I am currently a freshman in my second semester and am a finance major. However, I’ve begun to realize that it’s difficult to major in something I don’t truly enjoy; I took up finance because it’s a practical degree with a large job market. I’ve always been fond of history and am considering switching to a history major with a double minor in business and finance due to already completely classes for those minors on track to a finance degree. I have noticed that many websites and “experts” are polar opposites on the practicality of a history degree. There are those who group it with impractical liberal arts degrees like humanities and art history, whereas others claim government positions and business openings sometimes prefer a history major due to knowing past patterns in business models and economic trends. I am also planning on getting my MBA after my undergrad anyway. My question is, if you did or knew someone who did major in history, is the job market nearly as barren as it is portrayed, and will it be difficult to get into an MBA program with a history degree, let alone getting a company to sponsor me for an MBA with a history degree?
I’m not sure about the job placement rates for history majors, however I don’t believe MBA programs or companies will hold it against you that you have a history major. Just have a good GPA and GMAT.
A history degree is still a four year degree, which is all that is required for many jobs. A college friend of mine who majored in history got a job out of school working for a bank. He is still there 20 years later.
My uncle was one of the top regional executives at his bank. (a big one) With his history degree.
If you love it, this may be your only chance to expand your mind in a setting with respected peers. It may lead to something unexpected, which you sound like you’d want given how dreary finance seems to be for you. Don’t worry about where it will lead, do something you love.
For an MBA, the most important thing is being in an industry where getting an MBA is seen as a necessary step in achieving your career goals, and being at a company that looks for that kind of thing. Having a degree in history won’t hold you back, at least not as I’ve observed; by the time you’re getting your MBA, you will have at least a few years of work experience. Undergraduate majors tend to matter less once you have that.
And on a practical side, it makes a lot of sense to major in something that you are actually interested in rather than just something that you think you’re ‘supposed’ to major in. The C-Suite at most corporations isn’t filled with only undergraduate finance majors, and the lower levels are just as diverse.
Not worthless, but maybe not worth what your paying for it. A big depends on a lot of factors
A history degree can lead to a lot of different careers.
My son is a Poli Sci major with a History minor from a LAC. He is graduating in May. He was just accepted into a multinational Fortune 200 company’s corporate training program. He has had no business courses at all (his college doesn’t even offer any.)
edited to add: His company also has a tuition reimbursement program and it’s quite possible he might decide in a few years to go back and get an MBA.
My son has a degree in history. He loved all of his history classes, however it didn’t land him a job. He didn’t look long and hard, but he did begin job hunting with just that degree. Then an opportunity for a grad assistantship presented itself and he applied for that. He went on for a grad degree in public relations and that is what he does now professionally.
This article may be useful to you:
What can you do with an undergraduate degree in history?
https://www.historians.org/jobs-and-professional-development/career-resources/careers-for-history-majors
Could you double major in finance and history? Or business and history?
I suggest this because the online on-campus job recruiting systems that most colleges use limit access to some jobs to people with specific majors. Minors in finance and business won’t enable you to break through that barrier. A major in business or finance will.
It depends what college you’re attending. The odds are different depending on whether it’s Mansfield University or Hamilton, UNLV or UCB.
Business majors comprise about 45 to 50% MBA applicants at Stanford; while Stanford is a bit more biased towards STEM majors than other top MBA programs, these 45-50% applicants compete for about 15% of the entering class spots, with humanities and social science applicants making up much less of the applicant pool for 48% of the entering class. Major in history, be stellar at it, continue with as many quantitative courses as you can (get into Quantitative History!), do research, GET INTERNSHIPS based on your skillset, and you’ll be fine.
https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/programs/mba/admission/evaluation-criteria/class-profile
@MYOS1634, you’re assuming that Stanford has quotas for applicants with different types of undergraduate majors. Yet nothing on the page you linked to indicates that this is true.
Also, I suspect that many of those “humanities and social science” majors were economics majors, who are a very different breed from history majors.
If you’re not an engineering or accounting or CS major, what gets you an interview is your resume, where your major takes up one single line on the entire page. What else is on your resume? What jobs have you held? internships? ECs? A history degree tells a prospective employer that you have above average skills in writing, research and analysis – and many employers value those skills.
History is not a worthless degree. Neither is art history or women’s studies or philosophy. But you have to fill your resume with other compelling information that makes you attractive to employers.
fireanddrain is right. My son was an international relations major with many history courses under his belt. The interviewers are far more interested in his summer work where he did things like revamp a reservations system by learning to program in Excel, to working with various data base programs to the sorts of briefings he wrote for an NGO as an intern. He’s barely been asked about coursework at all. Even his competence in Arabic is barely a blip.
I’m not assuming quotas but I know that 1° top MBA programs don’t like business majors, they prefer “traditional” or “general” majors, except from specific schools where it can be argued that the business major includes a lot of “traditional” major courses, especially wrt math (Wharton, Stern, etc.) 2° Economics is a big one (some top MBA list them separately) but not the majority; they really like art history, foreign languages, philosophy, etc, etc. A nice variety is expected. As noted Stanford leans toward engineering/STEM due to its location. 3° Internships, research experience, quantitative and interpersonal skills, and post-graduation professional experience will matter much more than choice of major in the ultimate decision.
Don’t forget the GMAT. It matters.
Also, undergraduate majors affect the young person’s opportunities for post-graduation professional experience. It’s hard to judge the impact of that indirect effect.
I am struggling to connect what you said here with your plans to pursue an MBA (and presumably go on to a career in business). If you already don’t enjoy what you are doing, imagine what you may feel like when you have been doing it everyday for 20 years. Is it just the finance side of business in particular you don’t enjoy?
For what it’s worth, I’ve always felt that a business education (particularly an MBA) has more meaning when you actually have business experience. It can be somewhat abstract and meaningless to learn about this stuff if you 1) don’t enjoy it and 2) don’t have any context to understand it. I’m also not sure if the OP actually hates business or just doesn’t enjoy the finance major.
The list at http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/cdc/identify/alumni-where-grads-work/humsci shows where Stanford recent grads are working for different majors. Among history majors with no grad degrees, the most common jobs are below, listed in order from most to least. There were a wide variety of employers, ranging from Google to the Smithsonian. There are a lot of different possibilities for history majors, although the majority with a bachelors worked in a field that was less related to their major.
- Analyst (9)
- Teaching (4)
- Project/Event Manager (4)
- Paralegal/Legal Assistant (2)
- Fellow (2)