In this post we hear from Dr Richard Marks, a former business analyst who, having completed a PhD in 2024, now works as an independent historical researcher and author.
After a long career outside education, Richard’s experience of business and PhD research means he’s well placed to identify the broader skills History PhDs gain while designing and studying for a doctorate, and how these skills are recognised and sought by employers.
In creating and completing a PhD, you’re gaining capacity in project management, data retrieval and analysis, as well as communications with varied audiences. Such skills are central to professions beyond higher education.
Richard was one of 25 researchers who attended a recent workshop for independent historians, organised by the Society and held at the University of Warwick in May 2026.
What is the value and future application of a PhD in History?
The common response is that, as a specialist training, studying for a doctorate will prepare you for future academic research and, potentially, a career in higher education or a cognate field. Beyond this, so runs the argument, your work of identifying, defining, examining, understanding and communicating a defined research topic is of relatively limited use—especially for professions removed from history-related careers.
I’ve experienced both sides of this coin. In my opinion, claims that postgraduate history has few applications beyond HE could not be further from the truth.
A PhD graduate in history brings a huge amount that’s highly relevant to workplaces beyond higher education. It is something to be proud of and to ‘sell’ to any prospective employer. I am fortunate in having had a long career in technology, specifically business management software, before making a career switch to historical study, completing a PhD and then into academia.
I hope my observations will encourage fellow History PhDs to view their research in increasingly constructive ways, and to celebrate the skills they’ve acquired and demonstrated to complete their doctorate.
As a system engineer, I worked with many companies from diverse industrial sectors who were always in desperate search of the skills they need to run a successful company. I hope my observations here will encourage fellow History PhDs to view their research in increasingly constructive ways, and to celebrate the skills they’ve acquired and demonstrated to complete their doctorate.
The often talked about ‘skills shortage’ is something that a PhD graduate can help mitigate. Why?
Devising, researching, writing and defending a History thesis demands many attributes gained over the course of a historical education. The skills learned in a BA and MA degree are tested and honed to a very high level for a doctorate and all these qualities, even if they’re sometimes described differently, are ones valued and sought by prospective employers beyond education. What we need to do is better understand and communicate what we’re doing when we undertake a History PhD, regardless of the subject we choose.
So what do I mean?
There is more to a history PhD than ‘history’. In addition to a particular subject of study, the doctorate simultaneously demands and trains us in capacities of interest to the business sector. We should identify, communicate, and champion these skills involved in historical research and thesis writing as a process and discipline—independent of the specialist knowledge gained of one’s chosen subject.
Looking at the process of PhD study, it becomes clear what highly desirable skills are developed. The thesis requires a vast amount of highly detailed research which has to be interpreted and cross checked against other sources.
The skills which are honed allow the PhD student to see the value in the data collected and what is—and is not—relevant to the question at hand, or which may require the question to be reformulated to be more complete. The ability to assess and evaluate content is central to many careers, and specifically for roles such as business analysts, data analysts and technical development roles across industry. The level to which a PhD student develops these skills — to be able to ‘see’ what something actually means and where that might lead is key to any business.
Alongside the analysis of sources, History PhD students gain the ability, often not realised and typically undervalued, to spot trends within data which point to outliers from the norm, concentrations of occurrences, and much more. We should concentrate more on the analytical skills and not what was explored, a ‘source’ does not necessarily have to be a historical document, it could be sales results, product performance data, technical telemetry, field reports…anything is a ‘source’ to be interpreted.
Doctoral students are able not only to see the trends, outliers and more in data, but also to contextualise and interpret this content.
These skills are fundamental to roles within marketing, financial analysis, product management, technology development, and more.
Some might argue that AI can do this faster, which is true, but the PhD graduate can take this further. Doctorates typically involve the integration of a range of source materials and forms—print of many genres, visual, oral, statistical, material and so on—into a bigger picture.
Doctoral students are able not only to see the trends and outliers in data across multiple types of source material. They also learn to contextualise and interpret this content: to understand why patterns occur and what needs to be done to address or take advantage of this. Beyond academia, these skills are fundamental to roles within marketing, financial analysis, product management, technology development, and more.
