4th July 2011, 12:30 PM
With regards to work experience and degrees, Bradford University is one of the few that seem to do it and they offer a wide choice including ones based at the dept, HERs, commercial units and museums. I did my undergrad at Birmingham and did three weeks experience and that was sufficient in terms of the degree. However I did combined Ancient History and Archaeology, just archaeology students had to dig every year (I think) and I joined them after deciding that ancient history was just a minor component of what I wanted to do.
Did an MA and now I'm about to finish my PhD and wade into the scary world of work. I know for a fact that I still don't have enough to continue in academia plus I don't really like where it is going at the moment. At the same time, I still don't feel qualified enough to enter commercial archaeology! Who do I blame? I keep blaming myself mainly because I had blinkers on and was hoping to get a job fairly easily once I finished University. I never really set out to do a PhD its just that it came up at the time, as an advertised job, when the economy was going down the tube and I think it was the right thing to do and I feel extremely privileged to have done this. I'm doing a collaborative doctoral PhD on an archive project so admittedly, I have had very little practical experience since doing it but my AutoCAD, GIS, stratigraphy skills have improved second to none. And I have had experience in working with a heritage body for three months as well, which has also been brilliant
I'm searching the jobs market and finding a lot of the commercial units are searching for people with a minimum 3-6 months commercial experience. I want to work in this sector, mainly because I see it as something I could do for a couple of years and making sure I am not completely ignorant of this sector. But I also despair that I might not be given the chance because I don't have the experience. There is a certain amount of experience you can gain at University and I agree that they should not be churning out diggers, I fully expect to learn on the job and be given the chance to keep up! At the same time, I can understand why in this market units can be picky. And I haven't actually applied for anything yet so I am probably jumping the gun. But it is putting people off and I worry that this will have a knock on effect on archaeology students in universities.
Just sharing the story of my experience so far! If it all goes completely wrong, I have my sewing machine and crochet hooks primed and ready...
Did an MA and now I'm about to finish my PhD and wade into the scary world of work. I know for a fact that I still don't have enough to continue in academia plus I don't really like where it is going at the moment. At the same time, I still don't feel qualified enough to enter commercial archaeology! Who do I blame? I keep blaming myself mainly because I had blinkers on and was hoping to get a job fairly easily once I finished University. I never really set out to do a PhD its just that it came up at the time, as an advertised job, when the economy was going down the tube and I think it was the right thing to do and I feel extremely privileged to have done this. I'm doing a collaborative doctoral PhD on an archive project so admittedly, I have had very little practical experience since doing it but my AutoCAD, GIS, stratigraphy skills have improved second to none. And I have had experience in working with a heritage body for three months as well, which has also been brilliant
I'm searching the jobs market and finding a lot of the commercial units are searching for people with a minimum 3-6 months commercial experience. I want to work in this sector, mainly because I see it as something I could do for a couple of years and making sure I am not completely ignorant of this sector. But I also despair that I might not be given the chance because I don't have the experience. There is a certain amount of experience you can gain at University and I agree that they should not be churning out diggers, I fully expect to learn on the job and be given the chance to keep up! At the same time, I can understand why in this market units can be picky. And I haven't actually applied for anything yet so I am probably jumping the gun. But it is putting people off and I worry that this will have a knock on effect on archaeology students in universities.
Just sharing the story of my experience so far! If it all goes completely wrong, I have my sewing machine and crochet hooks primed and ready...