30th May 2012, 12:41 PM
Unitof1 Wrote:curators decide who digs and who doesnt. You should ask them for work.
Not a very helpful post to a student, unit, without explaining that your referring to self-employment/ lone workers/ companies etc and not individual employees.
As to experience for getting digging work.........
It takes the average digger 3-6 months (time on site) to become proficient enough in all the basics of excavation. A digger with experience on commercial sites is usually seen as better due to the different 'attitudes' and priorities between research and commercial excavation.
Diggers with 1 or more years of commercial on-site experience are usually seen as 'a good bet'
But obviously it depends on the person and their aptitude and motivation.
I've had diggers with little experience who outshone more experienced staff in raw talent and motivation...........and conversely had 'experienced' staff who needed serious re-training in the basics.
Having a car, a mobile phone and being mobile and flexible make you more 'employable' as you can fulfill a wider variety of jobs.
Sometimes, just being easily contactable wins you the job!
But overall its the word-of-mouth archaeological grapevine that will get you most jobs. Archaeologists tend to respect the views of other archaeologist that they know well as to who is a good worker.
I imagine its a different kettle of fish for jobs as a specialist, at a museum, or in a planning authority.
A masters is only really useful for training in how to do research or as a starting step to becoming a specialist.
I guess it depends on where you wanna head. Commercial digging, management, teaching, local government, academia, specialist analysis, illustration, CAD, surveying/ building recording........etc etc