PhD options

[cwmbrancity]

Hello and apologies in advance if this comes across as a slightly meandering post,
relatively new here, although been monitoring the Jobs page for yonks.

My question relates to the thread title, ie: pursuing a PhD in archaeology in the UK and how that may play out with regards to the job market. I have a 2:1 in archaeology and a high pass MA/The European Neolithic (2007). Unfortunately, and despite my best efforts looking for relatively local voluntary routes, I haven't earned a single penny from either of my degrees.

Not long after i graduated with my masters, i spent some time in the US with a UK-based software company that i'd been working for to pay for all my fees and subsequently volunteered at the Smithsonian Institute, but since arriving back home in late 2009 i've now been scraping by via unskilled work.

I was originally intending to pursue a PhD on the coastal archaeology of early-Neolithic Jutland and had an unconditional offer from Cardiff University, but after some sketchy advice from supervisors and with a very heavy heart, i decided not to take up the offer. Having had a LOT of time to think through the scope of a new study.

Great, u might think, and?

After repeatedly trying to gain a foothold in the archaeology jobs market and after repeatedly trying (and failing) for work in museums across the UK, is this thesis even worth pursuing? The fees will not be inconsiderable and i'm not getting any younger. Granted, if u try and give something your very best efforts u should create your own opportunities and luck, BUT, given how pointless my previous academic efforts have worked out i feel very very weary of the possible outcomes.

Bit of a pointless exercise starting a thread, i know, but hopefully some semblance of feedback might help in what has been a very trying period.

[GPStone]

So, where are you ultimately trying to get to in your career?

If you're looking to climb onto an academic path then going for the PhD is obviously pretty much a necessity. If you're looking to enter the commercial world, you'll have to think about what you can do with it - there isn't really a commercial specialism in Neolithic regional studies but you could try and focus in on a consultancy or editorial aspect through transferable skills I suppose, although that is fairly infeasible at the moment considering the number of experienced and skilled archaeologists from all levels looking for work at the moment.

That said, the reality is that if you don't have the commercial grounding to begin with, the PhD probably won't get you into commercial archaeology (as far as I've ever been able to tell, anyway). It may well help you develop skills and knowledge which will become useful as you move on through the profession but the only way in for the majority of people has been through site-work, transience and short-term contracts and a lot of hard graft in the field.

Does that help at all or am I completely off-track?

[the invisible man]

GPStone speaks the truth. Certainly do your PhD if you can afford it (or get the funding, ha ha ha) and if that's what you want to do for interest, research and fulfilment (I'd love to do the same). If you can self-fund you will always be offered a place, it's all about the fees, but it is not a ticket to employment. Obviously the academic sector is also shrinking, as they say. Gloom and despondency abounds, I'm afraid!

It's usually considered best not to bandy your titles about, by the way - the academic world is ruthless and someone may nick it!

[Odinn]

Like the others have written, do the PhD if you are interested enough to pursue it anyway or you wish to try to move into an academic career path. If all you want is commercial archaeology work then it will not be of any great help.

One thing that has not been mentioned is that the contacts you make while doing your PhD could be as important as the PhD itself. You may be able to barter those into a job. Also, the university should have a careers team who may be able to help you with getting work placement. I know that there are a lot of internships advertised for students and that many of those are museum or archive placements. That could help with getting work in the future. It's not just about the PhD but also about everything else that the university may be able to give you for the hefty wedge of cash you pay them. Also, the skill of scavenging free food at seminars/presentations will stand you in good stead for the future too. Scavenging free food is always a useful skill.

[Unitof1]

[SIZE=3]"A Prehistory Of The Black Mountains, SE Wales - Practice, Liminality & Materiality".
[/SIZE]

Could turn the title into the more definitive The Prehistory of …and although prehistory is a pretty vague term the The might give you a challenging authority over its application to the Black mountains area which might give you some first in line for a job in that area kudos if one pertaining to prehistory comes up there. Along similar lines, not sure that SE Wales should be a part of the title particularly following the use of prehistory, is it a bit pre-emptive?/restrictive. You could try The prehistory of the Black Mountains, Europe.. or the northern hemisphere and although you might want to check that there are no other black mountains in Europe or the northern hemisphere this ambiguity might be of use in a broader than the Black mountain jobs market. It also suggests that the phd might also have considered, comparatively, the prehistory in the what is not defined area. The problem with the use of SE Wales is that automatically the person who will only ever read the title but might give you a job thinks –What as opposed to NW, or SW,..Wales- also think about applying for a job in North Wales and all the problems that your title might bring up- where as you could have them thinking Eurasia or north vi southern hemisphere. This is the type of command that I think is being looked for in your average digger. As for the rest of your title, brilliant use of words and I suspect that they have made you the person you are now. Absolutely no need to analyse them but how about going for something a bit different but which possibly encapsulates and piques, something like “flogging a dead horse” or “niniy nanny noo”.

