Lots of new archaeologists/students/prospective students/archaeologists ask a very similar question – What qualifications do I need to get X job in archaeology. Lots of people offer advice but there is very little hard data out there. To rectify this problem I have gone out and looked at job postings (exact methodology below). For the starting position of field technician (field tech) in CRM (North America) here are the percent of job posts listing the respected qualification.
Requirements for a Archaeology Field Tech Job
Each job is different and may require only one or all of these aspects. Though in general a degree, field school, and previous experience (especially in the area you would work in) will greatly improve your chances of getting a job. A bit underwhelming as this is pretty much the information that everyone tells new archaeologists. Still there are the numbers to back up this advice.
Will this get you the job? NO, there are no guarantees. Most of this are check boxes that can only hurt you because you do not have them but do not necessarily mean you will get a job.
A bit of good news is that the majority of those job postings that did not list any requirements (%18) were for emergency jobs e.g. its Sunday and they need someone to start that Monday and don’t care too much about your qualifications. Being in the right place at the right can make you a field tech even if you don’t meet those requirements.
Methodology – jobs postings on the job website Shovelbums was examined for the year 2010. All postings involving field techs were examined and the numbers were compiled above. A total 189 posts were used for the data; duplicate posts were eliminated.
September 21st, 2011 → 2:23 am
[...] have a look at Doug’s webblog and see if you qualify to be a “Field Tech” in archaeology. Some good information [...]
September 22nd, 2011 → 6:57 pm
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December 7th, 2011 → 10:31 pm
[...] Posted on December 7, 2011 by Doug Rocks-Macqueen A few months ago I published a post “What Does it Take to Get that Archaeology Job?- Field Techs” in which I looked at what requirements are listed on job postings (US only) on the website [...]
January 8th, 2012 → 5:18 pm
[...] results show that, as mentioned before, an undergraduate degree, some previous experience, and a field school, though increasing less [...]