19th July 2013, 01:11 PM
If your looking to break into commercial digging, remember many units use pools of staff first and only advertise if they need more. To get into these pools you need to:
a) send your cv to all units you would work with
b) get a positive reputation as a good/keen digger/ person..........never underestimate word of mouth. Archaeology is a small world.
c) get to know the right people
To gain experience to be competitive in the jobs market you either need to find a random break....for instance meet the right person in the right pub/ party at the right time.
Or do time on one of the long running research/ training digs. The people running these digs have contacts to those hiring for comercial projects, sometimes they are the same people.
Some companies use big training digs as sources to trawl for diggers.
The leap from training dig to commercial dig can be as simple as two project officers sitting in a pub. One says to the other...
'Hey I got a big road scheme coming up and need some good diggers. You had anyone up for it on your training dig.'
So for instance, depending on where you are based, there are circles of people that hang out in certain pubs that know people running training digs and/or hiring for companies. It is an advantage for a digger to be in these circles and/or hang out in these pubs as archaeologists....
a) like to drink
b) like to talk about work
c) like to gossip
So sitting round a table in the right pub you could here about upcoming big projects, be in the right place at the right time etc etc.
Unfortunately I'm too old and stay-at-homeish to know where these pubs are now...........In my day up north-east, they used to be the vic, the shakespear and sometimes the elm tree and the old dun cow in Durham....and I think wasn't it the Hotspur or some pub near in Newcastle? And various pubs in York like the swan, the black swan the three-legged mare, the maltings, the achorne etc....Basically its usually a pub near an archaeology department or unit offices. Can't remember the Pub near the Oxford unit....
Oh and no, I don't have shares in any of these pubs!
a) send your cv to all units you would work with
b) get a positive reputation as a good/keen digger/ person..........never underestimate word of mouth. Archaeology is a small world.
c) get to know the right people
To gain experience to be competitive in the jobs market you either need to find a random break....for instance meet the right person in the right pub/ party at the right time.
Or do time on one of the long running research/ training digs. The people running these digs have contacts to those hiring for comercial projects, sometimes they are the same people.
Some companies use big training digs as sources to trawl for diggers.
The leap from training dig to commercial dig can be as simple as two project officers sitting in a pub. One says to the other...
'Hey I got a big road scheme coming up and need some good diggers. You had anyone up for it on your training dig.'
So for instance, depending on where you are based, there are circles of people that hang out in certain pubs that know people running training digs and/or hiring for companies. It is an advantage for a digger to be in these circles and/or hang out in these pubs as archaeologists....
a) like to drink
b) like to talk about work
c) like to gossip
So sitting round a table in the right pub you could here about upcoming big projects, be in the right place at the right time etc etc.
Unfortunately I'm too old and stay-at-homeish to know where these pubs are now...........In my day up north-east, they used to be the vic, the shakespear and sometimes the elm tree and the old dun cow in Durham....and I think wasn't it the Hotspur or some pub near in Newcastle? And various pubs in York like the swan, the black swan the three-legged mare, the maltings, the achorne etc....Basically its usually a pub near an archaeology department or unit offices. Can't remember the Pub near the Oxford unit....
Oh and no, I don't have shares in any of these pubs!