Historians: Job Description, Education, Skills and Abilities, Earnings and Outlook
Submitted by: paula
Job Overview Historians are types of social scientists. They are the ones who study events or happenings, ideas and ideologies, as well as institutions and people of the past. Majority of the tasks that they do is to research. They may study and provide interpretation of the events that happened in the earliest periods in the past both of the recorded times and the ones that people can still recall. In contrast with the archaeologists, who investigate and draw conclusions from physical objects and artifacts, historians focus their study of the past from the written sources or written records made by individuals. However, they may use physical objects minimally such as photographs, tools and costumes so as to draw interpretations and get a good picture of the past ways of living. Oftentimes, the essence of their studies is to make use of their knowledge of the past to relate or even explain the present day situations.
Education, Knowledge and Trainings Required
The minimum educational requirement to become a historian is a possession of an advanced degree, either a masters or a doctorate degree in history and related courses. Those who accomplished a bachelor's degree or a four year course in history are poorly given advancement opportunities and may take the position of an assistant researcher to the many historians. To be able to qualify as a teacher or a consultant, continue on the master's and the doctorate degree for better chances of getting hired.
Skills and Abilities
Historians need to be really interested in the happenings of the past. With this, they should be generally curious and industrious as well. Skills in researching is the most important skill a good historian must possess. Data organization and the ability to think analytically are necessary so as to draw relevant interpretations from the studies that they conduct. For those who are acting as consultants and provide services through the mass media, communication skills both in written and in oral form is a must.
Duties
As the field of history is a very broad field, historians take specializations as well.
Historians may specialize in a specific period of time, a specific theme, a specific culture, region, or country. Take for example, there are historians who specialize in the study of the history of the United States. There are also some historians who specialize in studying the World Wars or the economic events such as the "Great Depression". There are also some who concentrate on the study of the Medieval history, the history of women, history of immigration and history of ideas, to name a few. Basically, regardless of their specializations, what they do is to research ad employ different research methods for different purposes. Those historians who opt to teach in the universities, research and study so as to provide learning to the students. Those who play the role of an archivist maintain a collection of historical documents and significant items in museums, libraries and other historical societies. There are others who act as consultants and provide knowledge to the people through the radios, televisions and films.
Job Outlook and Salary
In general, the employment opportunities for social scientist is expected to move slowly than the average for the other careers. The salary depends of the factors such as the level of education, the number of years of professional experience and the location and type of employers. The median annual salary for a historian points to 44,490 U.S. dollars per annum.
Paula Hiz is a researcher and a human resource specialist who helps newly graduates, job applicants and post graduate professionals be aware of their job opportunities and available trainings for skills and practice upgrading.
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Word Count: 611 Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2011 Time: 9:18 AM
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