By Anita Ginsburg
If you’re a student of history, chances are someone has asked you what you’re planning on doing with a degree in history. There are countless career options out there for those who use their present to study the past.
Teacher/Professor
Beginning with the most obvious career choice, a degree in history can give those interested in teaching a variety of subjects a leg up on the competition. Whether serving as a visiting scholar, earning tenure as a History Professor or heading up the History Department at a University, teaching is more lucrative than many assume.
Research Assistants/Preservationist
A degree in history will also allow you to serve as a research assistant not just to individuals, but also to large, multi-national corporations and policy research organizations. Museums need historians to fight to protect cultural resources and places, recreating accurate exhibitions, or assistance in curating museum collections.
Journalist/Writer
Many historians go on to write bestselling historical fiction novels, serve as fact-checkers for journals and newspapers, or even earn permanent positions as editors for both scholarly and popular magazines with a historical component.
Archivists
One of the most popular jobs for history students is that of archivist, which means keeping track of, sorting through, studying, and preserving essential historical artifacts and documents. Employed by museums, schools, churches, and countless other institutions, a career as an archivist places you at the center of history.
Litigation/Private Foundation Law
Even if you’ve never considered a career in law, your history degree has you more prepared to enter the litigation field than you might have imagined. Many history students, armed with their knowledge of historic cases and situations, go on to become successful paralegals, grant writers, researchers for foundations seeking funds, and sometimes opt to attend law school.
Contract Historian/Nonprofit Work
Many nonprofits need staff and writers whose knowledge of history can help them pursue funding, outreach, and even advertising success. The social and cultural knowledge of historians allows them to succeed at many levels of the nonprofit industry, especially those focused on global outreach. Working as a contract historian means that you can be commissioned to serve on a project of your choosing for as long as you’d like. You can serve as the expert authority when businesses need your help, whether it’s writing texts for a specific museum, aiding a historical society, or creating a lecture series or class on a certain era.
If you’re a student of history, though you may dwell in the past, your future is incredibly bright. By furthering your education even more with an online master’s degree in history, you can prepare yourself for your dream job. These are just a few of the many career options for history students.