History Jobs
This area provides information on various history jobs, what is the role of a historian and areas of specialization.
What is history?
It can be considered that history is all that is currently known or remembered of actions, occurrences and events of the past.
What is a Historian?
Historians take what we know of the past and seek to learn new truths through analysis, interpretation, and further research. In their research, historians rely on data from the past and current interviews. Information that leads to their findings might come from any number of sources. Some of those sources include government and public records, publications, photographs, films, recordings, artifacts, and diaries. Once the data is collected and recorded, the historian looks for cause and effect relationships in people and events. The historian then offers an interpretation, often recorded and then published.
Closely related to historians are anthropologists and archeologists. Each of these professions also study history, but with different perspectives and purposes. While the historian focuses mainly on creating an accurate record of events of the past, these related professions examine the events in light of what we can learn about development and evolution as a result of their findings. Anthropologists seek to discover the origin of human development as we know it today by uncovering the social and physical characteristic of their subject. Archeologists, on the other hand, examine remnants such as tools and ruins so that they might better understand the culture of early civilization.
What are the qualifications for a Historian?
To be a historian, which is an occupation classified in the social sciences, you must earn a Ph.D. to work in research or top level administration. A master’s degree is valuable in earning opportunities in academics at the junior college level. A bachelor’s degree will only get your foot in the door for entry level jobs that are often far removed from the interests of those who have earned the degree. These positions might be in lower level research, but are most often in retail management and sales -- far removed from the historian activities.
Historians must understand statistics, posses analytical abilities, and be naturally inquisitive. The ability to communicate with a variety of personality types is also important as historians must be able to obtain useful data from conversations, interviews, and personal interactions.
What types of tasks does a Historian do?
Regardless of specialty or type of historical work being done, those in history related occupations may perform the following tasks:
Conduct interviews and also grant interviews
Document findings
Consult with witnesses of historical events
Research
Talk with experts in fields related to current research.
Assimilate and structure acquired research
Teach and deliver presentations
Analyze data
Are there any areas of specialization?
Historians may specialize in a particular geographic area, element of society, or time period. They might get involved with restoration projects, archiving, or data preservation. Other areas of specialty may include:
Language
Management
Writing church, school, or institution histories
Teaching
Human resources
Document management
Entertainment
Law
Genealogy
Architecture
Who employs Historians?
Historians are employed in government and in the private sector. Examples of companies that employ historians include: Universal Studios, Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism, and NASA. In addition, jobs can be found in universities and through consulting work in your area of specialty.
