career choice.....

[helenstonehouse]

I'm having a bit of a crisis....

I spent the summer on a two week archaeology work-camp in Spain, and probably had the best two weeks of my life. Before this I hadn't considered archaeology as a career, but now can't wait to go on another dig (probably vindolanda this summer...) I'm a Classics student in Dublin, and was wondering what the lovely people here at the BAJR forum could tell me about the feasibility of archaeology as a career, and the sort of training/experience needed, and any other advice you may have.

Thank you!

[troll]

Evening Helen and a warm welcome to the melting pot.Firstly (as its late and I`m old)-have a good scan through some of the older pages on this forum-plenty of "advice for newbies" type threads in there and, lots of opinions too.Please excuse the rampant cynicism-most negative feelings relate to commercial archaeology-not to be confused with the real thing! At this point I would say two things:
1. Volunteer-beg if you have too.If you love it, go get it
2. Visit BAJR regularly as there are lots of extremely experienced (and wholesome) characters on here that are all too willing to help!
Happy new year and please-ask away!:D:D:D

..knowledge without action is insanity and action without knowledge is vanity..(imam ghazali,ayyuhal-walad)

[Aphrodite]

A fellow classics student eh
Hope your doing well!!!
Ask your local county archaeologists they are always willin to help!
:D:D

Aphrodite
xxxxxxxxx

[muddyandcold]

Helen,

Archaeology is in my blood, but then i am over the hill and remember the 'good awld days' of the circuit, crap accomadation, wages etc but an excellant crack... To keep your lust and love for archaeology going keep it as a summer occupation (good weather, long evenings, good archaeology, wine etc) and look for another job in the heritage sector (museums, univs etc).

sorry to sound negative, but have just come off a very cold, wet site :(

[destroyer]

archaeology as a career? now theres a thought....

[eggbasket]

Career? I have always thought of it as more of a downhill slide! :D

Cheers,
Eggbasket
Gentleman Adventurer and Antique

"All human endeavour is futile"

[disheartened]

As I'm sure you've realised, there's a lot of work going on here in the emerald isle. For the moment, there's plenty of digging work available, and there's no problem with not having a primary degree in archaeology. For what it's worth, my advice is to finish your classics, then work for a year or two digging, get some experience, decide whether or not you want to do it, then go for a general MA course like the one in Queens. It's a basic introduction to archaeology designed for people whose primary degree is not archaeology. I know plenty of people who did history or classics in trinity and who are happily working in archaeology nowadays. Another option would be not to go to vindolanda for the summer, but to work with a commercial company for the couple of months. It'd be an experience, and you would get paid for it! A word of warning though, we've no classical stuff in Ireland!

[achingknees]

http://www.britarch.ac.uk/cba/factshts.html

...might be of help

[Sparky]

A word of warning though, we've no classical stuff in Ireland!

What about all that Roman stuff you keep so well hidden? ;)

[disheartened]

Ah, if I told you I'd have to kill you!

[Mtgorry147]

quote:Originally posted by Sparky

A word of warning though, we've no classical stuff in Ireland!

What about all that Roman stuff you keep so well hidden? ;)


We keep it hidden behind the Iron Age stuff (also well hidden) ;)

[DaisyIrl]

What about the roman glass urn burial in stoneyford, where's that? oh yeah they dropped it!

[deepdigger]

Bit like the roman burial from lodge hill fort, no-one knows where that is either!!

deep

[Sparky]

Should we start a new thread and keep this one for career choices?

I recommend taking a Masters after your degree though I would suggest a degree with a practical element such as pottery, bones, seeds or metals. You may find that you'll need some sort of back ground or qualification in the sciences although you might be alright, depending on how good your degree is and where you do it. It'll be much more useful on site and an already open door to a career away from site, or as a side line. Site experience will boost any specialism in archaeology so I would also recommend you get quite a bit of that too.

[deepdigger]

A masters degree is not really much help unless you are looking for a more academic career!!

deep

[Sparky]

A masters degree is not really much help unless you are looking for a more academic career!!

Thats why I recommended going for a masters with a more practical element...they offer a lot of transferable skills.

[deepdigger]

Well don't waste your money on a landscape masters!!

deep

[rachstebbs]

Bloomin' heck, I was considering that, is it really not worth it?

[Sparky]

Depends where you do it. Most of the people I know who have taken a Landscape Masters have done very well for themselves. Lots of skills to be learnt.

[disheartened]

Did you not just say go for a more practical masters? Correct me if I'm wrong, but whose Landscape Masters will actually provide practical skills as a core component and aim of the course? I'd love to know!

[Sparky]

Having not taken a landscape masters I can't really comment BUT those I know are profficient in skills such as surveying, GIS, flint, report writing skills, etc, and acadmemic stuff too. Particularly good at using landscape interpretations when recording. Well, you would have thought so.
I'd hire those guys at the drop of a hat, and have done. Well worth it.

[Sparky]

And besides, I never said anything about practical skills being a core component but a practical element.

[rachstebbs]

I'm considering a 'professional archaeology' masters, such as the one at Oxford, partly to learn skills I don't learn in my degree. Part of it is that I don't really fancy getting a job after four years of lazing about! Seriously though, if cost weren't such a big issue, I think I'd probably do a masters

[the invisible man]

You can do it over 2 years, semi-part-time. If it's the Oxford Landscape MSc you were referring to, that's properly part-time over 2 years - mostly Saturdays. I sniffed round those till I saw the fees.........[:0]

Haven't we discussed them before somehwere?

