When you came out of Uni were you ready for commercial work

[BAJR]

When I graduated I had 6 months experience of commercial work, I was lucky enough to get employed my a local unit in my holidays. Although I did balance this out with some research excavations as well.

But here I am, post graduation, and post surgery, unable to work as a digger at the moment, so the life of a bartender calls instead.

And thats admirable.. in fact, I would say, units should look at your dedication and commitment, and see that could be harnessed in other ways... which perhaps don't need so much physicality (I take it the post surgery has dampered your digging) Certainly hope that archaeology keeps people like you.

[drpeterwardle]

When I graduated there was no such thing as commercial archaeology and many graduates went straight into jobs directing excavations! (I am not saying it was a good thing)

Myself I managed to clock up nearly a years worth of digging before I graduated mostly as a paid volunteer.

Peter

[stinker pinker]

i voted "no- but it was not hard to pick up", but i don't think this really conveys the complexities of the situation. it is true that i came out of university with no experience in many of the skills that i now use in my day to day digging, however i don't think one can completely write off the benefits of an archaeology degree. whether mattocking out features in commercial archaeology or neatly trowelling back on a research dig, the underlying aims and objectives are comparable and, i believe, the ability of the excavator to adapt to different environments and modes of working are underpinned by the dry 'method and theory' style learning from uni.

where i certainly take issue with much recieved wisdom on this thread is the old "i would never take on someone straight from uni" line that gets trotted out time and time again with depressing predictability. my first commercial dig was as a temp on a small open area excavation in a team of twelve, ten of which also had no previous, under two supervisors from the company and no other core digging staff. we got the project finished on deadline even while being trained on the job. four of the team got six month contracts off the back of that project and, two years on, two are still at the company now. this is a much better success rate than we've had with many of the more experienced diggers that we've taken on in the last two years.

what unis can provide units with is a prospective workforce that have a good understanding of what archaeology is all about and the capacity for learning and thinking for themselves. it is up to the units and the individuals as to what extent this resource is exploited.

[Cautionary Tale]

Alongside most of my colleagues from university, I graduated from a course with a reasonable compulsory element of fieldwork (both research digs and work experience). I?m not (at this distance from the event) entirely sure on how much credit the ?term time? elements of the course can take for the skill set I had as opposed to the commercial experience during the summer (and all the other holidays come to that).

Having said within 6 months of graduation, only about 3 or 4 out of the year group were still within the profession (at a time when work could be obtained relatively easily) so maybe the exposure had an unintended consequence.

[Optimus Trowel]

I think that I was ready to dig, and through having friends in the industry was aware of how different it was to summer jollies with uni.

That said, it was ashock but then life's all about the challenges we go through isn't it? And 5 years later I'm glad that I did it as I'm doing a profession that I take great pride.

Yes, i still take pride in my work..though obviously only for about 10 seconds as deadlines are always pressing.

[Madweasels]

In my opinion, unit managers unwilling to train or have induction periods (often cos they want to employ on such short contract periods) are the ones promoting this idea that graduates are not fit for purpose. As others here point out, graduate archaeologists are no different from those in many other subjects in terms of having the on job skills - the difference being, though, that employers in other professions are often keener to train their staff to the levels they require (through induction periods, formal training, mentoring and acceptable probationary periods) and offer better terms of employment. In archaeology, the unit managers have removed the lower rungs of the career ladder and are expecting their prospective staff to be already a few rungs up it in terms of experience.

[srd123]

Speaking as someone 'straight out of uni' (or be it after doing post-grad research), and with more field experience than virtualy all of my undergrad 'class', I definatly don't feel confident to enter the commercial world (it's lucky there aren't any jobs at the moment eh!).

I think that I'd probably racked up around four or five months worth of field work on training, research and fieldschool digs when I graduated, problem is though, my local unit don't take on volunteers so I never had chance to do stuff at a commercial pace/level. And I fear that the people running the some of the training digs that I've done would also be fishes out of water on commercial sites. Let's face it, when someone like me is being roped in to help train undergrad students, there is little hope of them being able to hit the ground running on a commercial dig.

Anyhoo, think that any thoughts (dreams?) of entering the commercial world have finally fled my brain now. Just feel sorry for all those young 'uns coming through at the mo - luckily I got through the whole process without racking up huge debts, and can aford to continue as a 'gentleman archaeologist' for a while longer. But talking to the current undergrads, it's depressing regarding just how little many know about commercial archaeology and the prospects, pay and conditions.

Anyone need any shelves stacking?

[Cheyenne]

I seriously doubt that anyone who graduated from Manchester University would have a good solid grounding in the strategies and politics of a commercial unit. It was all airy theory and only 4 wks of compulsory practical digging. I was lucky that I did loads of volunteering when I was unemployed in the years before going back as a mature student.

[ginger]

I seriously doubt that anyone who graduated from Manchester University would have a good solid grounding in the strategies and politics of a commercial unit. It was all airy theory and only 4 wks of compulsory practical digging. I was lucky that I did loads of volunteering when I was unemployed in the years before going back as a mature student.

i know how you feel being an undergrad at Manchester myself, but i think that not all hope is lost for the Manchester students, i was employed most of last summer, in commercial archaeology as an undergrad, its not the school so much as the students! but then again with near enough 10 years volunteering experience i am a little odd as a student! I maintain that if a Student wants to leave uni as a a freshly graduated archaeologist, then they should be volunteering at every opportunity, and well most of them have cracked the pub side of archaeology and are less focussed on the digging side! in most cases they only have themselves to blame! (i really hope that didn't sound to nasty!)

[Drunky]

I maintain that if a Student wants to leave uni as a a freshly graduated archaeologist, then they should be volunteering at every opportunity, and well most of them have cracked the pub side of archaeology and are less focussed on the digging side

Last year i turned up at work to find three or four students from the local uni all excited as they where going to dig on a sweat Iron age site as part of a Cadw project. I was please to see such enthusiasm and the guy running the excavation added an extra trench because of the local and student support. By the end of the week not one student was left on site and two only last the first day. I talked to the guy running the project and he said this was very common and apart from myself 10 years ago they have never had a student which has lasted a whole excavation.

I've talked to some of the same guys in the pub and they are still sure they want to work in the field, but complained of the weather and the hard work, i've tried to explain that this is the job, but as one pointed out to me when he's got his
degree he should be able to move up to an inside job pretty quickly