History also provides a strong foundation for a broad variety of careers. The study of history prepares a student for the dynamics of business, law, government, or nonprofit careers. Historical knowledge provides details of past experience with which to test the feasibility of new solutions. It enhances the ability to recognize patterns in voluminous data; it supports valid comparisons and connections. These are skills valued by employers not just in the field itself, but in any career endeavor.
History illuminates the human condition. As a field of study, history provides the context with which to define one's relationship with the world, and a structure within which to study other disciplines. In portraying continuity and change, history offers a basis for understanding one's culture, one's community, and oneself. Without historical perspective, learning is incomplete.
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The Making of a Historian
Justine Trombley ’09 took an AP European history course in her high school in Swanton, Vt., which gave her a feel for the richness of Medieval studies. “Little bits of the Middle Ages intrigued me like Chaucer, Beowulf, Dante—but I knew almost nothing about the Middle Ages as a historical period.” Originally an English major at UVM, she signed up for Sean Field's “High and Late Middle Ages” survey course on a whim. “I found it utterly fascinating—everything was so much more complicated and colourful and weirder than I had expected, the complete opposite to the popular view that ‘nothing happened in the Middle Ages.’” She switched her major to history and has devoted her research and scholarship to Medieval heresy and inquisition ever since. She earned her masters of letters degree and her Ph.D. from the University of St. Andrews and is currently writing a book as part of her post-doctorate work at the University of Toronto. “Not only is Sean (Field) a fantastic teacher, but he is also a wonderful mentor. It was Sean who first suggested that I pursue a career in academia and go to grad school.”
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Considering Career Paths: Practical or Applied?
In considering your career, one of the first decisions to make is whether you wish to practice history directly, or whether you wish to apply the knowledge and skills you have learned in the study of history to any one of many fields. The distinctions between such choices are highly personal: you might gain more career satisfaction from, say, being a feature writer for an international affairs monthly than from teaching high school history — or the reverse.
Typical organizations that emphasize history include archives, communications media, consulting and freelance assignments, historical associations and societies, historical projects, libraries, museums, publishing, research institutions, religious and philanthropic organizations, as well as teaching.
Typical organizations that apply historians' skills include management, advertising, archival and record-keeping services, banking & investment services, government service, insurance, law, market research, newspaper, radio & television journalism, paralegal services, public relations, staff training, and travel & tourism.