What's a good career choice for someone who loves research?

Question

I like to research things,especially historical figures,events or places and spend alot of time in the archives etc.What would be a good career choice for someone who enjoys research?

Answer 1

I'll second the answer of university professor.

With some qualification: It will take you a long, long time to get there.

You'll need to get a PhD to be hired by most any university, unless you want to teach at the community college level. So you'll have about four years of undergraduate study to get a bachelors degree, and then five *minimum* for the PhD. It's often more in the humanities, and if you were to go for history you're almost certainly looking at six to eight. I've known people who have taken nine or ten years. So ten to twelve years of higher education, assuming you go straight for college to graduate school (and don't have to get a terminable Masters degree first).

Getting into a good PhD program in the humanities is usually pretty difficult. You'll need an excellent undergraduate record, preferably from a good university. Many PhD programs accept only 5-8 people per year (I'm thinking of History here, though most areas you would be interested in will be similar), sometimes out of 200-300 applicants, many of whom are often pretty good themselves.

And you want to get into a good PhD program. The good news, if you do, is that almost all good humanities programs give you fellowship support that will pay your tuition and give you a little money to live off of. You won't live well, but you won't need an outside job. The bad news - the not-so-good programs do not always guarantee support, meaning you might not get any and either have to work or take out loans to live off of. (If you aren't able to get into a good PhD program right away, you might take a year or two to get a Masters and then reapply. You might not get any financial support for the Masters, but if you do well it will help you a lot when you reapply for good PhD programs.)

All that being said - if you really love research and find yourself enjoying the research you do as an undergraduate, it is certainly worth it. Good luck:)

Answer 2

I think an obvious choice would be a librarian. There is diversity in this career... most all of them involving research at some level. You could work in an academic (college), public or school environment. Law firms hire librarians to do research, as do museums, hospitals and big corporations. Being a librarian is much more than helping people find books and can be a very rewarding research-oriented profession.

Answer 3

I'd offer up law as an option. Many lawyers are not trial lawyers and spend their time peeking through dusty books to prepare cases and precedents for the lawyers who will present them. It would take four years of undergrad and three years of law school, but on the plus side, you'd make waaaaaaaaay more than I do.

Answer 4

A girl I know became a researcher for an arts show on television. You could try that, applying to radio or tv, and picking interesting programmes to research for.

Answer 5

Paralegal - document research

Archeologist, museum curator, surveyor, journalist (someone has to check all those facts before they are published - right?), librarian, history teacher.

The choices are pretty endless as most jobs want someone doing some kind of research.

Answer 6

A university professor. They are hired for their research and papers/ books they have written; not their teaching abilities....AND they are paid well.