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Career

Archivists

Typical education: Master's degreeLower pressure

What they do

Appraise, edit, and direct safekeeping of permanent records and historically valuable documents. Participate in research activities based on archival materials.

Kinds of work

  • Conventional: Organizing information, following clear procedures and working with data and details.
  • Investigative: Science, research, figuring out how things work and solving complex problems.

Lower pressure: How much pressure workers in this job report: deadlines, conflict, dealing with upset people, the cost of mistakes, responsibility for others' safety, competition and long hours. It varies a lot from one employer to the next. Source: U.S. Department of Labor worker surveys.

Pay, tasks and more

Salary

United States $64,550 Median per year · $31.03/hr Most earn $39,970–$110,550

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025.

What you might do

  • Direct activities of workers who assist in arranging, cataloguing, exhibiting, and maintaining collections of valuable materials.
  • Provide reference services and assistance for users needing archival materials.
  • Preserve records, documents, and objects, copying records to film, videotape, audiotape, disk, or computer formats as necessary.
  • Select and edit documents for publication and display, applying knowledge of subject, literary expression, and presentation techniques.
  • Locate new materials and direct their acquisition and display.
  • Organize archival records and develop classification systems to facilitate access to archival materials.

Job outlook

United States
3% more jobs by 2035, about as fast as average · about 1,100 openings a year

Openings include new jobs and jobs left by workers who retire or change careers. Projections: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Bright Outlook": U.S. Department of Labor.

Where they work

  • Colleges, universities, and professional schools16.6%
  • Museums, historical sites, and similar institutions11.9%
  • Local government, excluding education and hospitals8.6%
  • State government, excluding education and hospitals8.6%
  • Self-employed (their own business)7.1%

Share of all workers in this career. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Employment Matrix.

Experience before this job: 1 to 2 years

Career path

How people usually get into this career, from school to their first job and beyond.

Typical education: Master's degreeExperience before this job: 1 to 2 years

Archivist is not usually an entry-level job. Most people earn a bachelor's degree, then a master's degree, and often work 1 to 2 years in a related role first, so the full path is often 7 or more years after high school.

  1. Bachelor's degree in history or a related field

    4 years

    Build strong research, writing, and critical-thinking skills while learning how historical records are used and understood.

  2. Archives Assistant

    1-2 years

    Work in a library, historical society, or archive handling, organizing, and describing collections, which gives you hands-on experience with real records.

  3. Master's degree in library science or archival studies

    2 years

    Study appraisal, preservation, cataloging, and access to records, which is the training most archivist jobs expect.

  4. Archivist

    Ongoing career

    Appraise, edit, and care for permanent records and historical documents, and support researchers who use the collections.

Where it can lead

  1. Curator

    4-6 years of experience first

    Curators plan exhibits, decide what a collection should hold, and manage budgets and staff, which builds on an archivist's knowledge of collections.

  2. Senior Archivist

    Several years as an archivist of experience first

    Senior archivists lead projects, supervise other staff, and set policies for how records are kept and shared; moving up usually takes years of experience and a strong record of projects.

What you can do now

Ideas for high school and college students.

In high school

  • Take history, English, and writing classesThese build the research and writing skills archivists use to describe records and help people find them.
  • Volunteer at a library or historical societyHelping sort, label, or copy old documents shows you whether you enjoy working with historical materials.
  • Join the school newspaper, yearbook, or history clubThese groups teach you to research, organize information, and meet deadlines, all of which matter in archival work.
  • Get a part-time job at a library or a school officeFiling, organizing, and helping people find information are close to the daily tasks of an archivist.
  • Build basic computer skillsLearning spreadsheets and simple databases prepares you for how archives track and search collections.

In college

  • Major in history, or take many history and humanities coursesStrong subject knowledge and research methods are the foundation that master's programs in archival studies expect.
  • Work or intern at a university archive or special collectionsHands-on work with real collections is the experience that makes you competitive for archives assistant jobs.
  • Take courses in writing, information management, or computer scienceSkills in organizing information and working with digital files are increasingly important in archives.
  • Join a history or museum student clubClubs offer networking, speaker events, and chances to plan projects that show leadership.
  • Work a campus library jobShelving, cataloging help, and assisting researchers build practical experience in how information is organized and accessed.

Tips for getting started

  • Volunteer at a local historical society, library, or county records office to see what archival work involves day to day and to build experience that employers look for.
  • Learn basic digital skills such as spreadsheets, databases, and scanning, since many archives now hold digital records as well as paper ones.
  • Pay attention to the master's programs you may apply to later: many ask for a bachelor's degree in any field, so a strong history or English record helps.

Related jobs a step up

Education, experience and related careers: U.S. Department of Labor. The step-by-step path, where it can lead and what you can do now were written by AI as typical examples; many people take other ways.

College majors that lead here

Majors: U.S. Department of Education and BLS (CIP–SOC crosswalk). Earnings and debt: College Scorecard, typical across U.S. colleges.

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