History graduate degrees prepare students for careers in a wide array of settings. Graduates of Loyola’s MA and PhD programs go on to careers in teaching, public history, museums, non-profit and cultural work, higher-ed administration and support, entrepreneurship, and more.
Exploring Careers While in Graduate School
History Dept.’s Professional Lives of Historians Course:
The pro-seminar course is required for all incoming history PhD students beginning fall 2019 and later. It can be taken as an elective by all other history graduate students. Students in this course will learn about the many career pathways open to historians with graduate degrees and begin to prepare for careers after graduation. Funded PhD students who started before fall 2019 are required to attend 8 pedagogy seminars by the time they begin teaching their own courses in year 4. See the Graduate section of the LUC History Department Website for more information about the Professional Lives of Historians Course.
Individual Development Plans:
All history graduate students at Loyola are required to build and maintain their own Individual Development Plans (IDPs), a planning tool designed to assist with graduate school and career planning. Each student is required to bring their IDP with them to their twice-yearly advising meetings with the graduate program director. We recommend using the assessments and IDP template at ImaginePhD for this.
Resources listed here: This website has dozens of links to resources at Loyola and beyond that will help you prepare for careers after graduation.
In addition to the resources on this site and on ImaginePhD, the following information will help you explore potential career paths.
Other Career Exploration Resources
Beyond Academe: Click here.
Beyond the Professoriate: Click here.
Career Contacts program from the American Historical Association
Career Diversity for Historians and Five Skills for Historians from the American Historical Association
Carpe Careers from Inside Higher Ed
Connected Academics from the MLA
“Exploring Career Pathways” from Catherine Maybrey: Click here.
“Exploring Your Skills” from Inside Higher Ed: Click here.
From PhD to Life: Click here.
Humanists at Work: Click here.
Next Generation PhD at Loyola Chicago
The Professor is In from Karen Kelsky, PhD
“Rethinking Humanities PhD” resources from the Council of Graduate Schools
Studies and reports about career pathways for humanists: click here.
“Transferable Skills and How to Talk About Them” by Stacy Hartman for Connected Academics
“Where do humanists work?” from The Humanities PhD Project
Where Historians Work database from the American Historical Association
Versatile Humanists from Duke
From Tropics of Meta:
“How One Tenure-Track Prof Left Academia: A Beginner’s Guide,” by Felicity Palmer
“I have a PhD in History: How Can I Survive in the Private Sector?” by John Southard
“Making Your Way as a History PhD in the Think Tank World” by Megan K. Doherty
“Working for the Man?! Turning Your PhD into a Meaningful Job with the Federal Government” by Ryan Reft
“The Fantasy, The Ideal, and The Reality of Career Exploration”: Click here.