<p>I recently earned an MA in History because I "doubled down" on myself, so to speak. I was convinced that I could find a way to make it work. But unfortunately, the over-specialization of every job is making it nearly impossible to break into anywhere.</p>
<p>The jobs I do find tend to be in Architectural History, which requires a different kind of education. But frankly, I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket like that. </p>
<p>Then I thought of urban planning. I always find myself staring at buildings and land use and wondering if there was a better way of building or using land. And of course, my history interest could link me up with a career in historic preservation and planning. </p>
<p>I hear that the job outlook is pretty good for urban planners, but I wanted some input.</p>
<p>I already have a tremendous amount of student loan debt that, at present, has no way of ever being paid off. Grad school was probably a big, big mistake. I really don't want to go to grad school again, but if this career path promises a job, I feel like maybe it's not so stupid to rack up more debt to get a Master's in urban planning. Especially since, at present, my job experience is retail, retail, retail and I hate it and need to get out. I have some internship experience in museums and whatnot, but that's not really helping me at this point. At 26, I need to get on a career outside of retail, and fast.</p>
<p>Anyone have any advice on the career choice or my considering going back for another Master's?</p>
<p>Honestly… unless you get a whole bunch of gift aid/assistantships, I can’t recommend another batch of loans for another graduate degree. How much debt do you already have? Will you remotely be able to afford the payments?</p>
<p>No graduate school “promises a job,” either.</p>
<p>I would suggest looking for entry-level jobs/internships related to historic preservation/planning first - otherwise, what if you borrow a ton of money for an MA in urban planning and then find out you really don’t like the day-to-day work of the profession?</p>
<p>You’ve got good points, but I’m living that already. There aren’t any entry-level jobs in history. And a lot of the internships or jobs require degrees specifically in historic preservation, not history. I mean, I’m not giving up entirely, I keep looking every day, but I’ve been doing this for a couple of years now without much luck. </p>
<p>Honestly, no I couldn’t afford loan payments…unless I got a job in urban planning. I already can’t afford my loan payments (mostly because of other debt I have that I’ve been paying down) but to be honest, if I’m stuck in retail forever I can’t pay them off anyway. You know what I mean? The longer I do retail then that’s all I’ll be able to do later in life. And to get any career job outside of that I need another degree of some kind anyway it seems.</p>
<p>I know it’s not ideal, but if anyone has any insights into the urban planning job market, that might help me figure this out, too.</p>
<p>The Community Planning field has been hard hit by the continued weakness of the land development market and the elimination of hundreds of thousands of state and local government jobs. With little development activity, there isn’t much demand to hire staff to manage development activity. </p>
<p>You might look at taking some part-time grad public administration courses, including public financial management, some of which are offered online from in-state public universities, which reduces the costs. There seems to be some normal turnover in local administration jobs that offers some opportunities, and some of those positions overlap with community development and community planning work. Considering how many local govt. jobs have disappeared, hopefully there will be a resurgence in demand in a couple years.</p>