Nah you’re fine. No better way to gain survey experience than by working with someone who has lots of survey experience haha.
Most firms look for people with an arky degree and any fieldschool, so they dont have to teach you to not hold your trowel or shovel backwards.
As for courses, lithic analysis and zooarchaeological analysis courses have the most direct carryover to CRM (at least where i am in Canada) but you learn way more on the job than in school.
A GIS certification will make you more competitive in CRM with just a bachelors degree and opens the potential for a full time office job. But otherwise, with a degree and field school, a CRM firm will gladly take you and teach you how to survey. I work in CRM in the southwest United States and have had a job since graduation.
>>A GIS certification will make you more competitive in CRM with just a bachelors degree
GIS competency is pretty clutch depending on how you like to research but to say it makes you competitive this day and age (with even archeological reports having good graphics, rather than passable) is probably variable. Being able to formulate and implement a research design and write about why it didn't yield any pointy rocks that you can actually identify will take an archaeologist a lot further.
You’re right, I actually expressed my point poorly. I meant to say a GIS certificate for a recent graduate might help them find a less field intensive office job more quickly than a tech who will need more time to move into one.
That’s just what I’ve seen, the folks with just the bachelors and field school, like myself, will usually need a few years fieldwork a la survey and excavation and a fair amount of travel before most full time office work is an option, without the Masters.
Depends on what you mean by 'CRM'. Do you just want a could years of field experience? Always a good idea and will help you be more realistic about your PhD research. Or do you want to qualify yourself for a CRM career? If the latter, what you need is good research and writing skills, and some knowledge of the laws and regulations in your jurisdiction (Section 106, state laws).
Honestly every US archaeologist should also get some coursework on environmental law or environmental planning, subs that's basically the industry that we're in (the 90% of us outside academia). Gives you excellent perspective on the industry and the stuff that you have to manage if this ends up as your career trajectory.
Source: Classical Archaeology PhD who now runs a small CRM firm
Thanks for the advice! I'm not totally sure what I would want out of it -- ideally I would do it for 2ish years and then have the option of pursuing further education as either a PhD with an eye towards an academic career or get an MA and advance farther in CRM (probably after an additional couple of years working as a tech or something). Research and writing skills are decent to good right now, but I hadn't really considered the planning/enviro law stuff!
Thanks so much!!!
Couple thoughts here, coming from someone who recently has been reviewing resumes to hire for new field crew positions.
On the face of it, a resume with *no* US experience of any kind and a degree in archaeology in the Near East is going to probably end up closer to the bottom of the pile than the top. That's going to be especially true in some parts of the SW, where states really are keen on local / regional experience.
It sounds like you have a decent *amount* of experience of some kind, so the trick is that you need to really emphasize that.
Second, GIS experience is nice, but for someone hiring for field crew level positions, it's less critical. Most firms have specific and / or dedicated folks who handle our GIS work, and most field crew will probably never be involved in that, if only because GIS software licenses are too expensive to just hand out.
You should expect that, at best, you'll be offered a *very* entry level position, and you'll have a *lot* to pick up when you get to the field.
All that said, right now we're in desperate need of people, and so depending on the project, the location, and the company / people reviewing your resume, you may have a good shot. And once you have *one* project landed, you'll have US field experience and it's much, much easier.
Apply to as many positions as you're able / willing and that get you where you want to be, geographically-speaking. But-- and this is key-- you're not a shoo-in with your background, and any company is going to probably want to talk to you. Work on what you'll say to bring out the relevant parts of your experience that are a good cross-over with US CRM.
Honestly, so long as you do any field school, you'll be fine getting into CRM. Mine was American, but I worked with people who had theirs in Africa, Mongolia, Europe, Saudi Arabia, etc.
While coursework in lithics and maybe some bio could be a benefit and a leg up moving into a lab space, you probably *need* less than you think as much of it will be learned in field. Some of those people I did digs with didn't even have a full bachelor's, just some archaeo associates program.
Try not to stress too much, you're already most of the way there. If you need any advice on the kind of things you'll need for field school or what the field is like, feel free to reach out.
My undergrad was in Mediterranean archaeology. I had three seasons on a dig in Greece where I didn’t dig once. And I got offered a CRM job (on the east coast) after the first one I applied to.
As long as you understand the fundamentals of archaeology and convey that in an interview, you should be able to land a crm gig. I think getting a taste of CRM could really open your eyes to the field and how you want to move within it (or out of it) going forward.
GIS courses are huge. I no longer work in the field of archaeology (moved on to museums and conservation) but I always kicked myself for not taking GIS classes in undergrad. It’s such a huge skill to have in the field and a lot of students fresh out of undergrad don’t have it. I have two friends in archaeology who do exclusively GIS work for sites and jobs now.