In a world of ‘Big Data’ and ‘AI’ the proven ability to work with content at scale is more valuable than ever. The PhD graduate is able to engage with these tools critically and constructively, and to use them to their best advantage. Who better than a History PhD to train an AI tool? The historian knows the value of being able to frame the question to produce meaningful and accurate results which can then be critically questioned and tested and upon which businesses can rely.
A key concern with AI is its reliability with questionable or faulty results often the consequence of vague questioning and the wrong data. As Douglas Adams put it in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, ‘the problem is, you never really knew what the question was’. A History PhD is focused and extended time spent—first—finding, assembling, understanding and testing historical content, and then asking valid, insightful questions of this content from which valid and convincing conclusions may be drawn.
Creating a thesis involves planning research trips to different archives; presenting progress to your supervisor; reappraising progress against initial dates, and meeting the submission date for the thesis.
This is project management.
There’s also considerable value in the History PhD as a sustained programme of work extending over several years.
Creating a thesis involves planning research trips to different archives to get the most return on the visits; presenting progress to your supervisor, writing (and rewriting) chapters to an agreed timescale; reappraising progress against initial dates; building in contingency for when things go wrong or don’t work out (as they inevitably do, in research as in professional life); budgeting of finances; reporting back to possible funders, and meeting the submission date for the thesis.
This is project management.
To put it in terms used in business, the whole thesis is a project in its own right within which there are numerous sub-projects each with their own ‘milestones’. Some of these, such as supervision meetings, are externally imposed and have to be met; some, such as your programme of archive visits, are for you to develop.
Going further, the need to adapt the planned thesis in line with evidence as it is discovered, and the need to review and amend dates to account for unforeseeable external factors, is ‘change management’. The absence of effective change management is often a huge problem for major projects within business, resulting in work being delivered late, evolving into something unintended (scope creep) and often over budget. A PhD graduate has spent three to six years controlling all of these elements to produce the final thesis to an agreed timetable and scale. In business terms this is the ‘deliverable’.
Finally, there’s the specific form that a completed History PhD will take.
Along with the wider humanities, the History thesis is principally an exercise in pitching an idea, making and refining the case for this hypothesis, and seeking to persuade others of its merits. Much of this will be via writing in chapter-length formats of 10-12,000 words, which often equate to a business case or report in professional environments.
But the History doctorate also requires shorter formats: executive summaries (thesis abstracts) and overviews (introductions / conclusions), as well as non-text-based communications, including conference posters and panels, seminars, supervision discussions, and the final thesis defence.
Here, you are adapting your work to appeal to a range of audiences who have varying degrees of knowledge of, or time for, your project. One of the key strengths developed from all of this is the ability to quickly summarise and articulate the concepts of the thesis, in the business world this is an ‘elevator pitch’.
The PhD also brings you into dialogue, collaboration, and sometimes dispute with others, and we learn to respond to these encounters for the good of our project.
Once again, these are daily features of business and professional life more broadly.
In such contexts, History PhDs also learn how to receive new information, alternative perspectives and criticism. As a personal—often solitary—undertaking, the PhD builds skills in project design and independent working. At the same time, it also brings you into dialogue, collaboration, and sometimes dispute, with others. In each case, we learn to respond to these encounters for the good of our project. Once again, these are daily features of business and professional life more broadly.
When studying for a History PhD, students develop skills that are of huge value to the business world. We should better appreciate this and be keen to identify and communicate these attributes when applying for roles outside of higher education. Framing an application and CV that draws on your PhD experience, and makes this meaningful to a non-academic audience, will be advantageous. What you have learned and developed is a powerful ‘skillset’.
Don’t sell yourself short, you have a lot to offer the business world.
About the author
Dr Richard Marks is the historian behind Industry Past—a Berkshire, UK-based economic historian, lecturer, consultant, author, and speaker with a passion for Britain’s industrial heritage. His research spans manufacturing, the Industrial Revolution, railways, and military history.
Richard earned his BA and MA in History through the Open University while working full-time, and completed his PhD in 2024 at the University of Reading. His thesis examines the impact of railways on industrial development in rural counties during the 19th century, and this forms the basis of The Influence of Railways on Economic Change published by Routledge.
Richard’s previous career as a systems engineer for a global software company working with manufacturing companies informs his unique perspective on economic and business history. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2026.
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