"Historian positions" Topic

Hi guys.

I recently Graduated from the University of Central Florida with my Bachelors in History. With my love of wargaming and historical gaming in general I thought the industry I enjoy would be a possible place to look for employment.

My reasons for this are twofold. firstly, every historicaly based product needs research done to make sure it is as close to 100% accurate as possible. Secondly, there have been a profusion of products on the market in the last few years that have slight historical inaccuracies if not more.

So what do you all think, are there historian positions available in the wargaming industry?

Not as far as I'm aware, as I think most wargames companies tend to be small affairs that employ the owner and MAYBE one or two others

There aren't historian positions much of any where. I have a BA in History and most of a MA, and I work in telephone customer service and have for 20 years.

Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense because true historical research is an important skill and one that we as historians have. It should be utilized.

Just remember that computers were invented to give history majors a second chance for a job. It's sad but true; I've had my history degree for 30 years and the closest I have ever been to having a job in the field, aside from co-authoring a boardgame about the Vietnam War, was a year spent as senior editor for a cultural resource management company (i.e., contract archaeologists).

LT

The only companies with a large enough cashflow that they might be in a position to consider including an historian on their payroll publish Fantasy/Sci-Fi games, so that might be a detriment.

In general historians do not generate revenue – thus there are few jobs for them.

If you want to use your knowledge in the game industry then right a few historical guides, just don't expect to get rich (or pay the rent – though a select few do).

Sad but true. If you want to work in history there are limited options.
1) Get a job in a visitor centre…but you'll not do any history really. just customer interface stuff.
2) Become a high school teacher, but you won't get much choice about what you teach, just churning out a syllabus for examination purposes.
3) Become a University lecturer, but you'll need a Ph.D. for that and you'll have to fit the political/social profile of the institution.
Wargames companies have no money to pay for historians, and wargame publishers often have no interest in the history part of historical gaming…check out any set of medieval wargame rules and you'll see what I mean.

There's no reason why you couldn't find a niche, but it's one you would have to invent for yourself if you want to make money out of it. Think it through, find an angle and go for it!

Just remember that computers were invented to give history majors a second chance for a job.

That is the story of my life. History major, work as a data manager.

There are hardly any historian positions available anywhere (especially with an undergrad degree), let alone in the gaming industry. Most people don't need true historical research and, of those who do, the majority of them can't afford it, which is why they rely on volunteers and interns. Your chances of getting a history related job with an undergrad degree in history is just above zero. Look into archive work with a gov't agency or a NPO.

Some of the wargames manufacturers and the wargames magazines commission articles. One could make a little money this way… but word rates are pretty low.

BigRedBat is correct, you won't make much money, but enough to fund a few hobby-related purchases.

Nor do you need a history degree to write articles for wargame magazines, just an interest in wargames, the ability to write decent English and something interesting to say.

Sad but true. If you want to work in history there are limited options.
1) Get a job in a visitor centre…but you'll not do any history really. just customer interface stuff.
2) Become a high school teacher, but you won't get much choice about what you teach, just churning out a syllabus for examination purposes.
3) Become a University lecturer, but you'll need a Ph.D. for that and you'll have to fit the political/social profile of the institution.
Wargames companies have no money to pay for historians, and wargame publishers often have no interest in the history part of historical gaming…check out any set of medieval wargame rules and you'll see what I mean.

You forgot

4. Write a book on a historical topic, make it good and you'll be able to pay some bills, more importantly you will get street creds in the wargaming community.

5, use you knowledge of history and hope you are also a good writer of drama and suspense, and make millions on writing historical fiction.

Historical skill/knowledge will tend to get in the way of becoming a successful fiction-writer…Dan Brown's Da Vinci Codswallop comes to mind.
Writing a book (or even several books) with scholarly/academic credibility is unlikely to pay the bills, but it may indeed get you street creds with wargamers…or there again, maybe not.

There are historian jobs, but more in the field of public history as opposed to academic type of pursuits. Many of the historian jobs also require records management knowledge and experience plus the ability to use the latest in software management tools. Other historian positions include working directly for a government agency (security clearance may be required) as a contractor working on a specific history (for instance, the history of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Initiative during the 1990s by the Defense Nuclear Agency – that type of thing).

