American Historical Association Careers for History Majors

The American Historical Association (AHA) has published an updated version of Career for HistorytMajors.  It's worth checking.  While you are at it, look at other recorses by following the careers label.

Why Double-Majors Might Beat You Out of a Job

This article from Higher Ed Jobs, Why Double-Majors Beat You Out of a Job, has some interesting insights.  It's worth a read.  Students who double major are more innovative, which is something that employers look for.

Humanities Grads and Careers

Inside Higher Ed, in Shocker:  Humanities Grads Gainfully Employed and Happy, reports on a new study. 

Although humanities majors are often depicted as being on the fast-track to a career as a barista, according to the story a "a study being released today by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences -- based on data from the U.S. Census and other government sources, plus Gallup polling of workers nationwide -- challenges the myth of the underemployed, unhappy humanities graduate.

The report doesn't contest that those who majored in engineering or natural sciences earn more, on average, than do humanities graduates do. But it shows humanities grads to be gainfully employed and holding positions of authority, and finds that only a slightly smaller share of them than of their better-paid counterparts think they have enough money. When it comes to measures of career satisfaction, humanities grads are as satisfied as those who majored in STEM."

More on Majors and Careers

Jeff Selingo's "Six Myths about Choosing a College Major" in the New York Times is worth reading when thinking about majors and how they relate to employment.  Check out his chart on lifetime earnings.  Selingo has written a lot about higher education and the future of work.  He has regular articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education plus several books.

Connecting the dots between liberal arts and careers

It may be to the outsider that some of the things on appearing on the blog don't add up - what's up with a history department and GIS, THATCamp, Escape Rooms, Game Design, and other stuff.  Yes, we still teach history. Students read books and write papers.  That's not going away.  In fact, the bulk of what we do falls into those categories.  The ability to deeply read a text, write a clear paper, and use content knowledge to place events in context has never been more important.

However, we're also adding some spice to how things have been done in a history class.  Some of it, frankly, is experimentation with the goal of having fun.  Why not?  Fun is a powerful thing when it comes to learning.

 But as you can tell from other postings, we're giving serious thought to the relationship between the liberal arts and careers.  For starters, reading, writing, and content are important for life and work, but we also live in an age when things are changing rapidly and much of that change is driven by technology and data.  For those of you who graduated pre-internet, think about how much our work, entertainment, and lives have changed.  Frankly, there are now many careers that didn't exist 20 years ago and who knows what will exist 20 years from now.

There is a lot being written about this topic.  We're urged to "adapt and survive" and to "race with the machine."

Fair enough.  How?

This brings us back to the innovations we've been introducing to history classes.  There is one word you need on your resume today, and that is digital and so you see our work in digital history.  This is why we're working in GIS, website creation, podcast, and such.  Students should have digital on their resumes in a concrete and professional way.

We're also giving some serious thought to how design fits into this - hence the game design and gamification.

We've been working with Bill Bechdel of XPhobia and Jennifer Pulver of SBU's events office to create an escape room summer camp.  Don't know what an escape room is?  Check out the Olean Times Herald story on Bill's room.  According to Bill, “It’s like stepping into a movie — you’re a part of the action,” he said. “My idea is to bring as much immersion to this as possible.”  For participants, it is an authentic, immersive experience.  

For educators, it's a chance to blend content with design in the curriculum.  It's a chance for educators and students alike to learn.  The next step is to take the ideas we develop with the escape room camp and bring them into classes.  That, it seems, is the key to adapting - and having fun.

Careers and the History Major

Paul Sturtevant's article for the American Historical Association, "History is Not a Useless Major:  Fighting Myths with Data," offers up some data from the American Community Survey on the fate of history majors as they pursue careers.  We've long known that most history majors don't go on to become professional historians, but that doesn't mean they don't pursue careers.

Check out one of my favorite points from the article, screenshot ⇩ Turns out history majors get jobs.

However, we're not oblivious to the concerns who fear that studying history.  We're incorporating digital and design projects into our classes, especially the digital and public history classes, to help students learn 21st-century skills and articulate the skills and knowledge they develop in our classes.

Turns out nearly half of history majors go on to graduate school ⟱ and many go on to work in education, law, and business.

