Job Tips


Developing a Health and Safety Plan for Cultural Resources Archaeology 1

On November 21, 1968, an enormous explosion at a coal mine in West Virginia killed 78 miners. Only 21 of the 99 men working that shift at the Farmington No. 9 mine escaped with their lives. The others could not be rescued immediately because of fires that raged following the […]


Hazardous Material Safety at Historical Archaeology Sites 10

Last month, I was informed that I’d be running a crew that was going to excavate an archaeological feature that was believed to have been a historical forge at a mining site. This was a surprise, but, initially, I wasn’t worried. That was, until I asked about the safety plan […]


Efficient Online Historical Research 9

One rainy November morning, my office mate strolled into our office with a bold exclamation. “I found a historical trash pile.” She was beaming with happiness. “And I did it using those old maps from that website you found on the internet. Thanks.” “Which old maps website?” Now, I was […]


Archaeology Crew Chiefs are the Real X-Factor

It’s been a long time since I did my first Level of Effort estimate. In case you don’t know, a Level of Effort estimate is an educated guess on how long it will take for your co-workers or employees to accomplish a given project. It’s important for scoping a proposal […]


Carpe Diem: Successful CRMers Take the Initiative 2

My wife had lunch with a friend that is also an archaeology field director earlier this week. Conversing while they enjoyed a relaxing meal, her friend started describing how frustrating her last project was because of two particular co-workers. She was called upon to lead a particularly challenging archaeological testing […]


Find a coach and land a cultural resources job

Throughout our careers, we all come in contact with people that really change our lives. I remember when I landed my first job as a project archaeology crew chief. College was a recent memory and I had a long way to go. All of my skills were pathetic. I couldn’t […]


Crafting a killer resume

There are a number of people that would tell you resumes are dead. Especially for those of us looking for cultural resource, heritage conservation, or historic preservation employment. Your networking, skills, experience, and personality play a huge role in getting hired and impressing your future boss in an interview. But […]


Keywords are an essential part of a successful résumé

I have been helping folks remodel their cultural resource management or historic preservation job résumés for years now. Most résumés had the right information, followed grammatical rules, and were textbook manifestations of what the internet and most résumé-writing books tell us to do. But they weren’t optimized for the CRM […]