For wargaming directly, there are companies such as Booz Allen Hamilton that have a division that does that specifically and frequently with DoD offices. Some of the wargame efforts are also analysis work such as "what is the economic impact of a dirty bomb incident at one or more port cities entering the United States?". That was an effort done by Booz Allen a number of years back and is unclassified. There are similar studies that combine a wargame aspect to the contract work (or if the company chose to do this as a marketing tool).

Some of the wargaming is performed by the various military branches as training efforts in command and decision making or in adversary characterization. Many of these jobs really are looking for former military, but you can get onto a team that is supporting the effort as a contractor.

TTX or Table Top Exercises are somewhat wargaming but are field testing (not red or blue teaming) and identify vulnerabilities. There are companies and offices in the US government that do this and have and do hire historians to help develop the scenarios.

There are also Lessons Learned work which is somewhat in our wheel house as the ability to write and present the material can be an area where a historian shows value.

Hope these ideas are of help. I have undergraduate and graduate history degrees. However, I live in the Washington, DC suburbs so my information is focused on that type of work.

Best of luck,

Erik

Best of Luck, Lord Marcus. It's a hard field to break into. I was speaking at an academic conference last year and was struck by how much of the conversation related to the health of various professors. Not out of any concern for their colleagues so much as speculation on upcoming job openings.

thanks for the opinions guys. now it is seeming like i made a e choice. I figured research and archival experience would be good things for a slew of jobs. perhaps not.

Probably more opportunities in the K-12 world than Wargames.

I have a BA in History, I work in IT

A friend of mine abandoned his doctorate in history and took up teaching Latin. (I don't think that I've known a Latin teacher until now.) He said, "There's about as much chance of finding a job with a doctorate in history as there is in landing a position with a professional sports team."

Historians do tend to work as teachers or in areas such as Human Resources. I suggest the skill set, which is the ability to do good research and then build a pucture from it would fit the profile of two careers,
One is marketing planning. Join an agency or a client and look for work as a trainee planner.
Second is the poluce because what detectives do is what historians do.

Don't lose heart Marcus. An opportunity is out there somewhere. Editor of historical gaming magazine??

Also I need updating on US degree parlance. In the UK you are an undergraduate, you get your degree and then become a graduate (like Dustin Hoffman). You can do postgraduate work and get further qualifications too. So what is an undergraduate degree. Not that it is crucial but it is nice to know the correct terms. Does it relate to graduation from high school clarifications. In the UK young people just "leave school" at 16?

thanks

martin

martim, you go in for a degree as an undergrad, when you graduate you are therefore not an undergrad and your degree is a bachelors degree, not an "undergrad degree"

Marcus, as a rule we are a community of embittered 45+ year olds. Don't be discouraged: your skills are valuable, but you do have to work out how to sell them!

History degree here as well…I am a teacher. Not a bad gig if you like young people and don't mind not being able to indulge your favorite topics. You can actually get pretty "deep" into history with the right group of kids and/or you teach AP/IB classes. Teaching isn't for everyone and can be pretty stressful but it is also provides a decent salary that has built in vacations for extra wargaming.:)

Here are the job listings we have open (as of Aug 13) at the Miss. Dept. of Archives and History. link The "Historic Resources Specialist" is the term now used to cover such "old" positions such as archivist (which I am), historian, archival library reference staff, etc.

With our new Mississippi Museum of History and Civil Rights Museum scheduled for opening in December 2017, we are starting to ramp up employment to meet those needs. Also as us older employees begin to retire (me in 10 months) we have to fill those slots.

But competition is extreme. The last position we filled in my section (for an HRS 1) garnered 70+ applications of which only 4 were actually considered for the position. Many were weeded just by looking at their applications. The rest by telephone interviews.

Sorry my news isn't good, but history degrees just don't amount to much in the outside world. I spent 20 years in the Army after getting a bachelor's degree and an officer's commission through ROTC and then was lucky enough to land a librarian's assistant job in MDAH 22 years ago. I've been here ever since and have risen slowly to an HRS 3 position.

Good luck!

Jim

Maybe you should come to Britain. A history degree will get you all sorts of jobs. We also have more 'old stuff' that is open to tourists etc….

link

Don't worry about publishing historical monographs. That's done just to keep your job at the university. You don't make it cent off of it. Publish or perish.

Martin, An undergrad (undergraduate) degree is a bachelor's degree (it means you have completed your undergraduate course work), as opposed to a graduate degree, which is a master's degree.

