29th August 2011, 09:23 PM
Sith Wrote:I daresay no one bothers in the republic, where being eligible to hold an excavation licence (by examination by a panel made up of members of the National Monuments Service and prominent academics) is far more useful and potentially lucrative.true, but even the common diggers (ie no licence) I know who joined in the past, found the fees to be too expensive in this day and age of short term contracts and unsure job market. From my occasional trip to conferences (in the North) I got the impression that most of the people on the panel of the IAI were all owners of the larger companies anyway, so I'm not sure what the IAI was for really. I didn't bother joining even when I could afford to as I found their different levels of membership confusing, and I could get a job just fine without being a member.
Back on topic, I find that there are less jobs nowadays, less job security, and the wages have dropped. There are people working on site one or two grades below the ones they used to have, and there doesn't appear to be the fresh influx of young blood from this years graduates that we used to get.
Lucy