Finding employment that is within our field of research often feels like an insurmountable endeavor that we never quite complete. Because the truth is, finding work as a historian is difficult.
This reality or potential future should not be news to you. Throughout graduate school, our professors–and let us be real, our family and friends, too–warned us of the daunting and unforgiving landscape that is the job market of the historian.
And after a quick glance at the data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, a daunting and unforgiving landscape would be the perfect description.
However, I do not believe jobs are as scarce as they appear to be. Yes, finding our ideal permanent position as a professional or academic historian probably is often the effort in futility we have been cautioned about. But if we do not apply any limitations or restrictions, our job search will prove rather fruitful and rewarding.
This is an article about one historian’s search for employment.
This article is my own experience. This is the story of my search for employment following graduate school as a historian.
My goal for this article is twofold:
1. Share the real-life experience of an American historian searching for employment
2. Provide a framework for your own job search expectations
If I am successful, after reading this article you will have a real-life experience to use when outlining your own expectations of employment and salary potential. Also, and hopefully, you will have a more optimistic outlook on your future job prospects and career opportunities. Because the ideal job you desire does exist and you will eventually find it.
Before we proceed, a quick biographical note is necessary.
For this article to be truly beneficial and useful, I need to share a few personal facts and give one caveat.
A Few Personal Facts…
- I have an M.A. and not a Ph.D. I completed a terminal thesis track American history program. Additionally, I have completed only one public history course.
- I selected my graduate program because of its geographical location; and not because of its department and/or faculty. And I was determined to live and have a career in the same area following graduation.
- I am fortunate enough to be in a relationship with a partner whose career choice is much more financially fruitful and stable than that of a historian.
One Caveat…
- The article begins with an internship during graduate school. However, I ignore the T.A. and G.A. positions I held. I do not believe rehashing that experience adds value to this article or provides useful insight.
This information offers important context for three reasons.
First Reason:
The job market for Ph.D.s is vastly different. And in my opinion, the Ph.D. market is more bountiful. Before you bring the pitchforks out Ph.D. folks, ‘more bountiful’ is strictly in relation to the job market for an American historian who only has their M.A. I am not devaluing your struggle for employment. I know it is real.
In my experience, more and more positions within the field of history are requiring candidates to have their Ph.D. or at least be in the process of receiving one. Additionally, it seems more than often, employers prefer qualified candidates with a Ph.D. than those with just an M.A.
To me, this makes sense. Ph.D-educated individuals should have a better job market. And all employers should desire the most qualified and educated candidate they can hire.
Also in regard to my education, I noted my lack of public history coursework. As we all know, public historians require and utilize a different set of skills and working knowledge of history.
During my own search for employment, I have noticed that the majority of jobs that require only an M.A. are positions suited more for public historians.
Personally, I was asked to interview, but ultimately not offered a position on several occasions due to the employer needing or wanting a trained public historian. And those employers made the correct decision. I am not a public historian. And I would not have succeeded in those roles.
Second Reason:
As for location, I was determined to work and live in Asheville, North Carolina. However, by limiting myself to such a small market, my search for employment proved ineffectual. In fact, my first job following graduate school had nothing to do history.
But luckily for me, my love for history eventually superseded my stubbornness to relocate, temporarily and/or permanently, for work. Soon after, I quickly learned that mobility and flexibility are key attributes to have as a historian seeking employment.
And if you take away only one thing from this article–and I cannot stress this enough–it should be the following statement:
My self-imposed restriction on geographic location proved to be the greatest obstacle to finding employment as a historian.”
Third Reason:
At the same time as this self-realization, I met my partner. I am fortunate to be with someone who is not only willing to be emotionally supportive but also financially as well.
This particular fact is significant for context because I am afforded a certain luxury that most historians searching for employment are not. I am able to apply to and accept the positions that best fit my experiences and preferences. I do not need, or at least feel the need, to say yes to any and every job opportunity.
It is a unique privilege. With that in mind, the second half of my job search following graduate school was and is a bit less stressful and disheartening than the first half. And arguably, much less so than most historians.
Please take that into consideration when reading.
So to reiterate and to put simply, the following ‘post-graduate job search experience‘ is that of a stubborn M.A. American historian who initially, and shortsightedly, self-enforced an uncompromising and precise geographical job search requirement. And who eventually, and luckily, met someone willing enough to be their pillar of support.
And now I present to you, my story…
One Historian’s Quest for Employment:
A Modern Re-Telling of the Myth of Sisyphus
Preface:
Graduate School Internship
During my first year of graduate school, I knew I needed a break from the library, the laptop, and just being inside way too much. I needed to explore and venture into the wilderness. But I also needed to work and strengthen my resume.
