HIS 6942 (October 10-October 16)

 The career of a history major often subscribes towards the teaching occupation. The common history job for most undergraduates is teaching or education. I admit that during my tenure as an undergraduate student, a teaching job seemed to be the only occupation that was for a history major. It reminds me of the significance in attending Murphree’s Professionalization the History Major course as that teaching mythos breaks. Students were provided information on how to properly convey their resume and CV’s for job application. This was especially important with most of them being seniors who could be entering the job market in a pandemic.  This week illuminated students to marketing themselves as history majors and that the job market does not have to be limited to education.

Careers in archiving, museum curation, and others exist for future historians which I can support. My own experience in volunteering on the archiving saw the use of skills I learned in my undergraduate studies. Critical thinking, reasoning, leadership, and research are underappreciated by history students that separates them from their STEM major peers. These skills highlight history students’ capabilities and attract future employers towards their resume and CV’s.

My own personal experience was provided for Thursday when the guest speaker discussed the use of Handshake for marketing yourself. During the Spring semester, I was not admitted to the program and was unsure if I was going to be accepted into the History Master Program. After two more courses as a non-degree seeking student, being accepted was my option for continuing my education. Planning, I scoured for history jobs that could provide economic stability during a pandemic. Relaying these experiences allowed students to expand their criteria in what employers want and how to advertise their skills.

Handshake does have some limitations as I have seen due to the repetition of job opportunities. The Orange County Regional History center had a job for curation that lasted several weeks within the history category. The guest speaker advised branching out into different sites such as LinkedIn to aid in their search for jobs and internships. Dr. Murphree was interested in how to market students’ resumes and I support his designation of the subject for this week.

In terms of the COVID collection, students voiced the difficulty in transcribing oral histories last week. Students noticed that it took too long to write them out fully and accurately. I inquired on the progress for students if they continued to experience problems. On Thursday, they voiced less stress over it and one student used a feature of Zoom to provide a loose transcription. The difficulty in transcribing relates to my own experience in researching oral histories and appreciate the work in providing a readable copy of the interview. An occupation for historians could even be a transcriber who focuses on it which I jokingly stated to a peer. This week showed the strength of the course to embolden students to analyze and improve on their research. A wide range of occupations exist for history majors to take if they choose.