The public history Career Field Assessment report: a model paper

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The public history Career Field Assessment
reporta model paper

• By Rachel Coleman

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Components of the Career Field Assessment Paper
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• Definition of career area and its rational. A
  brief account of its history or evolution as a
  profession.

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• How is this career area related to history or how
  does it make use of history? Is the material with
  which it works in itself historical? Does it
  utilize historical information for perspectives
  on contemporary problems? How does the position
  utilize skills which are typically associated
  with the study of history?

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• Cite several organizations (including in your
  endnotes their postal, Internet, e-mail
  addresses) where one can find more information
  regarding career opportunities, or for
  literature, professional guidelines, etc. Contact
  one or two of these for such material and briefly
  discuss how useful you found the information they
  provided.

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• Cite several periodicals, newsletters, or
  newspapers which provide articles about the
  career field, its activities, the training
  required, positions available, problems
  confronting practitioners, new areas of activity,
  etc. Note that a scholarly journal like the
  American Archivist and a newsletter like the
  Society of American Archivists Newsletter serve
  very different purposes a periodical like
  Preservation News provides yet another. Ideally
  you will find a variety of serial publications
  relating to your selected career field. Note
  this may require doing research off-campus at
  other libraries and relevant sites (e.g., IUPUIs
  library in Indianapolis).

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• Cite interviews or correspondence exchanges you
  have conducted with a minimum of two working
  professionals or visits you have made to
  conferences, workshops, organization offices,
  related to your selected career field. Field
  trips as part of this course or personal
  conversations with any of our guest presenters
  may count for one of these. Such contacts or
  visits provide a unparalleled opportunity for
  asking questions about the career field and
  discovering its many technical aspects, while
  laying the groundwork of your own career network.
  However, you should wait to conduct these
  interviews or additional site visits until you
  have completed your own thorough research on the
  career field.

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• Outline the training that is required and/or
  desired for entry into your career. What
  technical knowledge (of specialized equipment,
  language, procedures, laws) should a candidate be
  familiar with? Identify the skills (writing,
  research, quantitative, analytical, scientific)
  are needed for the work? Are any specific
  sub-fields of history particularly important?

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• Articulate the problems and issues pertaining to
  your career area that are of concern or interest
  to historians as historians (e.g., objectivity,
  authenticity, elitism vs. popular appeal,
  relationship to current trends in academic
  history, public access, lack of financial
  support, lack of public awareness or
  appreciation). Define the ways a person holding
  this job must confront and address multicultural
  (i.e., gender, racial/ethnic, class, age,
  disability) issues.

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• Identify some key working documents in your
  career area where these are most appropriate
  e.g., for records management, historic
  preservation either laws and regulations or
  forms which are used on the job. Or for fields
  such as corporate history, policy analysis,
  public relations, editing, documentary media
  development, and technical writing, give samples
  of written work showing research, analysis, and
  style of presentation.

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• Assess the current career opportunities in this
  area. Distinguish between prospects in the public
  and private sectors. Characterize the potential
  for job security and advancement within the field
  as well as to related but external fields. A key
  resources for this item is the U.S. G.P.O.
  publication Occupational Outlook Handbook,
  available on-line at lthttp//www.bls.gov/oco/

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Requirements

• Selected appropriate public history job category
• Formal job description types of skills needed
  required education and training types of
  agencies that employ such people
• Definition of career area and its rationale its
  history or evolution as a profession
• How is the career area related to or use history
  historical materials, historical information on
  contemporary problems, historical skills?
• Identified and cited professional organization(s)
  serving career field
• Identified and described professional journal(s)
  serving career field
• Minimum of two oral or written interviews with
  working professionals or visits / field trips to
  career site
• Current professional concerns pertinent to career
  field how must practitioners address
  multicultural issues?
• Identified and discussed key working documents
  for field
• Current career opportunities in both public and
  private sectors potential for job security and
  advancement within and outside field
• Minimum (and maximum) of ten pages in length (not
  including endnotes, bibliography, or appendices)
• Required style format used

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Sample Career Field Assessment Paper
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A Couple of Tips

• Dont forget to look at the Career Center Website
  for helpful links.
• Dont forget to use the Occupational Outlook
  Handbook, OR AT LEAST MAKE I CLEAR THAT YOU
  LOOKED.
• Prospects of the field you may have to turn to
  anecdotal evidence depending on the field, but
  use that as a last resort.
• MAKE SURE TO COVER EVERY PART OF THE PAPERS
  REQUIREMENTS.

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The End