The AHA’s Career Contacts program celebrated its 10th anniversary in January. This popular service connects anyone interested in learning about career pathways for historians outside the professoriate with historians working across a wide array of professions and industries for onetime informational interviews.
Career Contacts grew out of the Career Diversity initiative, which launched in 2011 to examine career outcomes for historians and assess how graduate programs prepare students for careers after graduation. Over more than a decade, the AHA partnered with dozens of history departments and engaged hundreds of history faculty and graduate students. This work produced new recommendations for graduate training and resources to help historians explore career possibilities. Career Contacts was among those resources, connecting history doctoral students with professionals who had built careers beyond the professoriate. More recently, we expanded the program to welcome participants at any stage of their education or career, whether they are exploring postgraduation possibilities or considering a career change.
Since the founding of Career Contacts in 2015, AHA staff have matched hundreds of participants with historians employed across the United States and Canada. The process is simple: Participants submit a short intake form describing their field of study and the industries they’d like to learn more about. Rachel Wheatley, AHA education and professional affairs associate, receives the form and schedules a short intake phone call with an AHA staff member. During this conversation, we learn more about the participant’s interests and background, and then select a historian with whom to schedule an informational interview.
In my five years overseeing Career Contacts, I’ve conducted many of these intake calls. I typically begin by asking participants about their familiarity with career possibilities outside the professoriate, as well as their level of interest in those careers. For some, Career Contacts is their first step, while others have already conducted interviews, attended career exploration workshops, explored online resources, or worked outside the professoriate. Most fall somewhere in between, and we welcome everyone no matter where they are in this process.
For participants just beginning to explore their options, and who request assistance thinking through what they might want to pursue, I ask them to consider their interests in relation to what they already know about working in the discipline. Do they want a career in which researching, writing, and reading history are core to their work? Or would they prefer a role where they apply their historical skills more broadly? For those who have spent time in a classroom, what do they like (or not like) about teaching? Do they enjoy developing lesson plans? Engaging directly with students? Lecturing or facilitating discussion? Designing assessments? Their answers help me narrow down possibilities for potential career paths. Someone drawn to course design, for example, may enjoy instructional design, while someone who values engaging with students might thrive in museum education.
None of this would be possible without the historians who volunteer their time to offer guidance to our participants. They hold MAs and PhDs in history and public history, and they work in a wide range of settings: government agencies; libraries, museums, and archives; historic sites; universities, colleges, and high schools; nonprofits; publishing; business and consulting; and more. Some are early in their careers, while others have years or decades of experience in one or more industries. And all are eager to support other historians as they explore career opportunities and navigate next steps.
If you’re looking to learn more about career pathways, or if you’re interested in helping those who are, visit our website to sign up.
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