What Can You Do With A History Major?

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welcome to the office hours my name is
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John phia i chair the history department
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here at messiah college and i also teach
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American history this is episode 12 of
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the office hours I am here in my office
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with Megan p.m. are faithful filmer and
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producer of these videos one of these
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things were going to get Megan on camera
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maybe we’ll do an interview with her
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about that about the verge of making the
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virtual office hours but what we want to
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talk about today I look at this kind of
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maybe that’s the last office hours in a
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series that we’ve been doing now we’ve
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been interrupted here and there with
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some interviews and opportunities that
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we’ve taken but I think this will be the
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last the last segment in a series we’ve
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been doing on how to think historically
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and what you know the purpose of a
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history major what his three majors can
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do and so forth if you remember we
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started back thinking about the five
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seas of historical thinking we talked
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about the past as a foreign country we
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talked about the usefulness of the pass
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of the usable pneus of the past I
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suggested some ways in which Christians
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might think about how to reflect on the
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past like sin or the imago gay moral
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criticism these kinds of things we
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talked about history for a civil society
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a couple couple episodes ago and now I
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want to wrap this up with a discussion
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about the history major and what you can
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do with a history major so I’m talking
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here directly to those of you who are
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either in high school or college or have
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kids who are in high school or college
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who are interested in history and want
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to think about you know why major in
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history you know when you can major in
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something else you know that might be
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more at least that we might think might
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be more beneficial in the marketplace
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and so forth so that’s where we want to
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focus our attention today much of the
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the material that we’ve been doing in
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the virtual office hours will make up
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makes up as I mentioned before the bulk
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of my book why study history and that
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will be out in September I think the
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subtitle is reflecting on the importance
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of the past so many of these virtual
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office hours segments will appear
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in print form at least in prose in that
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book so I hope you’ll grab that book and
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you’ll you’ll take a look at it but the
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question here what what can you do with
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a history major we I’ve been wrestling
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with this question I’ve been wrestling
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with this question with my students let
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me start off by telling you a little
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story about a student of mine named a
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former student of mine named Tara Tara
was a history major she was one of our
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better history majors here in the
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department when she graduated she
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applied for a job working in a hospital
for sick children in Malawi the Republic
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of Malawi in Africa is not some kind of
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Peace Corps worker she was in a
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missionary of any time it was it this
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was a job she applied for the job called
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for someone to be I think the job title
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was an embedded blogger within this
community and the job description was
was basically Tara would spend time
during the course of the day with the
parents of the African children and the
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children themselves and then she would
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report on what she saw and you know
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their experiences and their stories for
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people back in the state so we’re
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reading the blog of the hospital so they
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would be able to know how to contribute
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or you know make contributions and so
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further find out just what’s going on I
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went Tara interviewed for the job one of
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the first things that they asked her was
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why why are you applying for this job
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you were a history major now inherent
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within that question was a common
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misconception about what history majors
do obviously many people think history
majors just sort of are very good at
trivia because they memorize facts and
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dates and so forth and they’re good at
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taking tests but that’s not the case at
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all Tara seize the opportunity I would
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ask about her history major and she said
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you know why wouldn’t I be a leading
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candidate for this job I’ve just spent
four years spending time with people so
to speak people living in the past many
of them being dead but listening to
their voices from the documents that
I’ve studied and read the primary
sources and then what did I do well
right papers i would tell their story i
would empathize with these people try to
understand life from their perspective
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and then tell the stories of their
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experiences whether it be a paper
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whether it be in a presentation whether
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it be in some kind of exhibit or or
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digital project whatever it was she
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happened to be working on here in the
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history department at Messiah so you
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know think about the job she was being
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asked to spend time listening to people
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who are different than her malawi
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children and parents listening to them
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and then telling their stories she
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looked she learned as a history major
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not only sort of fundamental skills
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about writing well listening well
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researching taking information that she
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had learned in the course of the day or
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in the course of her fieldwork and
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writing it up and making it presentable
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to outside audiences but Tara also
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learned these deeper skills that we’ve
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talked about here skills like empathy
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and understanding and trying to walk in
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the shoes of people who are different
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than her needless to say Tara got that
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jihad not in spite of the fact that she
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was a history major but because she was
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a history major and I think if we can
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have more terrorists out there if we can
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teach our students that they have
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certain skills that employers want I
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think the stigma of sort of what can you
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do with a history major may just go away
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some of you know on my blog the way of
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improvement leads hope I have
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interviewed up to fly think it’s up to
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40 now individuals who were history
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majors in college and did not go the
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traditional route that most history
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majors go most history majors either go
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to grad school in history they become
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history teachers in public public and
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private high schools or elementary
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schools they go to law school they work
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in a museum or historical society but
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the people I interviewed were people who
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did not go into any of those fields they
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went into business they went into
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medicine they went into computers they
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went into writing they went into
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journalism they went into
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the ministry a host of different fields
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and asked if they would do it again they
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had to go back to college and knowing
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what they know now in their professions
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if they were major in history again they
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all said that they absolutely would
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because history provided them with the
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kinds of skills and the kinds of virtues
