BGHS.NEWS

Career paths: Insights from BGHS alumni into fields of work in the cultural sector

Non-academic fields offer excellent career opportunities for historians with a PhD. This was once again made clear at the BGHS event “Career Paths – Insights from BGHS alumni into the cultural sector”, which took place online at the end of April. Four BGHS alumni spoke about their varied professional roles in museums, memorial sites, archives and libraries, how they came to hold their positions, and the high quality of life their jobs afford them.

Culture – a broad field

Working in the cultural sector not only offers a wide range of employment opportunities, but the jobs themselves are also extremely varied and diverse. Collaboration plays an important role, as displayed by the types of organisations in which the alumni work.

Christiane Heß works at the Hamburg Memorials and Learning Centres Foundation and is responsible for events and educational outreach at the Fuhlsbüttel and Poppenbüttel memorials and the Stadthaus historical site. This means she develops educational programmes for young people and adults, for example on topics such as police history and persecution under National Socialism. Recently, however, she has been primarily involved in the development of the Stadthaus historical site, dealing with matters such as construction supervision and curating an exhibition. As a result, her responsibilities have expanded significantly.

Things are quite different at the Leipzig State Archive, a department of the Saxon State Archive. Torben Möbius is responsible for the formation of the archive collection, which means he decides which documents are historically significant enough to be archived for the long term. In doing so, he advises government bodies, such as police authorities based in the Leipzig region, on records management, whilst also ensuring the transfer of documents to the archive. Furthermore, he responds to enquiries from archive users, is responsible for editing a blog on practical and academic archival topics, and handles press relations in general.

As Head of the Secretariat of the German Digital Library Competence Network at the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in Berlin, Martin Breuer’s role is primarily one of coordination. He is responsible for financial management, reporting to the governing bodies, networking with other cultural institutions and sites of the German Digital Library, and press relations. In addition, he secures external funding. And, of course, managing the office with a team of ten staff is a task that should not be underestimated.

Christian Möller is Deputy Chairperson of the Bielefeld Historical Museum. He curates the museum’s exhibitions and special displays, and in this capacity also has opportunities to conduct research, focusing in particular on the regional history. He is also responsible for public relations and outreach work. This means he establishes contacts in Bielefeld, for example with the Jewish Community or the Historical Society, with whom events are then organised, and implements collaborative projects. As deputy director, he also takes on tasks within the internal organisation, most recently the sustainability certification process.

Career paths – of goals and detours

The career paths of the four alumni have not been straightforward; rather, they have all taken one detour or another.

Martin, for example, was employed as an academic co-worker on a collaborative project during his PhD and also as a postdoc, where he took on coordination tasks. After that, he continued to work in fixed-term roles: as a project manager on a fixed-term project for the German Digital Library, as a cover for parental leave, and in research management. The experience he gained in these roles ultimately recommended him for his current position. But none of this was planned.

The Wehrmacht Exhibition, which caused a major socio-political stir in Germany from 1995 onwards, sparked Christiane’s interest in the politics of remembrance and led to her becoming an activist. She had already worked as a student assistant at the foundation, which was then still called the Neuengamme Memorial, and later wrote her doctoral thesis on the Ravensbrück and Neuengamme concentration camps. She has thus been in regular contact with the memorial sites, as a researcher, curator and in educational work. After completing her PhD, however, she initially spent four years working in the field of public history at the University of Lüneburg, where she also prepared a postdoctoral project. But when her current post was advertised, she seized the opportunity, even though it was not a research post but an educational one, which pays slightly less. “That’s a reality in museums that you have to come to terms with,” she says. But the post is permanent and therefore easier to balance with family life.

Christian, too, initially held a position as a research associate at the University of Düsseldorf, where he was working on a postdoctoral project. Then his contract came to an end and his second child was born, making it clear that the fixed-term contracts typical of university life were no longer an option. Two options then presented themselves: on the one hand, he had successfully taken part in an assessment process for junior managers at the Federal Employment Agency and could have started there. On the other hand, the North Rhine-Westphalia State Parliament in Düsseldorf was establishing a new museum, the “Haus der Geschichte”, and was looking for a member of staff. Christian also applied for this position successfully and accepted the role, which marked his entry into the museum sector and, as he puts it, “opened the door to the position in Bielefeld”.

Unlike the other three, Torben decided early on after completing his PhD that he wanted to leave academia. Nevertheless, he continued to work temporarily as a research associate in the SFB “Practices of Comparison” and used this time to reorient himself. During his research, he spent a great deal of time in the archives and specifically chose this career path. He first undertook a lengthy internship at the Regional Church Archive in Bielefeld to find out “whether this might be something for me”, as he puts it. He then followed the structured route and completed a two-year trainee programme, which comprised an eight-month placement at the training archive and 14 months at the Archive School in Marburg. With this training, you can apply for senior civil service posts, which are usually permanent and well-paid.

Satisfaction and quality of life

The four alumni are very satisfied with their situation and agree that their jobs offer them a higher quality of life than would have been expected in academia. This is partly because they all have children and families and were no longer willing or able to put up with fixed-term contracts or the commute. But they also really enjoy the fact that work and leisure time are clearly separated. “It’s satisfying when you work through a whole pile of work during the week and then say on Friday: ‘It’s midday now, I’m finishing for the day and the weekend’s here,’” says Christian. Torben agrees: “There’s a time clock. When I close the office door here or shut my laptop at home, I’ve got free time.” Martin shows a slight ambivalence when he says: “I do have to deal with things I don’t find particularly exciting, but it’s a job that offers quality of life,” for instance when he can ‘work off’ overtime. The others also mention certain structural problems, such as funding cuts and dilapidated buildings, though these affect all public institutions. Christiane also talks about problems arising from the collaboration between volunteers, freelancers and permanent staff. She describes this as a hierarchical structure that she would prefer to see organised differently “in a perfect world”. “But overall, I work in a field that is extremely meaningful and simply absolutely vital,” she says. And even though she would like to have more time for research, she is very satisfied on the whole.

Some advice – not just for the cultural sector

Martin points out that there are pleasant differences between academic research and non-academic professional fields. In academia, for instance, a PhD is often not held in high regard, which can sometimes make one doubt one’s own abilities. Outside academia, however, this is often quite different, where a PhD is seen as an accolade. He believes it is important to present yourself with confidence in job interviews and in the workplace itself, as you do acquire a great deal during your PhD: a broad background knowledge of historical and political contexts, as well as the ability to quickly familiarise yourself with other contexts and distinguish the important from the unimportant.

Christian advises having the courage to be open-minded. He believes you need a “dream” of what you want to do – but also the willingness to deviate from it. He says: “It was a huge relief for me that I applied to the Federal Employment Agency, went through the assessment centre and got the offer.” The job interviews that followed were relaxed, as he had another option.

Torben recommends thinking carefully about what you want to do after your PhD and deciding soon, so that “there isn’t a long period of dithering”. But you also need to be patient with yourself. “When it comes to applications, you need a free shot where you can practise first, where things might also go pear-shaped. You mustn’t let that discourage you.”

And Christiane advises gaining experience on a small scale first, i.e. practising on small projects, for example as part of your PhD, through internships or by getting involved locally. In doing so, you get to know different people and perspectives. First of all, you need to get a taste of the field, understand it and see if you feel comfortable with it.

It was another stimulating and inspiring event, where we learnt a lot of new things and were convinced that non-academic career paths offer many exciting opportunities to find a fulfilling (professional) life.