Notes from the Workfront: Justin Vos (PhD 2022)

I. Tell us a bit about yourself.

I have always been fascinated with the past. Even as a little kid, anything old was just super cool to me. However, in college I also discovered that I enjoyed doing the research stuff that historians actually do. Writing my first research paper was this great experience where I got to dig into the past for myself and pull together different ideas. History became something that I could explore and not just cool facts about the past. That fascination with history led me towards the PhD program.

II. Current job & job description

I currently work as a Policy Analyst for the Florida Legislature's Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA). The office is the non-partisan research office of the legislature. As I was finishing up my dissertation, I began to look for jobs in the Tallahassee area. OPPAGA caught my attention as a way I could apply my research and writing skills.

At OPPAGA, I conduct research, analyze data, and write reports on a variety of topics. A typical day might involve conducting literature reviews, researching laws, interviewing a state agency, or working on writing up our research findings. Working at OPPAGA is a great way to learn about a variety of topics and subjects. Reports range in topic, and it is enjoyable to dig into a new research question and work to figure out how to best answer it. As someone trained in history, specifically qualitative history, in both undergraduate and graduate school, working with quantitative data was an adjustment. Also, the teamwork in conducting research and writing required me to become more organized in my research process. Unlike graduate school when it was just me and my process, I had to learn to research with others. However, both of these challenges stretched me to think in new ways and to become a more organized researcher.

III. How did the training you received in the History department help you in your current job?

The History department taught me how to write well, which has been a great asset at OPPAGA. Additionally, the Department trained me to think like a historian, giving me different insights into the research problems that OPPAGA investigates. I have learned from the more quantitative-minded researchers, and I hope they find my qualitative and historical approach to questions useful as well. OPPAGA has people from a host of academic backgrounds which makes for a well-rounded research team.

In general, in our current world that puts a lot of value on STEM and big data, historians looking for work outside of academia need to sell themselves and their skills. History (and the humanities more broadly) provides a well-rounded education that teaches one how to think critically and answer complex questions. When thinking about the job market, students need to consider how to frame these skills in a way that shows they can provide a valuable contribution to careers that don't directly apply to academic research. I think that historians (or at least myself) are trained to ask "why" which is a valuable question that can get lost when just reporting data and numbers. Historians can look beyond the numbers to ask what the data is telling us. Historians are storytellers. They can help take numbers and turn them into a story with meaning.

IV. What advice would you give to others who are interested in pursuing a similar career?

First consider your research process and second your research breadth. OPPAGA wanted to know about my research process and organization. Sometimes historians can fall into the trap of thinking that they just look at a bunch of sources and then report on them. However, it is helpful to re-frame your research in terms of what questions are you asking and how do you plan to best arrive at an answer.

Secondly, getting hired at OPPAGA required me to prove to the office that I could adapt my research skills to the office's research needs. Although my dissertation mostly focused on social and cultural history, I had to show them that I could pivot and work on other topics.

V. What advice would you give yourself – if you could go back in time?

Going back in time, I would have worked to develop my quantitative skills to balance out my experience. For those in the Department now, learn different software programs and other ways of data analysis. Doing this will help historians looking for careers outside of academia to transition more easily into other roles where our history skills are valuable but need to be complemented with other ways of thinking and analyzing information.