History Teachers build instructing, time management and judgment and decision making skills that carry over to other work. Below are 25 careers ranked by how closely their skills match, with pay from BLS May 2025. The closest match is Sociologists (80%).
Updated October 2026 · Data: O*NET 31.0 and BLS OEWS May 2025 · How we match careers
Sorted by skill match.
| # | Career | Skill match | Median pay | Pay change | Extra education |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sociologists | 80% | $106,030 | +26% | None |
| 2 | Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education | 77% | $72,040 | −14% | None |
| 3 | Political Scientists | 77% | $142,080 | +70% | None |
| 4 | Instructional Coordinators | 76% | $77,440 | −8% | None |
| 5 | Historians | 75% | $76,750 | −8% | None |
| 6 | Special Education Teachers, Secondary School | 74% | $74,260 | −11% | None |
| 7 | Anthropologists and Archeologists | 72% | $70,770 | −16% | None |
| 8 | Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education | 72% | $64,370 | −23% | None |
| 9 | Speech-Language Pathologists | 71% | $97,870 | +17% | None |
| 10 | Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education | 70% | $63,970 | −24% | None |
Compared with History Teachers, Postsecondary, median $83,820. Skill match is our estimate (0–99) from O*NET 31.0 skills, knowledge, work activities and interests, adjusted for preparation and big pay drops. Pay: BLS OEWS May 2025, national median.
How important each skill is in work as history teachers (O*NET importance, scale 1–5).
The gaps that show up most often across your top 10 matches.
Free and low-cost training: use the CareerOneStop training finder below.
A concrete first step, the skills to add, and the hard parts of each job, from O*NET 31.0 education, training and work context data.
80% skill match · $106,030 · +26% pay
Social Perceptiveness · Programming · Technology Design
No work-context factor stands out as unusually hard in O*NET data.
77% skill match · $72,040 · −14% pay
Quality Control Analysis · Social Perceptiveness · Coordination
No work-context factor stands out as unusually hard in O*NET data.
77% skill match · $142,080 · +70% pay
Social Perceptiveness · Technology Design · Programming
No work-context factor stands out as unusually hard in O*NET data.
If you want to stay close to what you do now, these roles are the nearest.
The closest matches are Sociologists (80% skill match, median $106,030), Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education (77% skill match, median $72,040) and Political Scientists (77% skill match, median $142,080), based on O*NET 31.0 data and BLS May 2025 pay.
Among the 25 matches, 8 pay more than history teachers at the median. The biggest increases: Political Scientists (+70%, $142,080), Sociologists (+26%, $106,030) and Education Administrators, Postsecondary (+25%, $104,590).
25 of the 25 matches usually need no more education than you have now, based on O*NET Job Zones.
We compare the importance of skills, knowledge, work activities and interests in O*NET 31.0 for your job and every other career, then adjust for extra preparation and big pay drops. The full method is on our Methodology page.