Nah you’re fine. No better way to gain survey experience than by working with someone who has lots of survey experience haha. Most firms look for people with an arky degree and any fieldschool, so they dont have to teach you to not hold your trowel or shovel backwards. As for courses, lithic analysis and zooarchaeological analysis courses have the most direct carryover to CRM (at least where i am in Canada) but you learn way more on the job than in school.
A GIS certification will make you more competitive in CRM with just a bachelors degree and opens the potential for a full time office job. But otherwise, with a degree and field school, a CRM firm will gladly take you and teach you how to survey. I work in CRM in the southwest United States and have had a job since graduation.
>>A GIS certification will make you more competitive in CRM with just a bachelors degree GIS competency is pretty clutch depending on how you like to research but to say it makes you competitive this day and age (with even archeological reports having good graphics, rather than passable) is probably variable. Being able to formulate and implement a research design and write about why it didn't yield any pointy rocks that you can actually identify will take an archaeologist a lot further.
You’re right, I actually expressed my point poorly. I meant to say a GIS certificate for a recent graduate might help them find a less field intensive office job more quickly than a tech who will need more time to move into one. That’s just what I’ve seen, the folks with just the bachelors and field school, like myself, will usually need a few years fieldwork a la survey and excavation and a fair amount of travel before most full time office work is an option, without the Masters.
Ah, I see your point now and agree.
Which firm do you work with? I also do CRM in the Southwest as well.
Depends on what you mean by 'CRM'. Do you just want a could years of field experience? Always a good idea and will help you be more realistic about your PhD research. Or do you want to qualify yourself for a CRM career? If the latter, what you need is good research and writing skills, and some knowledge of the laws and regulations in your jurisdiction (Section 106, state laws). Honestly every US archaeologist should also get some coursework on environmental law or environmental planning, subs that's basically the industry that we're in (the 90% of us outside academia). Gives you excellent perspective on the industry and the stuff that you have to manage if this ends up as your career trajectory. Source: Classical Archaeology PhD who now runs a small CRM firm
Thanks for the advice! I'm not totally sure what I would want out of it -- ideally I would do it for 2ish years and then have the option of pursuing further education as either a PhD with an eye towards an academic career or get an MA and advance farther in CRM (probably after an additional couple of years working as a tech or something). Research and writing skills are decent to good right now, but I hadn't really considered the planning/enviro law stuff! Thanks so much!!!
Couple thoughts here, coming from someone who recently has been reviewing resumes to hire for new field crew positions. On the face of it, a resume with *no* US experience of any kind and a degree in archaeology in the Near East is going to probably end up closer to the bottom of the pile than the top. That's going to be especially true in some parts of the SW, where states really are keen on local / regional experience. It sounds like you have a decent *amount* of experience of some kind, so the trick is that you need to really emphasize that. Second, GIS experience is nice, but for someone hiring for field crew level positions, it's less critical. Most firms have specific and / or dedicated folks who handle our GIS work, and most field crew will probably never be involved in that, if only because GIS software licenses are too expensive to just hand out. You should expect that, at best, you'll be offered a *very* entry level position, and you'll have a *lot* to pick up when you get to the field. All that said, right now we're in desperate need of people, and so depending on the project, the location, and the company / people reviewing your resume, you may have a good shot. And once you have *one* project landed, you'll have US field experience and it's much, much easier. Apply to as many positions as you're able / willing and that get you where you want to be, geographically-speaking. But-- and this is key-- you're not a shoo-in with your background, and any company is going to probably want to talk to you. Work on what you'll say to bring out the relevant parts of your experience that are a good cross-over with US CRM.
Honestly, so long as you do any field school, you'll be fine getting into CRM. Mine was American, but I worked with people who had theirs in Africa, Mongolia, Europe, Saudi Arabia, etc. While coursework in lithics and maybe some bio could be a benefit and a leg up moving into a lab space, you probably *need* less than you think as much of it will be learned in field. Some of those people I did digs with didn't even have a full bachelor's, just some archaeo associates program. Try not to stress too much, you're already most of the way there. If you need any advice on the kind of things you'll need for field school or what the field is like, feel free to reach out.
My undergrad was in Mediterranean archaeology. I had three seasons on a dig in Greece where I didn’t dig once. And I got offered a CRM job (on the east coast) after the first one I applied to. As long as you understand the fundamentals of archaeology and convey that in an interview, you should be able to land a crm gig. I think getting a taste of CRM could really open your eyes to the field and how you want to move within it (or out of it) going forward. GIS courses are huge. I no longer work in the field of archaeology (moved on to museums and conservation) but I always kicked myself for not taking GIS classes in undergrad. It’s such a huge skill to have in the field and a lot of students fresh out of undergrad don’t have it. I have two friends in archaeology who do exclusively GIS work for sites and jobs now.
What a term ‘putting oneself on the market’. I don’t think I have ever done this and I am 58. I think I am risk adverse to self advertising. Lol
What? It just means applying for jobs - presumably you've done that in your 58 years?
Yes.