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in many cases that allowed them to
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really prosper in their current their
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current job situations and do very very
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well so I’d encourage you to go check
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out that vlog series so what can you do
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with a history major maybe we’ll get an
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image of that up here when we move this
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thing into production one of the readers
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of that blog series was a man named
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Brian Brian what is the CEO of a major
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finance corporation based in Raleigh
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North Carolina and he read my series on
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what you can do with a history major and
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he sent me a nice letter and this is
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what he said in that letter he said that
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any good and well rounded liberal arts
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education is a strong foundation for
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business ultimately you have to be able
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to write speak and think still for me
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history is singularly the best
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discipline for success in business who
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imagine how shocked I was to read that
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right that’s true of people in the
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business department here at messiah
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college might be surprised too but but
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Brian goes on to say in history you
learn and become immersed in why people
and groups do things over an extended
period of time history validates that
people and organizations act in clear
recognizable patterns you can learn
about human nature behavior becomes very
predictable which is vital in the field
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of business again that’s just one
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example of how history historians can
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can use their skills I was recently at a
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conference at Wake Forest University in
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which I heard several CEOs of 500
fortune 500 company saying we want
liberal arts majors we want history
majors because they can think they can
write they can take small pieces of
information and make meaning out of
those small pieces of information they
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can take data and tell a story about the
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data I you know they know they all said
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to a to a
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they said we’ll train you and how we
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particularly to do business whether it
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be at procter and gamble or at this bank
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or whatever the company might be will
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train you in the particulars but we want
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someone who’s able to have those general
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skills in many ways it’s a great point
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most studies show that today’s
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undergraduate students are going to
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change jobs and maybe even change
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careers or professions seven to ten
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times over the course of their lives
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that means they need those fundamental
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skills of writing of thinking of
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speaking empathizing of listening of
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understanding that well-rounded history
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education or generally humanities based
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education that’s going to help them to
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adjust and adapt to the changing
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marketplace so when students tell me i
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would like to major in history or what
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can i do with a history major I tell
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them several things one if you’re
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picking a major follow your passion you
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don’t want to spend four years studying
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something that you know you have no
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interest in its interested in or you
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find boring but it may help you land
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some kind of a job in the future follow
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your passions and I think people who
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follow their passions that kind of
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passion will translate to potential
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employers employers are looking for
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people who are passionate about about
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something so follow your passions if you
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love history study history hi and and
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don’t worry about you know where you’re
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going to end up in the end or what kind
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of job you can get because as I’m
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suggesting there are lots of jobs out
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there that you can do by studying the
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past second though it’s not going to get
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you anywhere if you study your passion
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but you don’t act strategically or don’t
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develop a confidence in the kind of
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skills that you’re learning in studying
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history it’s one thing to master
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information it’s one thing to learn
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these skills but you need to be
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confident and develop the confidence to
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be able to sit before a potential
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employer like Tara did and say here is
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why
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should hire me as a history major these
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are the skills that I bring to the table
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here’s how I can help your business your
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nonprofit organization whatever it
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happens to be whatever the job happens
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to be that you’re applying to this means
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I think that history department cultures
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need to change when I was at when I was
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as undergrad or not I was in grad school
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history departments undergraduate
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history department celebrated the
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student who got accepted into a
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prestigious maybe Ivy League ph.d
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program and that was the person that
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appeared all the time on the promotion
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literature that’s the kind of thing that
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people the professors in the department
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the kind of person they talked about
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over and over again but what if the
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culture of a history department changed
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to such an extent that instead of
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celebrating those people and granted we
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still should celebrate them we also
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celebrated the people who got person who
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got a job in business or someone like
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Tara who went overseas and served in
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this hospital or someone who went into
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medicine or someone who went into
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computer science or somebody who became
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a journalist or someone who went into
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criminal justice or something with that
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what if those people were celebrated in
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our departments just as much as the
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people who get into the prestigious law
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schools and graduate schools so these
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are some things to think about as to why
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we should study history there are jobs
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out there we need the confidence to be
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able to talk about the skills and the
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talents and the gifts and the training
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that we have as historians to be able to
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make an impact on the marketplace the
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ever-changing marketplace so I think
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this is a nice sort of capstone to what
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we’ve been talking about the last 10 or
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11 episodes here give or take with a few
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little side tracks here and there you
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know history historical thinking skills
12:58
learning how to use the past and make
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the past speak to the present
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understanding the past as a foreign
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country thinking about the role of
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history and cultivating a more robust
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democratic society those are all good
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things and are there things that need to
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need to be thought about by history
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students
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but also there is a marketplace out
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there for the kind of skills and talents
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and gifts that all of us have so we
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bring this conclusion to another section
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session to an end this series to an end
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if you might want to call it that here
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in the office hours I’m not sure what
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we’re going to do yet next week but will
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happen effing Utley have something for
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you make sure you get your hands on that
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book in September why study history
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reflecting on the importance of the past
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and we will see you next time thank you