Career Opportunities
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http://www.historians.org/pubs/Free/careers/Index.htm
Private Sector Career Possibilities
The private sector offers many opportunities for students with a history or liberal arts background. Listed are numerous, but by no means exhaustive, examples of the types of businesses and industries which rely on employees who can research, document, analyze, synthesize, and communicate effectively.
Marketing and Advertising, Publishing, Public Relations
Researching and analyzing public trends
Presenting clients’ activities based on historical interpretation
Managing company archives
Writing historical material for organizational promotional purposes
Manufacturing
Analyzing markets, finances, economics, and political risk over time
Training staff in corporate history and foreign cultures through diversity
and multiculturalism workshops
Collecting and documenting oral histories for organizational diagnosis
Managing company archives
Writing a history of the business or organization
Curating exhibits of archival materials and memorabilia
Industries in general
Researching
Performing analysis studies
Writing public relations and educational materials
Writing corporate communications
Documenting organizational history
Managing archives and information retrieval services
Mineral Extraction Industries
Analyzing political risk and key political figures with reference to economic
implications for business
Researching claims and geographical and land use history
Utilities
Reviewing local issues and concerns
Making policy and management studies
Providing information services
Performing historical analysis
Managing archives
Law
Researching public and private archives and records collections
Collecting oral history for depositions
Developing support material from historical evidence
Banking
Producing historical financial, economic, and political risk analyses
Managing archives
Researching policy issues
Writing and teaching staff corporate history
Exhibiting historical displays
Insurance
Researching and evaluating case histories
Preparing studies of policy matters
Performing legislative analysis
Managing company archives
Investment Services
Managing archives and records
Performing research and analysis for companies that specialize in the purchasing,
issuing, and selling of corporate equity (such as brokerage firms and investment
banking houses)
Communications
Researching and writing historical documentaries and narratives
Analyzing public trends over time
Providing information and archival services to motion picture firms, networks,
cable television companies, and record and tape industries
Journalism
Searching and researching historical records
Interviewing with oral history techniques
Writing and editing for newspapers, news, trade, and professional (scholarly)
journals, historical and popular periodicals and magazines, textbooks, and
books
Public Sector Career Possibilities
The government is one of the largest employers of students with training and degrees in history and related fields.
Executive Branch
In Cabinet-level departments (The Department of State, Department of the Interior,
National Park Service, etc.) and in independent organizations within the federal
government (The National Endowment for the Humanities, Smithsonian Institution,
etc.):
Studying current issues studies
Analyzing policy performance, long-range trends, etc.
Preserving and organizing institutional records
Editing of public records and documents
Legislative Branch
In the historical offices of state legislatures, the Senate and the United
States House of Representatives:
Performing staff and committee investigations
Publishing bibliographic material
Serving on study commissions
Providing research assistance where needed
Judicial Branch
In the United States Supreme Court Curator's Office and various historical
offices, projects, and regulatory agencies:
Collecting and preserving records
Analyzing policy
Providing research where needed
Writing reports and various office correspondence, etc.
Military Services
Managing the museums and archival and records centers for the United States
Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and National Guard
Lecturing on specific issues
Prepare institutional histories, etc.
The Foreign Service
Duties include researching and writing on the diplomatic, economic, political,
social, and cultural history of various areas. A test is required for entrance
and placement analysis.
Civil Service
Duties depend on the type of location placement is granted. A test is required
for entrance and placement analysis.
National Archives and Records Service
Duties include:
Managing archives, manuscripts, and records
Microfilming of collection items
Other Opportunities
The public sector offers many other possibilities, such as:
Working in libraries, historic sites, museums, community history education
centers, etc
Working in areas of policy history, oral history, public administration, cultural
resource management, genealogy and family history, public works, land-use
management, urban history and development, demographic history, environmental
history, archeological projects, etc.
Working in local, state-wide, and national historical societies
Non-Profit Sector Career Possibilities
In addition to appointments within the United States government, the non-profit sector (organizations with 501 (c) 3 status)offers a wide array of professional positions in research, administration, education, and exhibition design. Many historians work in fundraising for these organizations.
History majors in particular are well-suited for appointments within the following
institutions:
Historical commissions, associations, and societies
Scholarly and professional associations
Galleries and museums
Colleges and universities
Research foundations and institutional "think tanks"
Service institutions (agencies, foundations, etc.)
Other philanthropic organizations which provide educational, social, and cultural
services to the public)
Career Possibilities in Education
If teaching is what you would like to do, appointments can be found in:
Public and private elementary and secondary schools
Community colleges
Small and large undergraduate and graduate colleges and universities
Career Possibilities with Small Firms and Independent Enterprises
If you have the entrepreneurial spirit and wish to get involved with a small firm or start one of your own, several fields where a history major will surely come in handy are:
Consulting: Cultural Resources
Preservation and cultural resource management policy
Researching and preparing cultural resource statements for environmental impact
reports
Identifying and evaluating historic structures and other cultural resources
Selecting structures for legal protection
Preparing and teaching preservation education programs
Research/Writing
Preparing histories, etc.
Searching and researching public and private records
Performing legal and policy research service
Interviewing and transcribing for oral histories
Historical editing and indexing
Genealogical Services
Searching, researching, and preparing reports on family and community histories
Preservation/Restoration Services
Working in firms offering historic preservation/restoration services
Rehabilitating historically accurate buildings and artifacts
Providing information services on the field
Researching preservation law and tax benefits
Writing (as professional writers, editors, journalists)
Author your own historical books, pamphlets, articles, and research papers
Freelance