In a rare quiet moment I picked up and flicked through my copy of the Current Archaeology handbook. I came across the following advice on a career in archaeology...
" If say by the age of 25 you have not made it - you are not yet a site supervisor and almost ready to become a project manager - you should consider getting out, getting a qualification, becoming a lawyer or an accountant or a computer expert" (Page 33)
Does anyone else find this advice slightly disturbing. If everyone bailed out if they hadn't made it to supervisor by 25 then we'd be in trouble. The best kind of supervisor is one that knows what they're talking about and has experience. We all want career structure and progression, but trying to rush through the ranks is not going to help anyone or serve the archaeology.
At 26 I don't think I'll be hanging up my trowel just yet! [8D]
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I was actually just reading that tonight as well! I am 25 and graduated at 23. I went back to uni this year after a year and a half of solid digging. I know many of my classmates from uni who are still digging and a couple have made it to supervisor, but ......... the best people I worked under were those who didn't feel that they had to prove themselves and weren't too scared to admit that they didn't know the answer which some of the younger supervisors are prone to doing.......
Lucy
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I?ve lost my copy of this so I can?t check it for what it said exactly but I remember having similar feelings. It seemed to give the impression that site work was something that should be got over with as quickly as possible before you settled into a desk job and became a ?proper? archaeologist.
I don?t know whether anyone else thinks this but I have always detected a faint hint of snobbishness from the editors of Current Archaeology about professional archaeologists. Almost as though wanting to get paid for digging is not quite the done thing and that we should return to the old days of doing it all with students and volunteers. Still, perhaps its just me.
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its online at their website. I read it ages ago when I was an undergraduate, and it didn't fill me with confidence! I was just bored the other night and flicking through my extensive bookmarks and came across it again and I thought it was a bit out of date really! Yeah all the good well paid jobs might well be in the university sector but how often does that happen? As a digger I've worked for a unversity excavation unit, but even they have to lay off staff periodically as they are strapped for cash. I'm not personally out for serious money but I would like to be able to live in the one place for longer than six months!
Lucy
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Just remember who rights that stuff.
Nuff said.
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Call my naive, but would you like to expand on that??
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Maybe 25 is a bit early, perhaps 28-30 would be nearer the mark. If you want to 'make it' then if you aren't a supervisor by that age I think you may have a problem as you'll have a new generation beneath you of graduate diggers with 3 yrs experience under their belts, all eager for their chance.
I'm in that zone now and have recently managed to move up,and feel it was about the right time to do so - if I hadn't I think my career/personal development would have just stagnated. In any case I think personal circumstances/reasons would have forced me out of the profession by 30 unless I reached a half decent wage.
Of course that statement in CA assumes that we all want to be supervisors and Po's and whatnot. I know several diggers who are quite happy with no responsibility on site and one supervisor who is still quite resentful about being promoted from the ranks as he has to faff around filling in paperwork instead of finding treasure.
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Quote:quote:Originally posted by dippyd
Call my naive, but would you like to expand on that??
Let's just say that the author has firm views on archaeological matters.
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Quote:quote:Originally posted by the invisible man
Quote:quote:Originally posted by dippyd
Call my naive, but would you like to expand on that??
Let's just say that the author has firm views on archaeological matters.
Indeed. Rereading the piece again the word dinosaur springs to mind:face-confused:
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So heres a challange.....
BAJR is currently writing a series of Guides in conjunction with other people ... including Building Recording (half way through) Field Survey (just started) Human Remains (completed with Ossafleelance) Health and Safety (with Kevin greene) Risk Assesment (with East Lothian Council) etc etc.........
So would anyone like to come up with a NEW and Exciting verion of Archaeoogy Careers Advice??
I have been asked by several education institutions to provide a document. My concept is Getting Started - From Digger to Director - Changing Career.
Pplease get in contact if you feel you want your views read by thousands of archaeologists of the next few years??
