5 years time.....

[the invisible man]

[QUOTE[FONT=Comic Sans MS]And while I am on my soap box - geophiz may be the current be all and end all but what's going to happen when all the satellites start to die (which I think begins in 2015) and none of the "super powers" except China have the money to put any back in the stratosphere (or where ever they sit...)?QUOTE]

Presumably you mean GPS? Geophysics does not require satellites.

[Wax]

I am waiting for the switch of the magnetic poles. A magnetic pulse on the grand scale might just trash rather a lot of things}.

[RedEarth]

This thread appears to have neatly suggested why the question 'what do you see yourself doing in 5 years time' is, for an archaeologist, only ever likely to be answered with 'trying to cling on for dear life', with two presumably quite experience people apparently saying that working for very little is OK and complaining every time your are royally shafted is whinging (unless I am very much mistaken). No, no, no. Complain every time, and to someone who can do something about it not just in the pub, and do not accept shit wages and even shitter conditions. Every time you do you are holing the boat that everyone sails in. Perhaps the question should be 'what do you see yourself doing for the rest of your career?' If the answer is 'being regularly screwed over but coming back for more' then I'm not sure what the point is.

[Wax]

The truth is there are too many archeaologist for the jobs available and too many who are desperate to be in the profession. As several people have pointed out this is the free market

In five years time I want to be mentally in good health & despite it all archeaology gives me that.

[RedEarth]

I certainly didn't mean to have a go at you Wax, and obviously everyone's personal position is different. It's a pretty poor state of affairs when this sort of thing happens, although it seems to be even more common than ever at present and I worry that we collectively will rue the day we let it happen, or at least we should.

[Wax]

A bit sensitive at the moment as until a couple of years ago I had a career in archaeology which had seen good steady progression . I could have quite happily have predicted where I saw myself in five years time in 2008. Now all has gone to pot and like many others I have absolutely no Idea where I will be. There are many with far more years under their belt than me who could not predict where they will be in two months time.

This tends to make me rather twitchy :face-crying: Though not totally despairing (yet!!!)

[RedEarth]

I suppose a more positive spin on it than being desperate to remain in the profession or loving it so much that it's difficult to imagine or stand doing something else would be the notion that you (and any number of others) have invested a large amount of time and energy getting experienced/good/competent. The latter perhaps sounds more positive than the former. If I were looking for an employee 'I'm desperate to be/to remain an archaeologist' would sound like a licence to exploit! 'I've invested the time and got lots of experience' sounds like something useful. Perhaps too many employees look for the former and the words grandmothers and eggs are probably springing to mind.

[RedEarth]

Oh and to add, 2008... the world was a different place until about September of that year!

[Wax]

I am very careful in the way I word job applications and how I talk to prospective employers. The forum is one place where I can let off a bit of steam.... . The fixed grin and cheerful approach do wear thin. I would not know how to advise any one wanting to take up archaeology part of me says go for it it's a fantastic profession. The realist says forget it if you want to earn a decent living . My peers & siblings who went into other professions are on different planet with regards to wages and life style. The contrast is very stark and is nothing to do with skills and ability. Archaeology at virtually any level does not pay.

To be positive, at least I am having fun and my job hasn't given me a nervous breakdown ( and that is a great advantage)

[P Prentice]

Thanks Vulpes...I'd have joined in earlier but have had internet meltdown this week ('Talk Talk' you are so misnamed!!).......Catching up by reading through the mails has been interesting and I don't think has moved too far from the intention of the thread.

I remember a couple years back talking to a colleague working as a project manager who was privately worried that she didn't possess the technical or scientific skills to cope with 'modern-day' archaeological practice. She was terrified having gone to the cost of funding her own PhD studies that one day soon the 'profession' would force her back to University to be 'retrained', at additional cost and with a loss of position and status. I suggested that all she need do was make sure employed staff who covered the areas where she felt she lacked expertise (surely what every sensible business does), but this only seemed to further undermine her opinion of her own abilities, because although she was very good at her job, she was 'unqualified' in the sense that she had arrived there (in her words) 'by accident' and not through a structured career path.

So I wonder if what the archaeologist in 5 years time requires is not necessarily every skill, but the chance to work and contribute to a team that collectively is capable of doing everything that the job requires. I like the suggestion that loose co-operatives might achieve this, but suspect it would require the complete meltdown of the current 'hex-ocracy' of large units to allow this to happen (if 'hex-ocracy' is what you call governance by a group of 6)

large units have large overheads and are not much interested in small jobs for small developments whereas small independents, or collectives, can provide a competative service - there is a whole other world under the corporate radar where archaeologists can earn a living