10 Things To Do With A History Degree – While many vocational courses lead to jobs directly related to their studies, such as engineering, history students can often choose to work in a variety of industries. Whether you want to research, write, educate or consult, there are many options for you.
If it is true that history repeats itself, knowledge of history can help us understand the world today and predict changes in the world before they happen.
For this reason, history students often say that their degrees not only help them learn about people’s lives in the past, but also help them better understand human behavior and social trends. And that knowledge applies to a wide range of jobs and industries. Find out what to do with a history degree in this article.
10 Things To Do With A History Degree
- Park ranger
- Historian
- Reporter/Journalist
- Educator
- Librarian
- Archivist/Curator
- History Professor
- Lawyer
- Writer
- Tour Guide
1. Park ranger
Park rangers are outdoor guides and knowledge naturalists who often have foundations in history. If you are looking for a career with a history degree that allows you to work at historical sites by sharing information such as patrons, becoming a park ranger is a good fit for you.
Becoming a park ranger will make you oversee the visitor center for a historical site, lead guided tours through a historic building and prepare materials for visitors to consume.
2. Historian
The main reason for studying history is to become a historian. It usually involves a lot of writing, reading, and researching. If you admire treasure hunts for lost documents, it might be an exciting career.
You could study a specific country or follow a special topic throughout the ages. If you don’t want to take all your time into hunching over a week, you can work on other ventures such as writing books, giving lectures at universities, or touring museums.
3. Reporter/Journalist
A history degree can prepare you for a career in reporting or journalism. Gaining a degree in history will allow you to have a strong understanding of the foundation of the issues you are covering, which makes you conduct high-quality investigations.
Whether you are pursuing a full-time job or a freelancing job, you can look out for a position as a correspondent, reporter, or journalist. Most of the professionals in history have a bachelor’s degree and related experience with reporting, writing, and multimedia.
4. Educator
Education is a well-known field for history majors according to the American Historical Association. More than 18% of graduated deals in training, teaching, or researching for history departments and programs.
Your experience in the education field will depend on your level of schooling. The payment for the profession is better, but the applicants are expected to be effective.
If you admire sharing your passion with people, a career in education will be a great place for your enthusiasm and knowledge.
5. Librarian
Librarians are not assigned for checking books only. You might spend a lot of days carrying out research, or archiving journals depending on your position. Most Librarians work on public outreach programs for educational usefulness. It is good to channel some of your skills in the field if you are creative. A history degree may not be sufficient to get a job in the field because library and information science is a discipline on their own.
There is a high chance for you to develop abilities in finding information and analyzing resources if you have a history degree. Most Librarians make use of these skills to help patrons find resources, content, research books, and other publications. Not only that, but you may be able to build databases for institutions, and patrons or curate collections based on certain topics.
Working as a librarian can allow you to work for a school or university, a highly qualified institution, or a public organization. Librarians who can easily complement the latest technology are more competitive candidates as research shifts to the digital sphere.
6. Curator/Archivist
These are two separate things, and you can find different careers for them. However, many crossovers are in their workplaces, skills, and degree programs which are often discussed collaborated when talking about careers.
Presented below are the things curators and activists do:
- Curators oversee the collections of cultural institutions and museums
- Archivists oversee records and other materials
Both careers are dedicated to the keeping of historical documents and artifacts. This caused overlapping to occur between the two careers.
7. History Professor
If you have high-standard leadership skills and admire explaining concepts to people, teaching will be a good choice of career for you. History education work at every level of the education system. So, you could be opportune to be a high school educator in a private school or public school or as a history professor in a private or state university. High school history educators plan lessons, help students with assignments and give tests and assignments to oversee student progress.
University professors deliver lectures and meet with college learners in small groups. They are not limited to that, the professors also advise students about academic progress and goals. University professors always pursue history-related research and publish their work with their teaching duties, unlike high school teachers. Professors need to have a master’s degree or Ph.D. rather than a bachelor’s degree.
8. Lawyer
It is common for history majors to become lawyers. Yes! History decree programs spend much time do find, collecting, interpreting, and analyzing texts. They gain knowledge to hone their abilities and skills and become specialized in areas like writing proposals, summarizing documents, and cross-referencing textbooks.
Lawyers also need the same skills for their profession. Since you can enroll at law school with a bachelor’s degree, a history degree always works as a prerequisite. It is a good field to consider if you are interested in studying history and law.
9. Writer
Lots of history degree programs have a writing element. Apart from assignments and general essays, there are special classes given to things like technical writing and grant writing.
These classes are developed to prepare you for a good career in academia, but they can also assist you to develop your skills as a writer. You may use what you have learned and apply it to jobs like editor, researcher, author, or publishing agent.
You don’t have to be a full-time writer to do this. Lots of researchers and teachers do side jobs as professionals in their field or have a passion for writing.
You will develop skills in carrying out research, communicating facts, and engagingly sharing historical information when doing research papers and historical essays for your degree. A good way to use your history knowledge and writing skills is to be writing and editing.
As a result of this, you can become a non-fiction writer who is standardized in select historical events, location, and figures or a novelist who make use of the past as inspiration for fictional writing.
You can do speech writing for politicians or pursue content writing for digital publications and magazines. If you are successful at writing stories and perfecting the content that others have written in the field, looking for a career as an editor might be an option for you.
10. Tour Guide
Consider being a tour guide if you are looking for an entry-level job with a history degree. They are mostly needed in museums, cultural heritage sites, to visitor’s centers and they can mix your love of history with fun.
Museums and galleries privately employed most of the tour guides. Other guides can work for the government if they are with the National Park Service.
Some of the history majors fall in love with battlegrounds, monuments, and indigenous lands so that they can work as park rangers to give tours of the area and share its story with visitors of the museums.
Conclusion
A history degree is not meant for everyone but it is much more valuable. You can enroll in studying history degree and invest it in opportunities in a variety of industries. It is a good idea for investment in the future if you are interested in the subject.
Frequently Asked Question(s)
- High school history teacher.
- Community college history lecturer.
- College or university history professor.
- Government historian.
- Historical consultant.
- Political advisor.
- Museum curator.
- Archivist.
- Marketing manager. …
- Genealogist. …
- Museum technician. …
- Living historian. …
- Underwater archaeologist. …
- Dramaturge. …
- Geographer.
While a history degree emphasizes knowledge about the past, it also builds skills that are useful in today’s workforce. In fact, history is one of the most versatile degrees, leading to careers in a variety of industries.
- Park ranger.
- Documentary filmmaker.
- College professor.
- Museum curator.
- Foreign language professor.
- Librarian.
- Museum archivist.
- Writer.
Reference(s)
- indeed.com – Popular History Degree Jobs
- usnews.com – What Can You Do With A History Degree?
- my degree guide.com – What Can You Do With A History Degree?