Ever since I was young I loved history. Whether it's reading about the Cold War or looking at Ancient Greek artifacts, I have always been captivated. As college starts to approach, I must begin looking towards what I will do in the future. So, I have a few questions for anyone that has a job in the field of history/social sciences with some spare time. What is your occupation? Why did you choose it? What do you love about it? How can I learn more about history-related careers?
These links should not discourage further replies, but here are some recent threads, which may be of interest:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/6267u7/will_i_be_able_to_find_a_job_as_a_historian/ with answers from u/restricteddata, u/Dire88, u/alriclofgar and others
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/7ly9ta/what_exactly_do_historians_do_as_a_job/ by u/uncovered-history and others
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/85a471/what_is_it_like_to_be_a_historian/ by u/itsallfolklore, u/restricteddata, u/hesh582, u/alriclofgar and others
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/6nzyf9/historians_if_you_were_graduating_high_school/ by u/sunagainstgold and others
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/6knw12/questions_from_an_aspiring_historian/ u/abettine
There are also some older answers in the FAQ here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/theory#wiki_history_careers_and_education
I see that there is a link to a discussion with my participation from a few days ago. I was a state historic preservation officer, and I was closely involved with the National Park System and the historians working there. In addition, my agency awarded grants to local agencies and local non-profit organizations, many of which employed historians. And ... I taught at the university level for three decades. After reviewing the link below and provided here, if you have questions you think I can answer, please contact me. Best of luck!
I'm going to mostly steal my answer from my previous answer, but I'll tweak it to meet your exact question
So it's exciting that your considering a job in history. I like to preface it by saying that the field is very competitive, but if your tenacious and determined, then you'll have an attitude to succeed.
If you are considering a career in history, then you'll have to consider where you'll get your degrees (plural, because there are almost no jobs for people with only a BA in history). I have a BA in history from Towson University and about to be finished with my MA in Historical Studies from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (I’ll be defending my thesis on April 26th). My concentration is public history (working in museums, archives, etc) and my time period I focused on was the American Revolutionary Era (1754 - 1804) but my thesis focuses specifically on religion during this period.
Professionally, I am a public librarian in Maryland who is the collection coordinator for my branch, meaning that I am responsible for all the physical items in the branch. We also have a history center at my branch that has a small archive and museum-like room for people to see and engage with our county’s local history. Places like this are often called “special collections” and often employ many people with history degrees.
I oversee all displays, signage, and content that we display to the public. I also supervise the volunteers we have to help run the room. I also act as a liaison for people who need help digging into our history, typically it’s people doing genealogy research or find out the history of their property, but not always. In my two years of doing this job, I’ve helped multiple authors come in needed documents, especially photographs and even helped locate photos for a documentary that a professor was making from a college here in my state.
For the last year I have also been a consulting historian for the state archives regarding a project they are doing on revolutionary soldiers from Maryland. For that position, it’s mostly helping lend some feedback and expertise around parts of the project since it’s a large project that needs the perspective from people outside the organization.
One thing you’ll notice really fast is that history jobs are hard to come by and are usually very competitive. I’m fortunate to have a job where I deal with history matters on a daily basis even if it isn’t my particular area of expertise. I may look to getting another position once I finish my MA, but for now, I have fun helping others do research.
Please let me know if you have any other questions.