So I looked to the West.
Relying on my AmeriCorps National Conservation Civilian Corps (NCCC) experience, I researched potential employment opportunities with the National Park Service (NPS) and the United States Forest Service (USFS). During my Americorps NCCC stint, many people informed me of the difficulty of obtaining a seasonal position with either agency. As a result, I decided to forego perusing through the job openings listed on the USAJOBS website.
Instead, I reviewed the individual websites of the national parks and national forests I wanted to visit and explore for potential summer internship opportunities. For several weeks I set aside one to two hours every other day to sift and resift through their respective websites. Finally, I found a call for applications for an Interpretative Park Ranger Internship with Rocky Mountain National Park.
I quickly applied, an interview soon followed, and then came the offer. Before I knew it, I was driving cross country to Colorado immediately following my spring semester. Compensation for the internship including free housing in the park and a weekly stipend of $200. Basically, the compensation was just enough to qualify as a “free” three-month vacation in the Rocky Mountains. My days off were filled with gorgeous hikes, pristine alpine lakes, and awe-inspiring vistas.
More importantly, the internship offered a unique opportunity to receive NPS cultural and natural resource interpretation training and actively apply it in a professional setting. Besides my regular daily responsibilities–providing visitors with information, cleaning facilities, ensuring the integrity of the natural and cultural resources, etc.– as the Interpretative Park Ranger Intern, I developed and delivered a weekly talk on the human history of the area and led group tours of the Holzwarth Historic Site. The internship was truly a remarkable and worthwhile professional and life experience.
Oddly enough, I should have learned a valuable lesson that summer; do not limit your job search to a specific geographical location or area. But, I did not. That learning would not occur until later on.
Part I:
Realizing I am Stuck by Staying Put
For my last semester of graduate school, I lived in that mountain town writing my thesis as a part-time student. To make ends meet, I worked part-time as an After-School Mentor with the YMCA of Western North Carolina (YMCA of WNC) earning approximately $12 an hour.
Following my graduation, and wanting to stay in Asheville, I parlayed that part-time gig into a full-time role with the YMCA of WNC as a Program Manager for their grant-funded after-school program. The position paid $14 an hour plus decent benefits that included health, dental, and vision insurance, PTO, sick time, an employer matching retirement plan, and a free gym membership.
It was meaningful employment with adequate compensation but I was not working as a historian. Nor did this position present any substantial opportunities for the direct use of my degree. As a result, I felt unfulfilled.
For two years I held that position while continuously searching for employment more suited for a historian. And then one day, I finally accepted the truth, if I wanted to be a working historian, I needed to expand my job search and potentially relocate.
Removing that self-imposed geographical restriction opened the doors to an abundance of employment opportunities. With new hope and optimism, I feverishly perused various job boards dedicated to historians, like the National Council on Public History (NCPH) and PreserveNet job boards.
After weeks of searching, writing covers letters and applying to a host of jobs, I was offered and accepted the position of Seasonal Historian with the Center of Environmental Management of Military Lands (CEMML), a service, education, and research unit in Colorado State University’s (CSU) Warner College of Natural Resources.
The Seasonal Historian was a temporary position located at Ft. Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska. As a grant-funded and time-limited appointment, the position was earmarked for a maximum of six months. But due to travel concerns returning to the Lower 48, I only worked four and a half months. I received $23 an hour, a 401k retirement plan, and was offered health insurance through Colorado State University at a minimal cost–I believe it was $50.
I did not receive reimbursement for relocation costs nor did I receive housing. The cost to relocate temporarily ranged from between $2500 and $3000. This seems like a high cost to pay just to be able to work. But my relocation cost was bloated by the fact that I decided to drive to and from Alaska. Basically, I treated the move as a road trip adventure. I covered approximately 9000 miles and totaled almost 140 hours of drive time to get to Alaska and back.
As for housing, I had to secure my own. This proved to be a bit of a challenge. Rather I should say finding an affordable short term rental with running water proved challenging. However, affordable dry cabins equipped with an outhouse for rent were plentiful. At the time, I thought I needed to have running water to live comfortably. So, I decided to forego that option.
Instead, I rented a room for $500 a month plus utilities. On average, monthly utilities added about another $100 a month to my rent. This is surprisingly cheap for Fairbanks–unless, of course, you rent a dry cabin–but I also lived with approximately six to seven different tenets during that time including the property owners who had a child and a dog.
The cost of living in Fairbanks is high with gas and grocery prices being the highest among the areas I have lived or visited. With that in mind, the usual inconveniences that come with living in a crowded house did not seem as frustrating or troublesome.