Internship Opportunities

https://sbu-csm.symplicity.com/

Liberal Arts and Jobs...

This piece, "Liberal Arts Majors Have Plenty of Job Prospects, if They have some Specific Skills, Too," in the Chronicle of Higher Education points out the value of a liberal arts education when combined with managerial and technical skills.  This is certainly a message we've been preaching in the digital and public history courses.

From the article:

"Employers really value soft skills that are the bedrock of a liberal-arts education," he says. But many employers are also looking for applicants with additional, specific skills, such as knowledge of Java or other programming languages, or proficiency with graphic-design tools like InDesign or Adobe Creative Cloud. "It’s not a matter of shutting down the classics department and turning it into a business degree," he says.
...
The company identified skills in eight fields, and then found an additional 863,000 entry-level jobs for graduates with skills in one or more of those fields. For example, the analysis found an additional 137,000 entry-level jobs for liberal-arts graduates who had data-analysis or management skills. It also found that such data-analysis jobs paid an average of $12,700 above the average salary for jobs traditionally open to liberal-arts graduates without such skills.

Liberal Art Majors and Job Skills

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an interesting piece on a subject we have been giving a lot of thought to - liberal arts majors and careers.  In "Liberal-Arts Majors Have Plenty of Job Prospects, if They Have Some Specific Skills, Too" the point is made that gaining a few specific skills can greatly increase the chances of getting a good first job.

From the article:

The analysis can help defuse the debate over the value of a liberals-arts education versus a career-focused one, says Matthew Sigelman, chief executive at the job-market-analytics company Burning Glass Technologies. The company undertook the analysis as part of its continuing study of the job market.

"Employers really value soft skills that are the bedrock of a liberal-arts education," he says. But many employers are also looking for applicants with additional, specific skills, such as knowledge of Java or other programming languages, or proficiency with graphic-design tools like InDesign or Adobe Suite. "It’s not a matter of shutting down the classics department and turning it into a business degree," he says.

"Everything has a history."

James Grossman's op ed, "History isn't a 'useless' major," is worth a read.  He is the executive director the American Historical Association.  From the essay:

"All liberal arts degrees demand that kind of learning, as well as the oft-invoked virtues of critical thinking and clear communication skills. History students, in particular, sift through substantial amounts of information, organize it, and make sense of it. In the process they learn how to infer what drives and motivates human behavior from elections to social movements to board rooms.

Employers interested in recruiting future managers should understand (and many do) that historical thinking prepares one for leadership because history is about change — envisioning it, planning for it, making it last. In an election season we are reminded regularly that success often goes to whoever can articulate the most compelling narrative. History majors learn to do that."

More on humanities majors and careers

Mathew Sigelman in "Getting Past the Lazy Debate" makes some really good points, ones that students in Digital and Public history have heard.  It's worth reading.  He makes smart points about what employers are looking for and the relationship between liberal arts education and vocational skills.

From his essay:

"Or consider this: across the labor market, many of the jobs that are both fastest growing and in highest demand are those that bring together different skill sets, like marketing and data analysis, or graphic design and programming. Such positions, which have grown by 53 percent over the last four years alone, are often hard to fill because technically oriented training programs tend to be tightly focused. By contrast, these “hybrid jobs” require people who can bridge domains and synthesize ideas.

Liberal arts graduates may not have direct training in those domains, but the liberal arts live within the core framework of interdisciplinary synthesis and critical evaluation. That’s a world apart from more technically oriented programs that dispatch their graduates into the workforce with a fixed portfolio of skills that, while marketable, may be of fleeting currency. In fact, even within a given occupation, the core work activities can evolve quickly, rendering a “practical” program obsolete. In the fast-growing field of data analysis, the entire skill set has shifted over just a three-year span away from pure statistical computation to place much more emphasis on visualization and business analysis."

Value of an Education in the Humanities

Adam Frank in "What is the Value of an Education in the Humanities," makes interesting points about this new world we live in.  Not only has the economics of higher education changed, but we've reached a point where separating the humanities from technology isn't wise.  He writes:
"The point: The old barriers between the humanities and technology are falling. Historians now use big data techniques to ask their human-centered questions. Engineers use the same methods — but with an emphasis on human interfaces — to answer their own technology-oriented questions."  As you read the article he lists technologies, including GIS, that every student should know how to use.  

