers I’ve looked into for history majors interest me at all. I’m not bad at math or science, however, I just don’t find them as interesting. (especially science but I don’t know if it’s the subject or the teachers I don’t like). I’ve gotten really lucky in my history teachers, in that they were all very good at teaching, however, all of the science teachers I have had are really bad. I know that engineering is a growing field and the career itself interests me a lot, however, I feel I would enjoy studying history more.
There aren’t really any specific careers for “history majors,” but you can do a lot of different things with a history major that may not seem directly related to history. You’re not limited to being a historian.
Don’t study engineering just because it’s currently popular and high-paying. The pendulum on careers swings in different directions, and while engineering will probably always pay fairly well, you can never tell what’s going to be “hot” 5-10 years for now. As I’ve said before, when I started college 13 years ago, the dot-com bust wasn’t that far away in people’s memories, and the “hot” careers were law and real estate and finance. Most of the hot tech companies that software developers get paid $$$$ to work at now either didn’t exist or were in their infancy and uncertainty. Savvy, intelligent, upwardly mobile young people wanted to go work at Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers or in corporate law.
HA!
Who knows what the landscape is going to look like in another 10 years? You can’t chase what seems hot and lucrative now, because by the time you are ready to enter the market, everything may be completely different. In 15 years you may be working a job you didn’t even know existed - or that doesn’t currently exist.
That said, if engineering does intrigue you, certainly do explore it! Take some classes, look it up online, talk to some engineers.