Initially, the cost of relocation, my less-than-ideal housing situation, and leaving an area I loved exacerbated my doubts and anxieties. However, those doubts and anxieties quickly and wholly dissipated throughout my first day as the Seasonal Historian.
I was now a working historian. I was getting paid to research and write about American history. And I will never forget the pure joy and happiness I experienced during that moment of realization, a feeling of ecstasy that seemed to persist throughout my time as the Seasonal Historian for CEMML.
What makes that moment so profound, is the fact that I felt that overwhelmingly positive about being the Seasonal Historian even though the work did not remotely align with my historical interests.
As the Seasonal Historian, I researched and created original content on various military topics related to World War II including Lend-Lease, Women’s Army Corps, and the Aleutian Campaign. My primary project, however, required that I research and author a monograph on the Arctic Aeromedical Laboratory (AAL) for publication. Additionally, I selected and digitally edited historical photographs for the monograph.
Working as the Seasonal Historian with CEMML was a godsend. Not only did I gain valuable professional experience and added another publication to my curriculum vitae (C.V.) and resume, but I learned that being a historian requires mobility and flexibility.
If you are willing to be flexible and mobile, your job search will be more rewarding and fruitful. The struggle will still exist and be a burden. Because you will need to move. And depending on what openings you find and offers you accept, you may have to relocate every three to six months. If your lucky, you may even secure a yearlong contract or even a two-year fixed-term position with a company or university.
Do not place unnecessary restrictions on your job search. You always have the option to say no to an employment opportunity. But you need to give yourself that option first.
Part II:
The Irony of an Expanded Job Search
While employed with CEMML, I spent one to two nights during the workweek scouring the internet and checking job boards for my next appointment. Through Indeed, I found a job opening as a Staff Historian/Project Manager with Environmental Corporation of America (ECA).
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A short and sweet interlude…
Before I detail my position with ECA, let me address two unrelated topics. First, for those you do now know, Indeed is a popular employment-related search engine for job listings. Personally, I hold an opinion of indifference towards Indeed and other similar job search engines.
To me, job search engines do serve well as a good starting point. Job search engines enable you to easily conduct a nationwide job search using keywords or phrases. As a result, you can quickly obtain a broad overview of a specific market or the demand for particular positions.
However, due to their design and how they conduct a web search, job search engines operate like a poorly managed or curated job board. Often, the same job posting will appear multiple times. Or worse, your search inquiry will include results for job opportunities whose application process has already closed.
…and now back to the story
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Ironically, by removing my self-imposed restrictions and expanding my job search I found a rare job opening to work as a historian in Asheville.
As I mentioned before, I found ECA‘s job announcement for the position of Staff Historian/Project Manager through Indeed. I simply conducted a general search using the keyword “historian.” ECA‘s job post was near the top of the listed results.
The ECA listed the job location as Alpharetta, Georgia due to Alpharetta being the home of ECA‘s corporate headquarters. However, after reading the announcement, the available Staff Historian/Project Manager position was located at one of the company’s satellite offices.
Therefore, I contacted ECA directly to inquire about the job location and to learn more about the position. In fact, that phone call proved quite beneficial and necessary as the job announcement omitted a few imperative particularities for applying.
To my pleasant surprise, ECA was hiring a Staff Historian/Project Manager for their office in Asheville. But more importantly, the ECA employee I spoke with offered additional and pertinent details about the position and application process.
In their job post, ECA neglected to mention that each of their respective offices conducts its own recruitment and hiring. Consequently, and according to this employee, ECA rarely managed or checked its Indeed corporate employer account. Therefore, an application completed and submitted only through Indeed was not guaranteed to be reviewed.
Immediately following that initial and advantageous conversation, I applied through Indeed and mailed hard copies of my resume, cover letter, and writing sample to the Asheville office. A week later I called the Asheville office to ensure my application and corresponding documents arrived.
For this follow-up conversation, I spoke with the Vice President of Environmental and Ecological Services and manager of the Asheville office. He informed me during our conversation that had I not called he planned on discarding my application because I listed my current residence as Alaska. ECA did not offer a relocation package or reimbursement. So he assumed any further communication would be an insufficient use of our time.
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Let me digress for a moment to offer some unsolicited advice.
And to be honest, usually, I am too lazy or too self-conscious to follow the advice that I am about to share.
Contacting a hiring manager or potential employer via a phone call or email about a job opening is an easy and efficient means to get your name on their radar. This is especially beneficial, and kind of necessary, when you are applying for a federal position through USAJOBS. Furthermore, it provides an opportunity to facilitate communication about yourself without the limitations and formality imposed on cover letters and resumes.
