Choosing your Degree Course – History

Why Choose Biological Sciences and What Can You Get Out of It?

History is another incredibly popular choice of degree course, with the premise that studying history can help us improve or learn more about the future.

History will be offered as a straight degree course or taught with something else in nearly all Universities, with many people opting to do a year abroad studying in a country that they would like to become a specialist in.

Most of the history courses that are taught offer a BA degree type, meaning that there is no maths within them, however you can get a BSc in economic history for example at The London School of Economics.

Where can history take you?

Very similarly to Geography, many people believe that all History degrees lead to is teaching, however this is not true.

Many routes followed by Historians may be teaching, but other popular options include becoming an archivist, civil service administrator or a records manager. If these jobs don’t seem exciting enough for you then other options include Journalism or even becoming a Barrister or Solicitor.

Archivist

The job of an archivist is to collect, maintain and store documents that will hold some sort of significance for an individual or organisation and many history graduates are employed by Museums as archivists.

This may have been your preconception, but the main employers of archivists are local government, national government and businesses who have plenty of records and documents that need to be maintained and stored. Due to the nature of the work, many archivists hold a number of positions and may be trained to complete other jobs after entering work.

Typical starting salaries can range from £21000 – £30000 and then can rise up to about £55000 after 12 years. However be ready to get your hands dirty, as often archivists have to find and collect lost documents from dark and dirty buildings and must often work in cramped conditions.

Journalist

There are a number of different types of journalism including newspaper, broadcast and magazine. Newspaper journalists are the most common and will research and find stories for both local and national newspapers.

You will learn a variety of new skills and may be pushed into working with layout and editing of the newspaper as time progresses. The average salary for a newspaper journalist is approximately £22500 but can be as low as £10000 for new reporters.

However this will vary depending on what size of audience you are writing for, with writers for National Newspapers earning more than those for local newspapers.

 

Explore potential career options and see if there is one that you think you may really enjoy, then go for it and Carpe Diem.