Get out while the going's bad?

[Bronze Elephant]

To quote a film I watched yesterday

"You talk of leaving Colonel...but tell me this. Where will you go?"

On a different note, the best morale booster I find is to learn something new. I have taught myself two languages whilst unemployed over the last few years.

[Comarch]

Don`t go away...sit tight, retune old skills, diversify and reinvigorate your passion! Your industry needs you![/QUOTE]

When anyone asks me about becoming an archaeologist I tell them that (if they are young) dig first and then specialise if you want to stay in the job. There is more chance of continuous work and opportunities for digging as and when. Opportunities for working with the public are going to increase and always refreshes motivation for doing the job. New faces and places. Training will increase as more archs want to do community work (it's there already, all be it in a limited way at the moment, through the CBA). But, as with many 'unusual' jobs, it's easier if you have the 'bank of mum & dad' or the 'bank of partner'. If you need to pay the rent tomorrow and are broke... such considerations as re-training or researching or volunteering to pass the time is not possible. That's when we lose valuable people, understandably.

[GnomeKing]

what really hurts is that less valuable people are still in jobs........
some might be known as Lick-spittle and Shyster.
others (possibly) owe more in Unpaid Tax to UK PLC than the entire turnover of the heritage sector...
There is no way out of this Malaise without challenging the 'Fundamental Reality' as presented by the Profiteers to the Public.

[Carrickavoy]

@GnomeKing the first two I can understand but considering that tax payers money was used to bail out the -ankers who caused this entire mess and the savage cuts the condems are inflicting on the public sector those archaeologists who didn't pay all their

[eb.bond]

I have had those doubts off and on since the recession of 1992. I thought then about leaving archaeology, re-training, and getting a job which would enable me to stay put and buy a house and settle down with my partner. Instead I chose to go back on the circuit, and although I have gradually built up my career, I have been working temporary contracts ever since. If I were 10 or 20 years younger, I'd re-train and get a job that allowed me to at least choose in which part of the country I want to live in. I am now living abroad, since there just aren't the jobs in Britain. It was a bad decision. Think about your priorities--is it important to you to have friends, family, a local pub where people know you (i.e. a place in a community), your own home, maybe children, a garden? Or is archaeology so rewarding that you don't mind not being able to live with your partner, moving around all the time and staying in B + Bs?

Look on the job boards for things you might like to do, and consider re-training. Say, Environmental Management or Conservation? Then you can do archaeologically related things, like work for the National Trust or in one of the National Parks. Does working for English Nature appeal? Write for prospectuses from the OU, and think about your options. You can always go back to archaeology later, but more training will broaden what you have to offer and allow you to compete with all the other unemployed archaeologists out there.

Don't despair! The next job could be just round the corner.

[Filter]

Most, if not all, archaeologists know a lot more than they give themselves credit for we are polymaths and don't you forget it! (I dont like this 'jack of all trades', sounds like your about to rip someone off for a dodgy roofing job (like the one at the Wessex office ha!)).

If you cant see your transferable skills and worth then who else will. Get other people to read your CV and get feedback, tailor CVs to specific jobs and talk yourself up!

As for leaving archaeology, that's a joke, people never really leave it! Once you get hooked you will always find ways of getting dirty again! Twas an apt description when someone likened it to heroin!

I have never found it hugely difficult to get a job outside of archaeology with bar work, labouring, driving jobs, selling crack (joking), CAD work and even some work as a GIS technician (took me totally be surprise) being accessible. Lastly, unless you are going to become some sort of academic don't, for the love, do any more education in archaeology! You can always bring more education in similar subjects 'back into' archaeology later on! (who the hell knows what someone who has a Msc in Archaeological Computing can do anyway)

[troll]

Hells teeth! Surely that roof isn`t still attached?!

[kevin wooldridge]

I think Ben that there are troubles in many other professions outside of archaeology. Forestry Comission, English Nature etc etc are all cutting back and unless there is a sudden sea change (literally) that propels environmental protection to a priority position amongst private companies, there aint much future in pursuing that route.

Fact is that most so called alternative 'jobs' out there are of the kind that were once filled by school leavers, never mind graduates except they are now filled by the upper management tier of the 'labouring' classes. I don't really see you in that kind of role...... Academic and professional achievement, not just in archaeology but across the board in many professions, is being dumbed down in the belief it will reduce costs....

[Madweasels]

Sadly, there is no 'greener grass' on the other side at the moment. Competition is fierce in other professions too. An archaeologist might have many transferable skills, which is true at entry level, but experience in a particular role wins out in these fraught and difficult days. Actually, it's been like this for quiet a few years now - hence so many people trying to gain experience through the internship/volunteer route. It is just getting so much worse.