As I noted above, I do not always attempt to engage a potential employer in this type of introductory conversation. But when I successfully do so, I am often more confident and less awkward during the actual job interview. And as a result, I am more likely to be offered the position.
And as my experience with ECA illustrated, you may learn some valuable, but previously unstated information required for a successful application.
Digression over. Unsolicited advice given. And now back to the story.
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A few weeks later ECA conducted a phone interview with me. Soon after, they offered me the position of Staff Historian/Project Manager. I held the position for almost sixteen months before voluntarily leaving the company.
ECA is an environmental, ecological, geotechnical, and cultural resources consulting firm specializing in the services dedicated to the telecommunications industry. They also provide assistance to public and private sector clients within the industries of commercial real estate and transportation. As a consulting firm, ECA is primarily concerned with ensuring that client projects are compliant with all state and federal regulations. Regulatory compliance dictates that ECA, on behalf of their client, must complete the necessary environmental and cultural assessments along with the corresponding and obligatory reports legally required of a specific project.
As a Staff Historian/Project Manager, I authored and forwarded technical reports to State Historic Preservation Offices and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for consultation and approval in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). Along with technical reports, I wrote public notices for publication and engaged in detailed correspondence with necessary parties as required by state and federal regulations.
For the majority of the documents, notices, and correspondences, ECA utilizes boilerplate templates that simply require consultants to fill in the project details. Environmental and cultural technical reports, on the other hand, require more flexibility to accommodate for project specificity. Consultants still follow a standard company template for these reports, but one that is malleable enough for deviation.
Additionally, I consistently managed an average of twenty telecommunications projects concurrently. Project management entailed developing and implementing an efficient work plan that guaranteed ECA’s fulfillment and delivery of all promised services to the client within the negotiated timeframe and budget.
Aspects of a typical project included archeological and environment field assessment, the publication of public notices, correspondence with appropriate tribal consultants, cultural and environmental technical reports, and reconciliation of project expenses with the accounting department.
Initially, I received an hourly wage of $19.23, approximately $39,998 a year, with the potential to earn a performance bonus on a quarterly basis. Depending on individual performance and overall company revenue, bonuses ranged between a few hundred dollars to just over a thousand. Additionally, ECA offered the equivalent of ten days of paid-time-off (PTO) partially received through bi-weekly accruements over the course of the year and seven paid holidays which the company predetermined and selected each year. ECA also provided adequate healthcare options. I paid approximately $200 per month period for health insurance. ECA automatically deducted $100 from my paycheck to cover this cost.
At the conclusion of my first year, I received a 12.5% raise for a new hourly rate of $21.63, approximately $44,990 year. At this time, ECA announced new employee benefits that included free dental and vision insurance and three days of paid sick leave. They also improved their paternity leave by extending paid time off for mothers and providing fathers with a week of paid leave.
If you are looking for a career with decent pay and benefits, consulting work may interest you.
My only caveat, and in my experience, it is a fast-paced, stressful working environment. Moreover, successful project completion required the effort of multiple consultants from different offices and third-party entities. As Project Manager, you need each one to produce their delegated deliverable on time and within a particular budget for an optimal outcome. However, these same coworkers have their own projects to manage and prioritize. Furthermore, receiving directions and guidance from supervisors proved challenging because of either their own workload or because they worked out of a different office.
Unfortunately, but as a result, this often fomented passive-aggressive communication and elicited staff confusion and incompetency. This type of work environment along with the workload contributed to a high turn over ratio. And when consultants leave, their unfinished reports and projects need to be accounted for and divided among the remaining staff. This inevitably led to more miss deadlines, busted budgets, and the reprioritization of your own reports and projects.
But to be fair and honest, I was not an efficient consultant. Frankly, I kind of sucked. So take the last bit with a grain of salt.
Part III:
Being Seasonal
After voluntarily leaving ECA, my partner and I decided to travel. As a Physical Therapist, she had an abundance of short-term travel contracts available to her across the country. For an easy comparison, this is much like a Travel Nurse.
Because her travel contracts are usually short, roughly thirteen weeks, and often in small, rural communities, I decided to look for seasonal or temporary, remote, and less traditional forms of employment. This led to a daily morning ritual of searching USAJOBS and NCHP job boards. I try to apply to any and every position vaguely related to history.
Although I have had success on NCHP’s job board—I previously worked as a Seasonal Historian with CEMML and offered a Research Historian position with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Institute at Stanford University—for my particular situation I found gaining employment through USAJOBS as a Seasonal Interpretative Park Ranger with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), USFS, or NPS to be easiest and most fruitful.
