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Its a brave person who writes a book called 'the perfect consultant'!
Surely the overheads are not vastly different (apart from the flashy Mercs and swanky offices that all consultants enjoy
).
Non-chargeable time is presumably taken up by preparing tenders and that sort of thing; would that be a comparable amount of time between a field unit and a consultancy? Not precisely, but we are talking rules of thumb here.
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Mercenary, David's figures are an accurate guide, bn my opinion specialist archaeological consultancies pay a little less for a newbie fresh from the field than a larger multi-disciplinary type of organisation who don't understand archies too much. My organisation is one of the latter and I was looked at in shocked disbelief when I told them my fieldwork supervisory salary at my interview. The specialist archy consultancies know exactly how much they can get away with paying their new staff as they know they'd be really grateful for 'just' a few grand above their field salaries.
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Interesting topic this.
My experience is that archaeological units make their money from digging - the more diggers that are out on site, the greater the surplus (i.e. profit) will be. Use of project managers as consultants is not profitable unless it brings in fieldwork - these managers would be better employed in managing fieldwork projects, increasing efficiency etc.
Consultants on the other hands have a charge-out structure designed to be profitable purely on providing clients with consultancy services, regardless of whether any fieldwork is ever undertaken.
This is not meant to be critical of either type of employment - the market has, and needs, both units and consultants.
In response to the original question from mercenary, I would suggest £18K - £25K depending on the exact experience of the individual, the job requirements and the location.
Beamo
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Thanks all. Exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to know. It's shattered a few of my preconcieved notions though, which is always a good thing. DrPete, isn't it considered a bit rude to ask a potential employer what their charge out rate is?
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While on this topic, what exactly is a Graduate Archaeological Consultant? I've had a few dealings with folk calling themselves this, which have all ended in hair-ripping and teeth gnashing (mine
).
I has assumed this was the junior-do-the-research-for-the-DBA job, with a lot of hand holding and job experience type teaching. Am I wrong? And is it a coincidence that they seem to be in the arms of the mighty engineering company throng? Or have I just had bad luck? Any of you out there?
ML
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ML, Check out this old thread.
http://www.bajr.org/BAJRForum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=543
Shame the hair ripping wasn't theirs really.
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New consultant jobs now on the employment page...
Another day another WSI?
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Some people might think it rude to ask an employer what the charge out rate is but I would say a degree of honesty is good thing on both sides. You will find out soon enough anyway what they charge you out at.
The nature of consultancy is that there is a lot of down due to the bitty nature of the work and time recording is done to say the minute or 5 minutes compared to quarter or half day for fieldwork staff.
Peter Wardle
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Wow, maybe everyone will be rushing off to become consultants thus creating a severe shortage of field staff leading to a huge hike in wages..... and a national shortage of cheap suits I suppose...
I'd have thought it would easier to ask what the salary offered is in the first place, rather than the charge out rates and dividing by three.
As a matter of interest Doc Pete, what sort of proportion of work is time charged as opposed to a flat fee or other basis? Presumably this varies considerably between a sole practioner and a large multi-disciplinary consultancy.
We owe the dead nothing but the truth.
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Quote:quote:I'd have thought it would easier to ask what the salary offered is in the first place, rather than the charge out rates and dividing by three.
The origin of my original query was a job offer where it was not clear whether the salary was a market rate or a piss-take. Seems it was the latter.
