USELESS DEGREES: CASE STUDY FOR HISTORY MAJORS

Nigeria appears to be drifting to a state where anyone can do any job after a glorified degree in any field is obtained as you have historians working in banks instead of teaching and researching etc.

A friend of mine responded comically in the affirmative to my delight “Leave that thing. I can study Islamic Religious Knowledge and still head Central Bank.”

But not all jobs require a generalists, some jobs require specialists trained in a particular field. In the future Nigeria will return to the point where only skilled and specifically credentialed applicants will be allowed to perform certain jobs. 

For instance What is a history major doing in a bank instead of researching academia or a sociologist not counseling or in some social works project instead, when there are thousands of economics, finance and marketing majors more suitably qualified for a bank job. 

When that day of professionalism arrives many holders of certain degrees, in this case history, will be in for the real shock of structural unemployment.

Let us review job prospects using the America history major demand model.

Jobs directly related to a history degree:

-Heritage manager

-Historic buildings inspector or conservation officer

-Museum education officer

-Museum or gallery curator

-Museum or gallery exhibitions officer

-Secondary school teacher

Jobs where your degree would be useful include:

-Academic librarian

-Archaeologist

-Archivist

-Broadcast journalist

-Civil Service administrator

-Editorial assistant

-Information officer

-PPC specialist

-Politician's assistant

-Solicitor

-Web content manager

The most important question to ask before studying if your goal is to practice history is how many museums or research resources are available for historians in a Nigeria where history is not even thought in schools.

Like Indiana Jones, you highest calling may be as a poor professor or secondary school teacher turned archaeologists looking for the Ark of the covenant in Arochukwu if you believe some Igbo who claim to have descended from Israel. 

While it is important to Remember that many employers accept qualifications from graduates with any degree, they knee jerk reaction is weed out applicants with unsuitable degrees, it is either luck or godfatherism that gets history majors in fields outside their training.

Plan accordingly and do not blame Buhari or any president for your unemployabilty, sense of futility or lack of entrepreneurship skills with a history degree in the federal republic of Nigeria.

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