History Resume: Examples & Skills for History Majors (2026)

Quick answer: A strong history resume includes your contact information, a short summary, education (degree, concentration, thesis, and honors), history-related experience such as archives, museum, research, or teaching roles, research and publications, and skills like historical research, primary source analysis, archival management, and writing. Describe each experience with action verbs and concrete results, and tailor the skills to each job, whether it's in a museum or a marketing department.

History majors spend years studying how people made decisions with incomplete information. That's excellent training for writing a resume, which is basically the same thing, except the primary source is you.

This guide shows you what to include on a history resume, which history skills employers value, how to describe research and internships, and a full sample you can copy.

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What to Include on a History Resume

1. Contact information

Name, email, phone number, city and state, and a LinkedIn or portfolio link (useful if you have published writing, digital exhibits, or projects).

2. Summary or objective

Two or three sentences that connect your background to the role.

Students and recent grads can use a short objective instead. See our resume objective examples.

3. Education

For history students and recent graduates, education goes near the top. Include:

• Degree, major, institution, location, and graduation date
• Concentration (e.g., Public History, U.S. History, Medieval Europe)
• Thesis or capstone title
• Honors, GPA (if 3.5 or higher), and relevant coursework

Here's how to list your degree and relevant coursework.

4. History experience

Internships, jobs, and volunteer roles at archives, museums, historical societies, libraries, national parks, and research projects. Use a "History Experience" or "Research Experience" heading if it helps relevant roles stand out.

5. Research and publications

Thesis work, conference papers, published articles, student journal work, and digital history projects. Label unpublished work clearly. See publications on a resume.

6. Skills

A focused list of history and transferable skills (see below).

7. Additional sections (optional)

Languages, study abroad, leadership roles (like history club president), and awards.

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Best Skills for a History Resume

History-specific skills

• Historical research and historiography
• Primary and secondary source analysis
• Archival processing, cataloging, and preservation
• Digitization and metadata (e.g., Dublin Core)
• Oral history interviewing
• Exhibit research and design
• Paleography or reading historical handwriting
• Foreign languages for source work (Latin, French, German, Spanish)
• Digital humanities tools (Omeka, ArcGIS, Zotero, ArchivesSpace)

Transferable skills

• Research and fact-checking
• Persuasive and analytical writing
• Critical thinking and source evaluation
• Public speaking and presenting
• Editing and proofreading
• Project management (a thesis is a long project)
• Data organization

Need more ideas? See our skills for resume examples.

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How to Describe History Experience on a Resume

Write bullet points that show what you did and what it achieved. Start with a strong action verb and add numbers when you can.

Weak: "Helped in the archives."

Strong: "Cataloged and digitized 1,200+ 19th-century court documents, making the collection searchable online for researchers."

History resume bullet point examples

• Researched 19th-century Shenandoah Valley residents using census records and land deeds for an upcoming National Park Service exhibit
• Designed 30+ visuals and interactive displays for a Smithsonian exhibit on daily life in 17th-century America
• Edited 15 peer-submitted articles for the undergraduate history journal and mentored 3 student reviewers
• Conducted and transcribed 12 oral history interviews with local veterans for a county historical society
• Wrote a bimonthly local history column for the county newspaper, reaching 8,000 readers
• Led weekend walking tours for 20–40 visitors at a historic house museum

For more examples, see our guide to resume bullet points.

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History Resume Example

Example adapted from a sample resume published by James Madison University's career center.

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History Resume for Non-History Jobs

Most history majors don't end up as historians. They work in law, government, policy, education, publishing, marketing, business, and tech. To tailor your history resume for those roles:

• Translate your skills. "Primary source analysis" becomes "research and data analysis." "Thesis" becomes "a 100-page independent research project completed on deadline."
• Lead with transferable skills that match the job description: writing, research, communication, and critical thinking.
• Highlight non-history experience like customer service, tutoring, or office jobs. They show reliability and people skills.
• Keep history details short. A recruiter at a marketing agency doesn't need your thesis title, but they'll love that you wrote a newspaper column.

If you're changing direction entirely, our career change resume guide can help.

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Writing Your Resume's Work History Section

Some people searching "history resume" mean the work history section of any resume. Quick rules:

• List jobs in reverse-chronological order, most recent first
• Include job title, employer, location, and dates (month and year)
• Use three to five achievement-focused bullet points per role
• Go back about 10 to 15 years; here's how far back a resume should go

For a full guide, see work experience on a resume.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What skills should I put on a history resume?

Historical research, primary source analysis, archival processing, writing, editing, critical thinking, and foreign languages, plus digital tools like Zotero, Omeka, or ArcGIS if you've used them.

What jobs can I get with a history degree?

Archivist, museum educator, curator, teacher, librarian, historian, and researcher, plus many roles outside history, such as paralegal, policy analyst, writer, editor, marketer, and analyst.

How do I make my history degree stand out on a resume?

Show what you did with it: internships, research projects, publications, and measurable results. Then connect your research and writing skills to the job's requirements.

Should a history major use a resume or a CV?

Use a resume for most jobs. Use a CV for academic positions, graduate school applications, and research fellowships. See CV vs. resume.

How do I put my history thesis on my resume?

List the thesis title under your degree in the Education section. If it's directly relevant to the job, add one line on your research methods or findings.

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Build Your History Resume Today

Our Resume Builder helps you turn your research, internships, and skills into a clean, professional resume that works for museums, archives, and every career in between.