Every autumn the Department of History runs an Alumni Careers evening, where we invite graduates from the Department of History (alumni) to speak with our current students.
The event aims to inspire our students and give them the opportunity to hear first-hand from alumni about the wide range of careers that graduates from our department go on to pursue. Alumni talk for 5-10 minutes about their career and how a degree in History has helped them professionally. There is then an opportunity for students to ask questions to our alumni about their careers.
This year the event took place in early November and, due to current circumstances, was held online this year with students tuning in remotely. The event was recorded and is available below.
We welcomed alumni from a variety of backgrounds; including the Civil Service, Journalism, Museums, Teaching and Professional Services.
The event is a great opportunity for students to get an honest insight into the varied careers a history degree can lead to. What struck me was not only the variety of jobs we'd ended up in but perhaps more importantly the different paths we'd taken to get there. It shows there's no right or wrong way to go and all careers have mistakes and successes along the way.
Samuel Larcombe
History alumnus working as a Private Secretary in the Civil Service and one of this year's event speakers.
It was a great success and we have received fantastic feedback from students, highlighting the value that this event brings them, and how it helps them think about their own careers after they have completed their degrees.
Here's a few things they said:
‘Variety was great and would have been really beneficial to those who didn’t know what they wanted to do. As someone who did, being able to hear multiple perspectives on the museums industry was amazing’
‘I thought there was a good variety of speakers, I was specifically interested in hearing from those in the museums, journalism, and teaching sectors. It was still interesting to hear from those in more corporate careers, despite the fact that I don't aim to enter those industries, they still had some relevant advice which I took on board’.
