I suppose this is more of a meta /Historiographical question but I think this is the perfect community to answer this. How viable is a career in history, and while on the topic, how has the role of historians developed through out history? Have historians always been valued in their society or is that a more recent development? Or perhaps was there a case where historians were appricated more in the past?
I’ve worked as an academic lecturer in history in Ireland and Northern Ireland and as a civil servant. To actually work as a historian you need to be both very good and a bit lucky. There are jobs out there but there are many more people with history PhDs than in the past so the job market is very competitive. Every national university system has its own intricacies so there isn’t much point discussing what makes you employable. Academic life has changed a lot in the past few decades. All the academics I know work long hours and the pay is good compared to the average person but not high for a very qualified professional who has to wait a long time for job security.
If you don’t go the academic route, there are a lot of adjacent careers in things like heritage and education.
As a civil servant, I found my training incredibly useful. Reading, summarising and evaluating a 200 page report is easy when you’ve been doing it for decades. I also knew a lot about legislation and politics, some statistics and economics and had excellent writing and presentation skills. When you’ve lectured to 500 first years, speaking to a committee is no big deal.