I figured research and archival experience would be good things for a slew of jobs. perhaps not.

Absolutiely will. But they're jobs in business, not in history.

Thanks. Still two different answers but that is fine anyway.

Good luck anyway!

Getting a job that fits your BA in the humanities is very hard. Harder than soc-science. That said you only made a wrong choice if you think it as a wrong choice. You need to think how you can sell yourself to the market. Your degree entails several useful skills (at the very least self-discipline and the ability to process written information-and no, most people do not have the second even if literate), and you should stress these on cvs etc. There actually resources now out on the net giving advice on how a humanities BA, MA or PhD can sell themselves for a good job. You will be surprised on what you can do.

One option is to pursue a PhD, not necessarily in history, as a history BA opens doors to PhDs in several social, administrative, and even hard sciences (Political Science, Psychology, Business Administration, Information Systems Management etc). A PhD does not mean a job mind you, but it does mean the chance of a job in your chosen field (and if you are pursuing a teaching career as opposed to a research tack, keep your teaching interests and portfolio broad, and willing to follow the job, many more jobs than people think- Remember a good PhD means you compete on a global level for jobs, though it is the case that History tends to be localized too much).

Another choice is to try your hand at writing popular history. Its hard, harder than getting an academic career, but if you are lucky and good its seems to provide a decent leaving. Start a youtube channel or show, present something, see if it catches someones eye. Hell try your hand at free courses in the local YMCA or something.

But yes, wargaming should be a side project. Notice how 90% of the wargaming companies are secondary jobs or retirement projects. And as people pointed out the 10% that are not, are mostly targeted at sci-fi/fatnasy (not that you could not sell your skills for jobs there as well). Finally, remember that for most wargamers this is a hobby first, a science second. The inaccuracies do not gall them as much as it would if it was in a academic history book.If the rules play well or please our aesthetics they take precedence over fidelity to history.

After graduating with my under grad degree in history I went to work for the National Park Service. Got to work at a number of very interesting and nice sites. After being invited to to be a historical weapons inspector and instructor I was also detailed to a number of other sites and special events. It was a great career, talked with and worked with a great deal of like minded individuals. Did some writing and some exhibitry. After thirty years retired with my pension and started another career. You will not make a fortune but it was honest work and youuuse your agree.

History and Archaeology degree plus MA in Medieval Archaeology….

…teacher for twenty plus years.

There are a lot of history teaching wargamers…no surprise there?

Congrats to the recent History graduate!

Signed
Murphy
(BA in History 2012
Employed in the IT Industry for 20 years)….

Possible look into Historic Preservation? My Aunt worked on Fort Monroe and more famously the Presidio in CA.

I am an associate professor of History and serve as an academic adviser for over 50 History Majors at my university. Last year 17 of my students graduated with History degrees. All put two of them are either currently employed in careers of their choice or are attending graduate school. The history graduates at my university are doing as well or better than graduates in most other fields. By the way, one of Koyoteblue's nephews is a former student of mine who graduated with a degree in History and he is currently working on finishing a graduate degree at seminary. He (Koyoteblue's nephew) can tell you that he is satisfied with his degree in History.

Look for contract archaeologists (you're in the southeast, look for SearchInc, they have historians, link ), architectural firms, and Planners, all three types of organizations can use historians.

Also look for federal jobs through USAJobs, there are historian positions at various agencies and services. If you are serious about federal jobs you want a Masters degree at least, to meet the Secretary of the interior's qualifications (which are used by many agencies).

Also look at some mapping training if you do more school… GIS mapping skills are handy for cartographic study (like using a series of maps to show historical development over time in your project area).

I was a historian first (MA in Asian History, wrote my thesis about medieval Japanese trade and piracy), and then sidestepped into a Ph.D in Archaeology (which is history with stuff, instead of just documentary sources).

Good luck!

Sorry about my previous post. I didn't get to finish the point that I was trying to make because I had to put one of my kids to bed and didn't have a chance to get back to the computer until now. One of the reasons that the History majors at our university have been so successful at finding jobs (in addition to the fact that there is a shortage of Social Studies teachers in this state) is because local businesses around here have begun to realize that our program's graduates have skills and knowledge that graduates of traditional business programs lack. For example, our graduates have excellent research skills, communicate effectively (both orally and through writing), and have a broad knowledge of a wide range of topics (which means they are interesting conversationalists and work well with people). Perhaps you should play up these assets that you can bring to a job when you send in resumes. I hope that this advice had been helpful. Good luck with your job search.

