Minoring In History

[Pylon]

+1 what Conne said. A minor in history may not directly benefit your actual resume, but it will benefit your education. I picked up a dual major in history and French for my BA. Because of the history major, I gained a lot of critical analytical and research skills (scrutinizing sources, digging up primary information, sifting through volumes for what's important, making deductions, etc.). On top of that, I had to write a lot. It seemed like a ***** in college to always be writing papers but it did wonders for my written communications skills. Those skills have helped me immensely in my career now in PR and communications.

I'm sure potential employers don't look at my resume and say "Oh, a history major... perfect" but the benefits show through in my strong writing pieces in my portfolio. History is also a great grounding to understand other cultures and backgrounds, so not a bad base knowledge to have if you'll ever consider going into international relations, civil affairs, and a variety of other career fields.

If you can do it, and it interests you, why not?

 

[odoreater]

Originally Posted by Pylon

+1 what Conne said. A minor in history may not directly benefit your actual resume, but it will benefit your education. I picked up a dual major in history and French for my BA. Because of the history major, I gained a lot of critical analytical and research skills (scrutinizing sources, digging up primary information, sifting through volumes for what's important, making deductions, etc.). On top of that, I had to write a lot. It seemed like a ***** in college to always be writing papers but it did wonders for my written communications skills. Those skills have helped me immensely in my career now in PR and communications.

I'm sure potential employers don't look at my resume and say "Oh, a history major... perfect" but the benefits show through in my strong writing pieces in my portfolio. History is also a great grounding to understand other cultures and backgrounds, so not a bad base knowledge to have if you'll ever consider going into international relations, civil affairs, and a variety of other career fields.

If you can do it, and it interests you, why not?

I agree with this - don't do it because of the effect it will have on your resume, but by all means if you are interested in the topic then do it for the sake of education alone. I minored in Religious Studies and I don't even put it on my resume, but it's a topic area that I found very interesting.

 

[JustinW]

I majored in history for my BA, my honours year and my MA. My BA minor was in Industrial Relations. The latter was far more valuable in gaining employment, but I learned far more in the former (how to write, construct an essay, research skills, etc).

 

[Tardek]

If you can get anything that sounds like an industry, do that instead of one of the traditionals (philosophy, english, history etc). Asian studies might be useful, for example, because you can pretend that it makes you better qualified to deal with the Asian business world. I had a major in history and a minor in asian studies, and sometimes I regret not making it the other way around (I'd done a lot of asian history subjects, so I could have picked either).

 

[Dewey]

Minors are a way for departments to package their courses for non-majors.

It could be a talking point on an application letter, especially if you are looking for professional jobs that involve multiple skill sets. E.g., if you apply to be a science writer, a major in science and a minor in writer, or vice versa, might help you, in your application letter, persuasively spin your college coursework as something you did with this particular job in mind all along.

That said, the point of any four-year degree is not getting you into a career. It's a liberal education. You should be learning a little bit of everything and a lot of whatever interests you most. Employers rarely care if your major was English or History or any other Humanities major -- they care that you come to work on time, dress appropriately, and do not talk back when given orders.

If you are going on for more school (law school, grad school), then your majors, minors, GPAs, etc. will matter more.

 

[Matt]

Originally Posted by Tardek

If you can get anything that sounds like an industry, do that instead of one of the traditionals (philosophy, english, history etc). Asian studies might be useful, for example, because you can pretend that it makes you better qualified to deal with the Asian business world. I had a major in history and a minor in asian studies, and sometimes I regret not making it the other way around (I'd done a lot of asian history subjects, so I could have picked either).
My Brazilian Jiu Jitsu teacher has a PhD in Asian Studies. That probably says something.

 

[Tardek]

Originally Posted by m@T

My Brazilian Jiu Jitsu teacher has a PhD in Asian Studies. That probably says something.

It says don't mess with me - I might know jiu jitsu!

 

[Neo_Version 7]

Off-topic, how important is it to include skills such as karate and/or skateboarding on one's CV?

 

[Tardek]

Only important if you are applying for a job where the field is directly applicable.

You might have a "hobbies/extra-curricular" section, and you can add them there to make yourself seem more well-rounded. Skateboarding is probably not applicable (or desirable) in any field outside of skateboarding. Now if it were golf...

 

[username79]

Originally Posted by m@T

based on your extensive real world experience, right? I tend to be very very polytechnical about these matters - and I say this as an employer who dabbled in the humanities for a year or so, saw the pointlessness of my ways and switched promptly to Business. My advice to students is almost always the same...pick a major with the name of the job you want. In my case (and the Australian terminology works differently so I will backtranslate it to US phrasing), I majored in Public Relations and minored in electronic business...this proved very beneficial in the early send-the-CV-far-and-wide phase of my life, and also happens to be basically what I do for a living now.
Wow, been a while since I heard "pick a major with the name of the job you want." Completely opposite experience here. The guys I know with the highest bill rates are usually liberal arts majors. What is important is the experience you have coming out of college (no excuse to not have experience), internships, papers you have published (or similar things). It all comes down to differentiating yourself from your peers. If you are a history major that has several years of say, enterprise software experience even before graduating, versus the business major who couldn't tell his head from his ass if he wasn't instructed, who is going to get paid more?

 

[Matt]

well that depends on whether you define "business" as the name of a job....I dont....see my degree....i specified exactly what I wanted in my degree, and it is pretty damn close to what I do for a living. In fact, in my last job (I became a Managing Director at 27, not bad for a business major unable to tell my head from ******), it was exactly what I did. I also happen to be an employer in one of those fields that liberal arts people try to enter with their double majors in medieval history and poli sci (far far far far far more common than history with enterprise software experience btw, and no differentiation at all from every other history/poli sci grad)...and basically none of them understand how to monetise their time nor the commercial aspect of the role..."yeah, but I can wriiite" doesn't really cut it I'm afraid. Really all that this thread has proven is that top humanities/social science students can enter law school. Sure, we can all produce examples of "I know this guy who did philosophy and now he runs a major consulting firm", but then those can also be more than countered with stories of 'he majored in ethnomusicology and now he works at Guitar Center" (or has a Phd in Asian Studies and now teaches BJJ). Probably the only major area this thread hasnt gone into is the choice that quite a lot of BA people make...teaching.

 

[Dewey]

^ None of the classic humanities majors are "vo-tech" degrees. They have never been designed to place people into specific jobs. The focus is much more on accelerating the intellectual development & maturity of the young person. There are degree programs and whole colleges within universities devoted to training students for specific jobs. But it's not right to compare a humanities degree to those degrees. People are getting different BAs for different reasons.

 

[Matt]

sure, and I never disagreed with that, but the OP's question was purely based on CV impact (and presumably then graduate employability) not on whether they have a general interest in the humanities.

 

[dhc905]

I'm an Industrial Engineer/History major working in finance. The history actually helped because every other person I was interviewing against was an IE/Econ or straight econ. Not only did it allow me to talk about something that interested me (history) during interviews, I'm pretty sure they took it that I was not another econ0drone.