Last week I helped a friend and peer get a good shot at her first job in cultural resource management archaeology. She’d just finished her anthro B.A. and I worked with her this summer. I quickly recognized that she had a lot of talent and promise. She’s the kind of person I wish I had the money to hire to work at Succinct Research.
She’d received all of my assistance with her job search because I enjoyed working with her this summer and wanted to see her career blossom. I helped hone her resume, gave her opportunities to network with CRMers in her part of the country, and showed her how to find jobs before they’re posted. I spent some time finding good job prospects and writing reference letters on her behalf. I even dug into my toolkit of connections and helped her get a job offer.
I was told she could expect at least a year of steady archaeology technician work, as long as she passed the interview and probationary period. All she had to do is call the company, give a good impression, and email her a targeted resume. The job was hers.
But, she turned down the opportunity for a very excellent reason.
Why would you turn down your first job in archaeology?
I can hear some of you out there screaming, “SHE DID WHAT? I’ve been busting my hump trying to find a job all by myself and this lady is turning down work!!! Is she crazy?”
I can totally relate to this statement. It took me nearly a year of scrubbing toilets as a janitor before I got my first permanent CRM job offer. I remember sending out 3 to 5 resumes a week all across the country for 9 months; getting numerous phone and in person interviews before someone gave me an offer. I didn’t have anyone helping me either. My professors wished me well, but they had few CRM connections and I never thought to ask for their help.
I vividly remember receiving my Master’s diploma in the mail upon returning home from a 9-hour-long shift of mopping floors, emptying trashcans, and cleaning bathrooms. As I unwrapped the paper manifestation of all those hours spent studying, I recall asking myself, “Did I just waste two and a half years of my life? When will I get the chance to become an archaeologist?” I was 26-years-old and had spent over a quarter of my life chasing the dream of being an archaeologist. Yet, I was cleaning toilets even though I had a Master’s degree.
If I’d heard that there were people out there who were turning down archaeology work I probably would have fainted. Who would do that?
There are lots of reasons why somebody would turn down an arch tech job offer:
Pay— The position may not pay enough. Student loans, car payments, rent, and a host of other bills all add up. Unfortunately, I see a lot of tech job offers with laughably pay rates.
Location— The job may be in a whack location. Who wants to relocate their lives to work in a swamp in Georgia or do monitoring in the middle of the Mojave Desert? Very few archaeologists.
Lack of upward mobility— It’s hard to find people willing to relocate for temporary positions with little promise of permanency.
Weird company culture—Have you ever walked in for a job interview and immediately gotten a weird vibe? Something just isn’t right but you can’t quite put your finger on it. Or, the interview questions are strange and make you think there’s more to this job than they’re telling you. Sometimes gut feelings are more powerful than the feeling of an empty stomach.
A combination of the above—One of the best reasons why you’d pass on a job offer is usually a combination of the aforementioned reasons. Low pay, whack location, and no permanency is usually a deal-killer.
My friend didn’t turn down the job offer for any of those reasons. She did it for the very best reason of all: Being an archaeologist was never her dream.
You’ve got to follow your dream
My friend slipped into archaeology because of a series of life circumstances. As is the case in most anthropology departments, archaeology is the strongest of the four fields. Archaeology brings in money through grants and curation fees. Archaeology students tend to get jobs after graduation, primarily because CRM archaeology employs more anthro grads than linguistics, cultural anth, or biological anthropology. Therefore, there are usually more opportunities for real-world experience as an archaeology student than the other anthro subfields.
After landing a job in the anthropology lab, which was basically all about archaeology, she was well-poised to go into archaeology. She learned a lot about artifacts and curation. She even did an archaeology field school to learn field methods. Her background as a student athlete made her durable and capable in the field. This combination of physical strength, archaeological intelligence, and experience (along with her personality and passion for social justice) made her a primo candidate for an entry-level job in archaeology.
However, her heart really wasn’t in it. My friend wanted to become a cultural anthropologist but that wasn’t going to pay the bills in college whereas archaeology could. Once she graduated, she realized her experience had prepared her for archaeology rather than cultural anthropology. She also realized jobs in cultural anthropology were even more non-existent than jobs in archaeology.
Most importantly: My friend realized she would not be happy doing cultural resource management archaeology. She was good at archaeology but it wasn’t going to bring her fulfillment. Rather than take a job she knew she’d hate, she respectfully told me she didn’t want to do archaeology and that I should stop helping her find a job.
Guess what? I’m still going to help her find a job
Archaeology is my dream. If you’ve read this blog post thus far it’s probably your dream too. But, more than 99.99% of Americans do not want to do archaeology. There are lots of anthropology students who don’t want to do archaeology. There are probably lots of archaeology graduate students and CRMers who have invested years of time and effort in their degrees who realize they don’t want to be an archaeologist anymore.
It’s never too late to change course in your career. Regardless of how much you’ve put into your career, life is too short to spend it working a job you really don’t like anymore. We all have bills to pay, but we don’t have to pay them by being miserable for 40 to 60 hours each week.
The reason why I’m still going to help my friend find a job is because she had the guts to tell me the truth; that she’d rather keep grinding it out in search of a job she’d love than use her existing skills and experience as an archaeologist. That takes courage. She realized that fulfillment is an important part of work. She is still searching for a job that will provide that feeling.
I’ve said it before: Archaeology is not for everyone. There are lots of archaeologists who have lost their interest in the field. I see social media posts from them all the time. After having a go of it in cultural resource management, many archaeologists give up on the industry in order to find work that fits their new needs. They wanted to become an archaeologist and succeeded only to realize that this job wasn’t what they were looking for. They move on once the thrill is gone and there is nothing wrong with that.
I don’t plan on doing archaeology forever because I also realize, one day, the thrill will probably be gone for me too. There’ll probably be one project, one report, one proposal, one student, one paper, one excavation unit too many and I’ll throw in the towel. I’m okay with that because I realize I’m still young and want to live a full life. Archaeology fulfills me for now but there is no guarantee it always will.
It takes fortitude to turn down the good-faith effort of somebody who really wants to see you succeed. I also takes courage to keep pursuing your dream job even though an offer is looking you in the face. Archaeologists are dreamers, but we’re not the only ones. I wish my friend luck in her job search and will help her in whatever way I can.
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