13th March 2007, 03:50 PM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by troll I don`t quite understand why this particular advert is coming in for such a grilling even before the project starts....should`nt we wait until the field staff have an informed opinion before eating the company alive? ....Give the firm the benefit of the doubt I say! I do agree with Mr Wooldridge that it would be an excellent idea to have some form of guide (BAJR) on working abroad...contributions from all please!
Apologies if anyone misunderstood my contributions regarding the Irish jobs. I was not intending to be in any way critical of the company involved (infact I could just about love any employer in archaeology paying good money to loads of people), but merely trying to find out whether it was easy for a newcomer to start work in Ireland.
On Troll's other point. When I spoke about BAJR and other generalities at Cambridge University last month, I was asked if BAJR could give more information on working abroad (although to be strictly accurate, the context of the question was whether BAJR could provide advice for US archaeologists wishing to work in the UK).
I have considered whether it is feasible to write a guide to working abroad in archaeology and decided it is nigh on impossible for three main reasons.
Reason 1: no two individuals can ever have precisly the same criteria when it comes to deciding whether you qualify to work in nay country. Even within the EU or EEA, different countries have different rules for nationals of other states and in different professiona areas (try for example as a UK national, discussing the Schengen-rules with a Norwegian immigration officer).
Reason 2: Immigration and work control regulations are liable to short-notice changes and often individual interpretation, making the likelihood that any guide will quickly be out of date.
Reason 3: For some strange reason, qualifications in archaeology do not seem to travel well across borders and some countries seem to require archaeologists to be licenced, qualified and/or 'locally registered' irrespective of their competence, experience and qualifications from other countries. (BAJR-ites may have noticed a spate of recent UK archaeology job adverts for example, which ask foreign nationals to have 6 months experience of UK contract archaeology. How you gain that experience without working in the UK isn't addressed....)
However, there seems to be a way forward. Google, for example, 'Working in Ireland' and it brings up a host of web sites, some official and some more on the lines of Lonely Planet advice. I wonder if the answer to working abroad in archaeology advice isn't just to collate a list of useful web addresses perhaps attached to a general intro to the archaeological employment scene in individual countries.
In which case I would be happy to be counted in as collator of a guide to working in Scandinavia. Any idea where to put this guidance, Troll?