#Bonnies4Bonnies networking event

Learn about the powerful SBU alumni connection firsthand
at #Bonnies4Bonnies networking event

At St. Bonaventure, we root for each other’s success and happiness. So it shouldn’t surprise current students that faithful Bona alumni have jumped at the opportunity to share career advice and experiences with them.

Bonnies4Bonnies is a new career networking event aimed at connecting students and alumni and is planned for 3 to 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 12, in Doyle Dining and Board of Trustees Rooms. The event is hosted by St. Bonaventure’s Career and Professional Readiness Center (CPRC).

Registration for the networking event is now open at www.sbu.edu/Bonnies4Bonnies. The deadline to register is Wednesday, Feb. 10.

Following a keynote talk on “The Power of the Bonaventure Alumni Connection,” students will have the chance to meet and mingle with alumni representing a broad spectrum of professional roles, from freelance writer to corporate executive.

“Our alumni are passionate about supporting our students after they leave the university, whether it be through opportunities or professional recommendations and connections,” said Pamela Ferman, assistant director and employer relations coordinator at the CPRC. “Our alumni have gone on to excel in the job market, and having the ability to bring them back to talk to students is invaluable to their career success.”

Alumni participating in Bonnies4Bonnies represent many major urban cities and an impressive mix of companies.
The CPRC will have representation from New York City, Washington, D.C., Buffalo, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Rochester and companies like SiriusXM, New York Life, Toyota, Nissan North America, Scholastic, Constellation Brands, Rohrbach Brewing Company, Fisher-Price and M&T Bank, said Ferman.

For students undecided about a career path, Bonnies4Bonnies is an opportunity to find out more about a particular profession from someone in the field who is willing to speak candidly about its pros and cons.

Addressing students and alumni in the keynote address will be alumnus Kevin Cleary, marketing manager of sponsorships and promotions for Nestlé Waters North America, the global leader in the bottled water industry.

Cleary has worked at Nestlé Waters for 11 years in various sales, communications and marketing roles. Based in Stamford, Conn., he manages day-to-day responsibilities related to Nestlé Waters North America partnerships, including the New York and Boston marathons, Universal Studios, and select Major League Baseball teams, including the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and Texas Rangers.

Managing a multimillion-dollar budget, Cleary oversees partnership opportunity reviews, provides leadership for integrated marketing plans, and manages multiple outside agency teams.

Cleary, a marketing major at St. Bonaventure, earned his undergraduate Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 2002. He is a member of the university’s National Alumni Association Board, serves as president of St. Bonaventure’s New York City Alumni Chapter, and is a member of the Bonaventure Athletic Fund Advisory Board. In addition, he was recently named to the board at Mt. Irenaeus.

For more information about Bonnies4Bonnies, visit www.sbu.edu/Bonnies4Bonnies or contact Ferman at pferman@sbu.edu. 

21st century careers for humanities majors

Students enrolled in our public history and digital history courses will recognize some of the themes from "Feeding English Majors in the 21st Century" except substitute history major for English major.

From the article:
"Students also recognized the need to develop digital skills in order to succeed in the 21st century. A class visit from a digital humanist caused more than a few students to admit their own technophobia, derived in part from their fear that the digital world will replace the printed words that they hold dear. In the discussion that ensued, one student said she had come to realize that — just as film adaptations can complement rather than supersede their literary predecessors — digital skills can coexist with other forms of literacy.

An assigned article from Forbes, "That ‘Useless’ Liberal Arts Degree Has Become Tech’s Hottest Ticket," drove home the point that if students have learned to connect diverse texts and traditions, they very likely have developed the skills needed to be liaisons between software creators and end users. In short, the course bridged a particular form of the digital divide for some English majors."

Political Zingers

On December 8 Larry Raymond spoke with the Public History class about his game, Political Zingers.  Political Zingers fits into the theme of game design, because, according to the game's web page, "With Zingers!, talking politics with your friends is fun and you won’t ruin the evening.    You put words into the mouths of politicians and pundits, telling the truth as you see it through a cartoon vocabulary.  You  can speak your mind, get a laugh and not offend anyone."  The games ability to get people (translation students) to discuss potentially difficult topics has real educational applications.  Students in the class have a variety of political opinions and levels of engagement, but they all enjoyed the game.  The game moved quickly, provoking both discussion and laughs.  Larry also discussed how the game related to his long and varied career including his fascinating work with metaphor mapping in the corporate world and the United Nations.