Kevin

If research is what you want, it sounds like you should be working on putting books together for a few reasons. I think books would work to show off the depth you cover. It would give you a talking point about how much depth is going to take how much time and money. My take, is if you are going to do research, it really needs to go to the companies using the data as well as the customers of those companies.

Maybe you make a book that covers history, to show people gear and technique. Something that could be used by companies producing miniatures, people buying the miniatures, reenactors, maybe even those putting on a movie. Do what you want to do, even if it's not your main source of income. Twenty books later, you could have a good revenue stream that just keeps flowing in.

Is the task now brainstorming on the type of research and book format. Sounds like fun, lets figure it out.

As Sergeant Paper says – Work for the Federal Government.

If you cannot find a niche, create it. ;-)

No A bachelor's degree will not get you in the door at even Community colleges unless you have contacts. You must go back to school and get a master's though that will only get you up a notch.

I had a BA in Military Science and one in History and got a masters in History too. The MSEd is what got me a job.

Take a look at online resources such as link and link

There are opportunities out there even if they're not your ideal dream job of becoming the in-house researcher/fact checker/consultant for companies like Battlefront or Warlord Games.

Maybe you can become a CIA operative. The Agency is always hiring.

I have a BA in History and MA in War Studies. I have been an Army officer, banker, and IT systems manager. Although I've published some historical related articles, I've never done it professionally. BUT, I still love history!

Another historian-by-training IT guy here… and that was after a doctorate

The military services are largely agnostic about one's degree, so there are opportunities as military officers. You kinda get to apply history to your career.
Good luck.
pjm

hmmm, I found this thread entertaining reading. I served as a paratrooper for 8 years, have a BA in history, two MA's in archaeology – one Post-medieval archaeology from the University of Sheffield and another in Classical archaeology from UMass. I also have a PhD in archaeology from UCL specialising in ancient Greek and Italic arms and armour. Sadly, regular full-time employment in my field has proved a bit elusive. I worked on a number of field school excavations as a staff member in Israel, Greece, Italy and here in the UK – but these usually just cover your flights, accommodation and subsistence allowance, and are only for a few months a year. I excavated and did archaeological illustration for a contract archaeology firm here in the UK but this paid a very low wage and in 2008 a large number of us were laid off. For 2 years I was unemployed on job seekers allowance trying to get a job in my field and then any field. My job centre advisor suggested I get rid of the PhD and MA's on my CV to make myself more employable. Out of the blue I was employed by a museum in France for a couple years to help with their ancient armour collection. But this was on a consultancy basis – so not full-time permanent employment and 2 years ago that ended. Although I haven't given up on finding a post at a university or museum I decided to pursue my hobby interests and start manufacturing miniatures. I ran a number of successful Indiegogo campaigns to fund the range and did the concept images and research myself. It has been a lot of fun, and very enlightening about the miniatures industry, but it is definitely NOT a money maker. At least not at my level. The profit margin is so low in most cases that I think it is very unlikely a miniatures company would ever hire a historian to do research for them. I do research for collectors and antiquities dealers on items of ancient armour on occasion – but it is not a reliable source of income. In any case good luck and don't give up.

Another History/Archaeology graduate here, spent most of the ten years since in customer service roles, now finishing a really dull admin secondment (for admin read "moving stuff around on spreadsheets"). The closest Ive come to anything related to my degree was a few months helping out in our records dept. on the old Fiche and Microfilm machines…I seem to recall spending at least part of my degree doing that.

My Archaeology lecturer gave us a lovely little talk at the start of the course…"How many of you are hoping for a career in Archaeology?" He asked..a roomful of hands went up. "Well, you are currently in one of the worlds most historic cities, with a thriving tourism industry based on that…there are precisely two jobs in this city which require qualifications in Archaeology- one at the university and one in local government…and I occupy both." He let that sink in for a moment, "Best of luck to you all…"

Im not in contact with mot of my peers now but teaching seems to dominate (though not necessarily teaching History) , one guy tried it, found it too dangerous and joined the army instead. I dont fancy teaching, and the army told me to go away…

If truth is the first casualty of war, then History isn't far behind in many a wargame design…