Historian

Historians (BLS SOC 19-3093) earned a median annual wage of $74,050 in May 2024 per BLS OEWS, though dedicated historian positions are concentrated in government, federal contractors, museums, and historical societies, so the title itself is a small market. The stronger near-term targets for a transitioning 3H0X1 are the adjacent roles that hire in volume and use the same core skills.

Archivist (O*NET 25-4011.00) is the closest high-volume match. BLS OEWS reports a median of $70,640 (May 2024). Archivists appraise, arrange, describe, and preserve records, which is the records-repository half of the 3H0X1 job done for a museum, university, corporation, or government agency. Curator (O*NET 25-4012.00, $71,560 median) and Librarian and Media Collections Specialist (O*NET 25-4022.00, $72,840 median) hire from the same talent pool, especially in institutions with archives or special collections.

On the writing side, Technical Writer (O*NET 27-3042.00) is the highest-paying near match at a $91,670 median, because the skill of taking messy source material and producing a clear, accurate document to a standard transfers directly. Writer and Author (O*NET 27-3043.00, $72,270 median) and editorial roles fit historians who want to keep writing as the core of the job.

Be honest with yourself about the market. Pure historian and curator jobs are competitive and often cluster around major museums, federal history offices, and research universities, so geography matters and a relocation may be part of the plan. Archivist and technical-writer roles are broader and more portable. Many of these positions value or require a master's degree (an MLIS for archivist and librarian tracks), so the GI Bill strategy in the resources section is worth reading before you apply. The Navy Mass Communication Specialist and Army 46S Public Affairs Specialist pages share several of these writing-and-records destinations. When you are ready to put it on paper, the military resume builder structures the research and writing experience for civilian reviewers, or you can build your resume now.

Federal service is the most direct landing zone for a 3H0X1, because the government runs the largest history and archives enterprise in the country and several GS series were built for this exact work. The marquee match is GS-0170 (History), the series that staffs command history offices across the Air Force, Army, Navy, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and agencies like the National Park Service. A 3H0X1 with a degree in history and documented experience writing official histories often qualifies at the GS-9 to GS-11 entry band, with GS-12 and above reachable as experience and education stack.

GS-1420 (Archivist) is the records-and-preservation track, staffing the National Archives and Records Administration, presidential libraries, and agency records programs. GS-1421 (Archives Technician) is the on-ramp version at lower grades for those still completing the degree. GS-0306 (Government Information Specialist) covers FOIA, declassification, and information-access work, where your Top Secret access history and records discipline are direct assets. GS-1082 (Writing and Editing) fits historians whose strongest civilian pitch is the writing itself, and GS-0343 (Management and Program Analyst) is the broad analytic series that values the synthesize-conflicting-sources skill on staff and program work.

Two things move a federal application for this field. First, Veterans' Preference adds 5 or 10 points to your assessed score and can be decisive in a tightly ranked archivist or history register. Second, federal history and archivist jobs are unusually credential-sensitive, so the position's qualification standard will often name a specific number of semester hours in history or archival science, read it before you apply. For the mechanics of the federal format, the OPM federal resume format guide and the USAJOBS announcement decoder are the two to read first. The federal resume builder handles the length and detail a GS-0170 or GS-1420 package needs, or you can start your federal resume.

If you are targeting a history office, archive, museum, or university, the people reading your resume already speak your language, so you do not need to translate "oral history," "primary source," or "finding aid." This section is for 3H0X1s aiming at careers OUTSIDE history and archives, where a hiring manager has never run a command history program and needs the work described in business terms.

The pattern that works: name the civilian function first, then show the scale. A history office produces deadline-bound written deliverables from scattered, sometimes contradictory inputs, under classification rules. Said in civilian language, that is research, knowledge management, and content production. The glossary in our hidden military skills guide covers the broader translation pattern, and the interview translation guide shows how to say it out loud.

A few before-and-after examples for non-history roles:

• Before: "Wrote the wing annual history from classified and unclassified source documents." After: "Authored a 120-page annual report synthesizing 40+ primary sources into a single authoritative narrative reviewed and accepted by senior leadership."
• Before: "Conducted oral-history interviews with commanders and action officers." After: "Designed and conducted 30+ structured stakeholder interviews to capture decision rationale, then coded and synthesized the findings into a reference document."
• Before: "Maintained the unit historical document repository." After: "Built and administered a searchable records repository governing the full information lifecycle from intake to retention, supporting research requests across the organization."

Once the experience is framed in civilian terms, the military resume builder keeps the formatting clean so a non-history reviewer sees the skill, not the jargon.