Earnings by Majors

The Wall Street Journal has a chart of Salary Increase by Major that lets you see how majors do over time.  The good news is that humanities majors do well - a message often heard in our public and digital history classes where we emphasize that the best skill for the modern economy is the ability to adapt and learn.  That's the point in emphasizing game design, gamificiation, design and information architecture this semester in public history.  Of course, we're also doing the Civil War.  Next semester will see much of the same but adding in more digital tools such as GIS and web design.

The history major stats over time from the WSJ.  The first column is starting medium salary.  The second is mid career medium salary 10 years out followed by percent increase.

History

$39,200.00

$71,000.00

81.1

The benefits of a liberal education

John Kay has a nice article on the benefits of a broad, liberal, education in the Financial Times.  In "The Benefits of a Liberal Education do not Go Out of Date," he writes that "The objective (of education) should be to equip students to enjoy rewarding employment and fulfilling lives in a future environment whose demands we can neither anticipate nor predict."

STEM or Liberal Arts?

STEM or Liberal Arts:  A Trick Question for College Students is another article on the seeming debate between STEM and liberal arts majors.  The takeaway, we need both.  The author writes that "it’s a mistake to think that STEM is the only route to a rewarding and well-paying career in tech or business, whether with a web startup or a huge multinational."  STEM is hugely important and any student who has taken my classes know that I think that one of the defining features of the 21st century is that technology is integrating into everything.  In the article, the author writes that "the bigger point is that most students would do well to study both STEM and liberal arts and develop both left-brain and right-brain skills and thinking.  The example I use with my college-bound teen is that software engineering is a very valuable skill to have, but software engineering combined with superb communications skills, even more so."  I would argue the reverse is also true.  The humanities major who is comfortable with tech is also marketable.  Looking forward to teaching public history and digital history this year.

For the Liberal Arts, All is not Lost in the Digital Age

Although I risk turning the blog into a place to rant about the crisis in the humanities, I am deeply interested in how fields like history fit into the 21st century.  Since it is summer and I don't have new stories about what our great students are doing I'll post this column in the Miami Herald "For the Liberal Arts, All is not Lost in the Digital Age." The author makes some good points.

Taken from the article:

"“Liberal arts majors who want to be in the tech field have to educate themselves in the basic concepts, and if they can prove they understand it well enough, they become invaluable,” Nickel said. When he looks at résumés, he doesn’t immediately dismiss one that leads with a liberal arts degree. After all, he said, developers may create a product, but it takes a smooth talker in the board room to convince investors to buy.

There has been a bit of a backlash to the STEM push, with a string of stories in mainstream media and business publications praising the virtues and versatility of those liberal arts majors, particularly the ones willing to learn the language of computing."

I am not part of the STEM backlash, such as it is.  STEM is hugely important but it isn't the whole story.  For those of in fields like history, the digital age could actually be an opportunity providing we are willing to experiment and adapt - not always the easiest thing to do but it can be fun.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article29241376.html#storylink=cpy

That "Useless" Liberal Arts Degree....

"That "Useless" Liberal Arts Degree Has Become Tech's Hottest Ticket" over at Forbes is is a great article on the value of the liberal arts degree in the Tech World.  From the article:  "MIT professors Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee argue in a recent book, The Second Machine Age, that today’s tech wave will inspire a new style of work in which tech takes care of routine tasks so that people can concentrate on what mortals do best: generating creative ideas and actions in a data-rich world."  Later on, the author continues "As LinkedIn data show, most of the migrants have created nontechnical career paths in Silicon Valley. The list starts with sales and marketing (14%) and goes on to include education (6%), consulting (5%), business development (5%) and a host of other specialties ranging from product management to real estate. Add up the jobs held by people who majored in psychology, history, gender studies and the like, and they quickly surpass the totals for engineering and computer science."

I'd like to think that my digital history class and the game design materials we're introducing to public history only helps open doors to these types of jobs.