Kentucky Association of Teachers of History

“Entering the Job Market with a BA in History” by Loren Collins

Loren Collins, a career advisor at Humboldt State University, has contributed a read-worthy post for AHA Today, a blog for the American Historical Association. He emphasized in his article that employers are looking for the very skills that our history undergraduates must be able to do in order to do well in our classes:

• Communication
• Teamwork
• Making decisions/solving problems
• Planning, organizing, and prioritizing
• Obtaining and processing information
• Analyzing quantitative data
• Technical skills related to the job
• Using computer software
• Creating and editing written reports
• Selling/influencing others

Collins recommends to recent graduates:

Know how to market your excellent education, explore where you want to put it to use, and talk to all the right employers before they ask for it.

It’s crucial that we tell our students that an undergraduate who earns a history degree has all the right skills demanded by employers for so many jobs. It is important that they know and understand that all the hard work they went through to get that degree was worth it – not just personally but as a potential employee!