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Career Paths in the Field of History

A background in history is valued on the job market for a variety of reasons. Graduates are regarded as experts in information and knowledge, as providers of context, and as process specialists.

This results in the following 8 career paths in the field of history:

- Research and Teaching
- Communications
- Education
- Management
- Preservation, Provision, Mediation
- Organization and Administration
- Service Provision
- International Affairs

Historians can and must read a great amount and very precisely, and they conduct research using a wide variety of sources. They can summarize, classify, evaluate, and incorporate the information they have gathered into a new text, learning to carefully use their sources in the process. They read and write extensively, while remaining rigorously careful and accurate.

They are credited with being able to place things in context: in regional (social), cultural (aesthetic), and global (universal) contexts. The job market knows that people who think historically never accept a given thing, phenomenon, or observation as it currently appears, but rather recognize that it comes from somewhere and will likely lead to something. They are masters of continuity and change, specialists in processes of change and development, and perhaps also in prediction (forecasting).

These characteristics mean that professionals working in the field of history are often referred to by job titles such as “expert,” “consultant,” “assessor,” and “advisor” as their careers progress.

This information is based on information provided by the BERUFENET of the German Federal Employment Agency and surveys conducted with graduates of Marburg University. We would like to thank Edgar Losse from the Marburg branch of the Federal Employment Agency for the suggestions and support.