We owe the dead nothing but the truth.

[Beki]

I am in the middle of a landscape masters at sheffield and it is extremely good! The practical side is amazing, we are out almost every week learning new techniques. Just today we were doing earthwork surveys and total station surveys. we are also going to be using learning GIS in more detail and undertaking geophysical surveys.
I would thourougly recommend the course!

[geodan]

I've said this on another thread.

Think long and hard about what an MA/MSc will do for you apart from increasing your debt and delaying the inevitable. If you get funding for course fees this is less important, however you must remember that to a greater or lesser extent you will be paying for a further years study.

The type of archaeology masters undertaken will probably be an irrelevance for progressing a career in commercial archaeology if you go straight from your undergrad degree, and some archaeology masters are more irrelevant than others.

You may want to try and pursue a career in academic archaeology in which case my comments can be disregarded. However without prior fieldwork experience you will walk away from the masters course with yet another certificate and in reality you will still only be employed by a commercial organisation as a site assistant.

Also remember that some masters (osteo springs to mind) pump out large numbers of academically qualified specialists every year and there are simply not enough jobs for them.

Specific to Helens original post. Get some field experience then decide whether you really want to pursue archaeology as a career. You would also be able to make a more informed decision about whether to do a masters course suiting your specific areas of interest.

For those with archaeology undergrad degrees I'd suggest fieldwork experience then a non archaeological masters in a related discipline that gives you the option to walk away.

[SalonKitty]

Too right! Universities are out to make money just like any other business. I think this applies especially to masters programs in field archaeology/professional archaeology, where the promotional literature seems to suggest that by gaining this qualification, you'll be employed at supervisor level or above. Without experience in the field, that isn't going to happen. If you've spent thousands of pounds on a qualification which you thought would offer a quick route up the ladder in field archaeology and then you find it doesn't, I imagine you'd be pretty disaffected. Talking to as many field archaeologists about their careers and how they got there is probably the best way to formulate a life in archaeology!

[1man1desk]

From Geodan:
quote:Get some field experience then decide whether you really want to pursue archaeology as a career. You would also be able to make a more informed decision about whether to do a masters course suiting your specific areas of interest.


Good advice. But even better if you can also fit in some non-field experience (e.g. SMR work, consulting, post-ex). Many masters courses are aimed more at these 'back-room' careers than at fieldwork.

1man1desk

to let, fully furnished

[diggerhobbit]

Iv just completed an MSc is scientific methods in archaeology and i was fortunate enough to have been funded to do it. I didnt do it to help me advance my career in archaeology in terms of fieldwork, infact it wasn't especially relevant to archaeology in the field. However, in order to apply for funding from research bodies for PhD proposals etc, I was required to have completed a masters. I am glad i did it amd learnt a lot, but i doubt i would have been able to do it fulltime without funding.

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

[diggerhobbit]

Iv just completed an MSc is scientific methods in archaeology and i was fortunate enough to have been funded to do it. I didnt do it to help me advance my career in archaeology in terms of fieldwork, infact it wasn't especially relevant to archaeology in the field. However, in order to apply for funding from research bodies for PhD proposals etc, I was required to have completed a masters. I am glad i did it amd learnt a lot, but i doubt i would have been able to do it fulltime without funding.

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

[sniper]

would agree with what geodan said about osteo masters, really helps to have a fair amount of fieldwork experience as well. I only fell into my present osteo job by accident because a site I was digging on had bodies and knowing that I was an osteo as well I was asked to do the analysis. I've at least got the option of digging work if and when the osteo stuff dries up.

++ i spend my days rummaging around in dead people ++

[sniper]

would agree with what geodan said about osteo masters, really helps to have a fair amount of fieldwork experience as well. I only fell into my present osteo job by accident because a site I was digging on had bodies and knowing that I was an osteo as well I was asked to do the analysis. I've at least got the option of digging work if and when the osteo stuff dries up.

++ i spend my days rummaging around in dead people ++

[anne]

Thought I'd jump in on the original question from Rachel since I'm an ex-trinity type now working in archaeology. I came through the classic department (admittedly doing AHA rather than classics/classciv) too.

I would say that your best bet is to work for a few summers if you can as a GO to see if you really like it or not, can put up with rain etc.

I dont know if its still all the same courses that they are doing there, but it's also worth going to see terry barry in the medieval history department - he usually has a few places on sites in france and belgium during the summer, and does some medieval archaeology courses too.

i left trinity, got some experience in ireland and have ended up back in britain working for about 6 years, so it definitely can be done!

[anne]

Thought I'd jump in on the original question from Rachel since I'm an ex-trinity type now working in archaeology. I came through the classic department (admittedly doing AHA rather than classics/classciv) too.

I would say that your best bet is to work for a few summers if you can as a GO to see if you really like it or not, can put up with rain etc.

I dont know if its still all the same courses that they are doing there, but it's also worth going to see terry barry in the medieval history department - he usually has a few places on sites in france and belgium during the summer, and does some medieval archaeology courses too.

i left trinity, got some experience in ireland and have ended up back in britain working for about 6 years, so it definitely can be done!