10th June 2005, 09:35 AM
At the IFA Conference earlier this year there was some mention of renaming it the "Institute For Archaeologists" to try and make it more inclusive of field staff. Presumably the name change is slight so they can keep the stationery...
I loved digging, was really happy doing that job, and never seriously thought much about career progression. Things change though (whether you want them to or not) and eventually I did my back in, and had to do more post-ex and writing up, then site supervising and project officer stuff. Funnily enough, I liked this as well, and have ended up monitoring other people's work and shouting at developers down the 'phone about how important archaeology is (which is fun too). My point I suppose is that there are lots of different jobs to do whilst still staying in the profession, and you don't know what circumstances will offer you at any one time. I don't really know where the pinnacle of the archaeology career ladder is - I'm not even sure that there is one - but for me it certainly isn't where I thought it was when I started out.
I loved digging, was really happy doing that job, and never seriously thought much about career progression. Things change though (whether you want them to or not) and eventually I did my back in, and had to do more post-ex and writing up, then site supervising and project officer stuff. Funnily enough, I liked this as well, and have ended up monitoring other people's work and shouting at developers down the 'phone about how important archaeology is (which is fun too). My point I suppose is that there are lots of different jobs to do whilst still staying in the profession, and you don't know what circumstances will offer you at any one time. I don't really know where the pinnacle of the archaeology career ladder is - I'm not even sure that there is one - but for me it certainly isn't where I thought it was when I started out.