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General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Antonescu on December 23, 2007, 06:13:28 AM
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NY requires teachers to get a Masters in 5 years but doesn't restrict you to what area. I'm finally getting started in the Spring with working towards my MA which will be in Military History. My concern in the jobs available. ??? Anyone know what a person can do with a Masters degree in the field?
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The MA will help if you're a teacher (K-12)- Most districts will give you a pay bump if you have one. Otherwise, there's no real direct job link- In most fields, the MA is usually viewed as a something you pick up on the way to a PhD.
I have an MA with specialization in US and military history and the only real "pay off" is that it allowed me to take some Civil Service exams that I otherwise wouldn't have been allowed to take (not that I'm complaining, it allowed me to land a pretty decent civil service position). An MA can help get a teaching job at a junior college but these can be tough to get and usually they use part-timers (so they don't have to pay full benefits). For other colleges, they usually won't touch you unless you have a PhD.
There are some possibilities with museums, especially if you have archival and museum technology training but these are notorious for paying very little. I don't mean to paint a dire picture but with history degrees, you usually wind up working in areas that have little or nothing to do with history per se. It's the nature of the beast.
One side benefit is that I got a chance to read a lot of books that I'd always meant to read but now I got college credit for them. ;D