For the sake of brevity and to avoid repetition—as you read above, I previously worked as Interpretative Park Ranger Intern—I will only share a few details of a Park Ranger position I held with the BLM Prineville District in Oregon.
But before we begin, I have only worked at the GS-05 level. If you do not know what that means, no worries most do not. You can read up on here. Sooner or later, I will write a detailed article about the ins and outs of federal employment including the application and hiring process which requires a more comprehensive resume.
As a full-time Seasonal Interpretative Park Ranger, GS-05, I worked a consistent schedule of ten-hour days with four days on and three days off. Although seasonal positions with the federal government are funded for a specific number of hours, usually there is flexibility for your start and end date. But this is dependent on the funding for that specific year and the particular needs of the agency and park. My season with the BLM Prineville District began late June and ended in late October. I received $16.25 an hour and health insurance for approximately $50 a month—I had the opportunity to select from a host of insurance plans that varied in cost and coverage.
I did not receive reimbursement for relocation, nor did I receive housing. However, many parks offer housing at minimal rent for seasonal employees. Relocation cost for this move was around $1500 which began in Tucson, Arizona and ended in Bend, Oregon and included stops along the way.
Housing in Central Oregon proved to be a difficult and expensive endeavor. This was partly due to a desire to live in Redmond or Bend which are both closer to the mountains than Prineville, but mostly due to an overvalued housing market. In general, the Central Oregon area of Bend, Redmond, and Prineville is expensive. Although my wages covered my living costs, I felt financially comfortable only because of my partner. We secured housing in a wooded, secluded residential neighborhood fifteen minutes south of Bend and one hour from the BLM Prineville District office for $1300 a month. Rent included utilities and the internet. But we also took care of the landlord’s three dogs, house plants, yard, and garden for a reduced rate. Rent was originally set at $2000 a month.
As a Seasonal Interpretative Park Ranger with the BLM, you operate more as a jack-all-trades-type Park Ranger than you would as a Seasonal Interpretative Park Ranger with the USFS and NPS. You not only provide interpretation and visitor services but also perform basic maintenance and help with land reclamation projects.
Because of its mission and land management needs, the BLM requires a more versatile Park Ranger. Although the BLM has evolved and become a more inclusive agency, the original mission and purpose of the BLM was to manage mineral rights and grazing lease. Additionally, the BLM oversees more acreage of land while receiving comparatively less funding than other land management agencies. As a result, the BLM, and in particular the Prineville District, prioritizes land management and offers little in the way of formal interpretation programs and established, well-maintained recreational areas like you would see with at an NPS managed natural or cultural resource.
For day-to-day work, I patrolled recreational areas to address land management needs and provide visitors information about the natural and cultural resources in the area. My land management duties included cleaning campgrounds and vault toilets, collecting recreational fees, repairing cattle fencing, replacing signage, removing debris and trash dumps, and conducting land management needs reconnaissance of underserved and remote BLM land.
Regretfully, the BLM Prineville District did not have formal interpretation programs or Park Ranger talks at that time. Rather, I performed this aspect of a Park Ranger via personal conversations with individual and group users while I hiked the trails and attended the campgrounds within the BLM Prineville District.
However, because of the absence of an educational and interpretative program, I was able to initiate the planning process and set the foundation for future programming at the Maupin Section Foreman’s House, an NRHP-listed property under the management of the BLM Prineville District. This project offered me the chance to explore a different avenue of historical inquiry and application. In doing so, I gain valuable experience in developing and designing interpretation programs while simultaneously broadening my skills and abilities as a historian.
Seasonal Park Ranger positions offer a variety of opportunities for historians to grow and expand their skills as professionals. From independent research projects to developing and delivering educational talks to writing and creating social media content, it is difficult to match the diversity of new experiences you will and can gain from working as a Park Ranger. Furthermore, the BLM, USFS, and NPS protect and manage natural and cultural resources in urban, rural, and remote areas. Being a Park Ranger can take you to a cultural epicenter like New York City one summer and then to wild Alaska the next.
And that is the story of my job search as a historian.
At least, thus far…
Epilogue:
The Life of a Historian
Finding employment should not be a historian’s modern re-telling of the myth of Sisyphus.
The frustrations and stress I endured–and continue to endure–throughout my job search experience coupled with the harrowing quest for employment stories I have heard from past professors and my fellow graduate cohort engendered an idea.
That idea became a reality when I decided to create The Life of a Historian website and begin the ever-expanding Historian’s Job Search Database.
Because I believe a life of history is one worth living.