[mathinpens]

I think it is remarkably superficial to call these degrees useless. Yes- initiating a career with them is more non-trivial than a stem degree but if you look ahead and make a concrete plan you can do great things with a History degree (especially if you go to a highly regarded school).

[gknoy]

> if you look ahead and make a concrete plan you can do great things with a History degree (especially if you go to a highly regarded school)

I realize that history-related careers are not something I am well-versed in. Can you elaborate on this point? What kind of career is best prepared for by taking a History degree? (We'll assume that any kind of professorship role in history is a no-go, given how bad the adjunct professor path is.) I might imagine someone using History as a stepping-stone to a Law degree, but cannot think of much else. Museum curator?

I am having a hard time thinking of things that would provide a labor pool large enough to have a reasonable chance of making a career of. It's very likely that I'm not thinking deeply enough about it, so I'd appreciate your insight.

[jfoutz]

There are a few skills that an undergrad history degree will do for you. Off the top of my head, critical thinking, organization of disparate concepts and events into a coherent whole, and writing well.

One of the best programmers i worked with had a philosophy degree. He could distill a bunch of random subjective information down to something reasonable to implement.

It's really an education vs training sort of issue.

[mathinpens]

I think it'd be very fun to work for the state department or at a think tank as a subject matter expert-say in internal Brazilian politics or something wonky. A lot of fun government jobs. Some of those probably require a doctoral degree. Alternatively I agree a bachelors is a good foundation for a law degree.

Or I think one could work for a place like Stratfor or the other private intelligence/business intelligence firms that are less well known.

I also think it'd be a darn hoot to be a working historian (maybe in academia maybe not) of the kind who writes history books. Really just being a historian in general though.

> I am having a hard time thinking of things that would provide a labor pool large enough to have a reasonable chance of making a career of.

Everything I mentioned was a very high variance choice no doubt. Of course you are correct. It is probably not a good choice for the vast masses of people. I would not make a choice like this unless I was at a high brow college.

welp: I am stem person though but I sometimes wistfully ponder a different path.

edit: of course history seems to prepare one well for politics

[Apocryphon]

Even in tech, plenty of corporate teams such as sales, marketing, HR recruiting, etc. are populated with people who had social sciences or liberal arts degrees. Not all of them majored in business. So long as their program taught them how to read, write, and speak publicly, it's better than no degree.