Another top tip, do the phd/submit in a year and apply for every single lecturing job and post doc that you can, start on your first day, don’t be shy. Ask for feed back from every rejection and then go and read the phds of those who rejected you. The moral outrage should keep you going for the rest of your life.
Have you considered going self employed.

[sik105]

Hi cwmbrancity,

I'm actually in a very similar situation to you. I graduated with a BA in Archaeology in 2008 and despite making an effort to volunteer at an archaeology museum and get some digging experience I wasn't able to get a job in archaeology. So, I got a job as an office manager and started a Distance Learning MA in Archaeology and Heritage which I completed in January. This took 2 years (in my spare time) and I have been continuously looking for work in archaeology with no luck! Ideally I'd like to go into a career in lecturing and have applied to do a PhD starting this September. I'm a bit apprehensive as I've spent A LOT on my MA and undergrad degree and obviously there are still no guarantees i'll have any more chance of getting a job with a PhD. Is it worth spending another 3+ years in education only to wind up in the same situation i'm in now?

On the other hand...if I don't do the PhD I won't be able to go into lecturing and i'll be working in an office forever....

Decision time...

[kevin wooldridge]

I am sure that the job prospect at the end of the line is a major consideration, but bear in mind that the outlook for jobs in academic archaeology (let alone in field archaeology) is not rosy right now. At present many non-tenured jobs in archaeology departments are under pressure and those pressures are likely to increase once the full impact of increased tuition fees and the withdrawal of funding for humanities courses take effect. I agree with GP Stone that you may well make plenty of contacts in academic circles and Yes...there is the possibility that one of those might be serendipitous to future career/life balance, but it isn't anything that can be counted on as an absolute - you should also consider that it is quite likely if you enter a one legged arse kicking contest, that nearly all of the people you meet will be one legged arse kickers....

But in some ways this makes your decision easier. If you take the prospect of 'potential' employment out of the equation that only leaves the academic considerations, which to my mind are twofold. One you either already have something to say which will be best said though the publication of an academic thesis or you have something to research which the format of a PhD would be best suited for researching. With the former of course there are other avenues you could still follow - other publication outlets and formats. With the latter, private research is still possible and at the same time choosing another form of gainful employment to keep the wolf from the door.

So my suggestion would be reject the PhD as a means to an end i.e employment, but to seriously consider the PhD as an end to a means or a means which might have other alternatives. Reading our other BAJR thread at the moment (on depression amongst archaeologists) I would suggest at the end of the day that the right choice is the one that brings you the most happiness and the least grief...

[Archaeogit]

There's one piece of advice I can give you.

Only do a PhD if you CANNOT live without it.

A PhD is fiendishly hard work, with little reward. It may well screw your personal life and your finances to no end. Lecturing jobs, post-docs etc are (as others have said) v. difficult to get. A PhD means relatively little in the commercial world. I was once sat in a site hut with three doctors all working as diggers.

If you still have that burning desire to do the research then Good Luck! It's a great feeling when you walk out of the viva and the whole thing is over

[tom wilson]

i went to a lecture by someone from the CBA or somesuch a few years back and was told that 750 archaeology PhDs had been awarded in the previous ten years. I don't think it's much of a career boost...better to do a bunch of other courses with the money; maybe an MBA...

[Doug]

To build off of tom wilson- 745 PhD's between 2001-2008. http://www.landward.eu/2010/10/index.html go to the free down load and it is page 36 of the report. If you read the rest of the report you can see why you aren't having any luck getting a job. but I digress

Roughly your looking at 100 other PhD's graduating with you after 3 yrs. The paper mentions only a few permanent posts 2 I think. While- 1 in 50 might seem bad its probably worse your are also competing against everyone else who has a PhD for the last 5 yrs, at least. Your odds are closer to 1 in 250. Those I would say are very generous odds.

I would say only if you truly want to be an academic AND you GET FUNDING. No point in spending 3 intense years of studying to not have a job and be more in dept. I can not stress enough the need to get funding as paying off loans will sink you- do the math.