Time again?

[P Prentice]

in this age of job disatisfaction and joblessness, many of us might well be rueing the day we first clutched at archaeologys greasey pole. so, if you had tour time again which pole would you reach for?

[kevin wooldridge]

Never had a days regret.....although with the benefit of hindsight I might have gone in for a little 'mercy killing' somewhere along the way.....so I guess the pole I would grab would be a club with a 6-inch nail hammered through the end.

[CARTOON REALITY]

if you had tour time again which pole would you reach for?

If that isn't a cue for a double entendre I don't know what is . . .

But since you asked:

Lumberjack, Horse quack
A banker on a phone
Someone in an office reeking of cologne
Cooking in the navy
Serving boats of gravy
Anything at all, please throw this dog a bone

[P Prentice]

If that isn't a cue for a double entendre I don't know what is . . .

But since you asked:

Lumberjack, Horse quack
A banker on a phone
Someone in an office reeking of cologne
Cooking in the navy
Serving boats of gravy
Anything at all, please throw this dog a bone

thank you reality - your ditty includes at least two of mine

[Wax]

Model maker/art director in the film industry. Probably as hard to get into and keep a job as archaeology. In all honesty I only wish I had started in archaeology earlier rather than coming into it as a second career. Money wise I should have followed all my friends who were into computers and taught themselves by building and programming their own machines.

[Dinosaur]

Anything that didn't result in a day standing in a horizontal snow/hailstorm watching everything I'd just machine-stripped disappearing under white stuff?...the white-out on the A19 on the way back wasn't ideal either...but I'm sure tomorrow I'll have a rosier view of the whole thing - oh, just saw the weather forecast

[sadie]

I'm with Kevin on this one, overall I made the right choice and have never regretted it. Dug some amazing stuff up, met many brilliant people along the way.

A huge pay rise would be the icing on the cake!

[Kel]

Overall, I'm not sure I'd do anything differently. I missed my first opportunity to get into archaeology as an 18 year old school leaver in the early 80s. I instead opted for a bash at an academic career which turned out to be a disasterous dead-end. If I'd gone into archaeology back then I'd have had a better shot of long-term employment in it. However, I'd never have earned enough alone to be financially secure or own my own home.

Going into archaeology as a 40-something, I have the opposite problem. My accidental IT career has paid off the mortgage and given me the savings which allow me to try out archaeology. On the other hand, I now emerge blinking into an economic climate which is bitterly harsh for fresh archy graduates (never mind middle-aged ones), with little left of my life savings and in all probability, no employment prospects.

So I don't know, really. I wouldn't have missed archaeology for the world, even if it means I now have to scratch round for unrelated jobs for the rest of my life. And at least I know I'll have a roof over my head, despite not being able to afford to heat it these days. It sort of balances out for me. Think I've done it right (ask me again in three years when the bailiffs arrive!)

[Sith]

I always fancied being a chartered surveyor specialising in estate management. You get to choose when to go outdoors and can afford a better quality of tweed to go out in.

[pdurdin]

I'm greasing up my hands before I grasp the pole, just in case it isn't greasy enough.