History

History leads to lots of different careers.

These may be directly linked to history, for example:

• Working in a museum or art gallery

• Working for a Historic House or a Heritage site like Brodsworth Hall

• In organisations such as English Heritage who run places like Brodsworth Hall

• An Archaeologist who discovers and digs up artefacts from history

• Working in a library, record office or archive or in a University

• Genealogist who researches people’s family history

It also is seen as a desirable subject for lots of other jobs because of the skills you learn when mastering the subject.

• Roles in national and local government, the Civil Service and the Diplomatic Service

• Researcher for charities, organisations and governments

• The Media and Journalism - learning all those interpretation and research skills come in very useful when applying to the media, nevermind the communication and writing skills you gain

• Law - History teaches you skills which are important to have as a lawyer: critical thinking, asking why, analysing information and presenting arguments as well as training memory and teaching you how to research

• The Police - studying history means studying people, cultures and societies; the research skills gained in such studies might be particularly useful in some of the ‘back room' support staff jobs which involve analysis of the patterns of certain crimes, for example

• Armed Forces - every regiment, every ship and every Air Force base has its own history, of which it is very proud, and they are delighted when recruits turn up who have an interest in history

Read below to learn how some of Miss William's friends from university have taken History into the world of work.

Tomi's Story

Tomi: “I work at Ernst and Young in London as a Sustainable Finance Consultant. My job is to help banks and investors to consider the opportunities and risks that sustainability issues, such as climate change, present to financial services companies and their customers. Having studied History at university, it may not seem immediately clear how I ended up working in sustainability or finance, let alone both. However, I believe there are two key skills that history taught me and I use every day:

1. Problem solving: As a History student you have to read and digest lots of information before coming to a judgment. This is the same in consulting, where often you must analyse lots of data to help a client understand the key issues affecting their business and how to solve them.

2. Communication skills: Having the confidence to clearly articulate your point of view is an enormous part of both a History degree and any professional setting. History helped me improve both my written and oral communication style, which has served me well in both writing board level papers late at night and presenting to clients in workshops.”

Ed's Story

“I am a Research Analyst for Hedge Funds, basically I study and research markets and advise clients on how to spend their money. After studying History and Politics at Nottingham for 4 years I had really developed my research skills, as well my ability to critically analyse large amounts of information in order to come to conclusions and find evidence. This prepared me well for a fast paced role in finance working with international banking clients. History gives you a wide range of transferable skills which prepare you for post school and university employment fantastically”.

Hannah's Story

“I am a business consultant and I studied history as my degree at uni. Although at first glance the topics seem widely apart, however my history degree has helped massively in this. Firstly it has taught me the skills to dissect a large problem, build a point of view/ argument around it and present back my findings. This is often how I structure a problem back to a client. Secondly it has taught me to question a source / data and critique it. This allows me to look at a business problem and not take it at face value, digging to find the root cause of the issue. Thirdly and probably most importantly it has developed my communication skills. From talking about the subject to writing essays it helped refine these key skills before I went into the world of work”.

Famous people with History degrees! Louis Theroux, Sacha Baron Cohen, Steve Carell, Winston Churchill, Jonathan Ross, Al Murray and Prince Charles.