CV Skills for History Students⏳

University courses Geography, Environment & History
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Becoming a history student does not limit your skills to just historical knowledge, there are loads of transferable skills that can be put on your CV! Check out the list below for examples:

  • Literature research
    Being able to quickly comprehend long historical documents prepares you for being able to easily move through business, financial, and policy documents as well.

  • Journalism/policy briefing/report writing
    Whatever specific types of writing you do for coursework can also be added to your CV and is especially useful for writing-heavy jobs.

  • Argumentation/critical thinking
    Synthesizing a unique perspective and argument on historical documents and events are transferable skills for business and marketing jobs where selling your ideas is incredibly important.

  • Specific historical knowledge
    When applying to museum, historian, or heritage management jobs, it is useful to display the specific type of history you specialize in.

  • Attention to detail
    A lot of museum-based work relies on have a specific eye as does certain research which makes this attentiveness incredibly useful.

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These are such great points about the transferable skills history students gain! how can history graduates best showcase these skills when applying to roles outside of academia or heritage, like in marketing or policy analysis? Are there specific examples or ways of framing this experience that really stand out to employers?

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There are always ways to zhuzh up your CV! For untraditional history careers, I would focus on the research and documentation skills that history students gain. Always explain in your CV what you have done, what audience it went to, and what unique work you provided and achieved.

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These are some great tips and show how much students gain and learn from studies! Which of these transferable skills do you think would be most valuable in a career outside of history?

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I would focus on any coursework that involved writing and argumentation skills since these are most applicable outside of history !

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