History

This list is not exhaustive but provides an idea of the options graduates have and what they have gone on to do. Some options are more directly associated with a History degree than others.

Additionally, consider visiting the Career Cruising website. To locate the university’s username and password, you must login to Experience York using your Passport York information. It can be found under the “Career Education & Development” drop-down menu on the left then under “Career Development Tools”. 

An understanding of History and its potential implications and lessons for today’s realities ensures that you develop the skills and mindset to tackle many different professional challenges.

Core History Skills

• Understanding the causes, development, and consequences of past political and social processes that have shaped people’s lives throughout history
• Complex combination of broad and granular appreciation of the roots of current culture, political systems, and global order
• Ability to reconstruct, inhabit, and interpret different cultural systems through disciplined creativity, empathy, and imagination
• Sophisticated information literacy skills, developing professional dexterity working with a wide variety of sources and types of information, understanding the inherent explanatory potential and limits of each source
• Ultimately, develop the ability to create new knowledge via combination of these skills

Communication, Data Gathering and Organizational Skills

• Complex data gathering skills: deduction of pertinent information from an abundance of sources and the ability to identify what is relevant and explain why
• Complex data deployment skills: an ability to find, analyze, and organize new sources of information and to apply them to different professional settings and tasks
• Sophisticated data presentation skills: an ability to deliver compelling oral presentations and concise, persuasive written presentations and reports using current data and technology
• The ability to learn new information and apply it in diverse professional contexts
• Judgment and prudence: the capacity to consider strengths and weaknesses of different sides of an argument, dispassionately analyze complex issues , think creatively and make sound, explicable and justifiable
• The ability to explain complex ideas clearly to others and to apply complex theoretical concepts to everyday practice and professional challenges

Management and Teamwork

• The ability to interpret and analyze information presented by peers and efficiently and constructively support or challenge their proposals, theories, ideas and reports in order to achieve a project’s intendedend result
• Collaborative skills enabling you to work effectively in group situations, sharing in decision-making, leading and contributing in various capacities to the ultimate success of the team and task
• The ability to debate, persuade, mediate and present your thoughts and opinions to others, as well as the capacity to recognize and incorporate other potential solutions or applications to given problems
• The capability to identify priorities and proper courses of action, to plan the execution of tasks and to determine and delegate responsibilities to group members to most effectively carry out projects

Knowing an industry and how to excel in it after receiving a degree are key elements of future success. University study sets up the building blocks you will need to develop and enhance your understanding and knowledge in your career. Being part of a professional organization or network and gaining further insight through training are excellent ways of increasing your knowledge of the field.

• Canadian Historical Association
• The Heritage Canada Foundation
• The Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies
• Canadian Council on Social Development
• The Council of Canadians
• Keele Department of History
• Glendon Department of History