These notes are based on the WACSC organised Forum on Careers in International Heritage held at the 8th World Archaeological Congress in Kyoto, Japan. The intention of this forum was to provide professional development advice for archaeology students interested in pursuing careers in international heritage organisations. Our notes from the forum itself have been consolidated into this summary primarily for any students who were not able to make it to the session or WAC-8 so they might benefit from the knowledge and advice shared during the session. To respect the privacy of our panellists and participants no names or other identifying information are included in this summary. We have preserved the Question/Answer format of the forum.
Our thanks to our panellists, Hilary A. Soderland, Naima Benkari, John Carman and Jane Baxter, for their generous support of the forum and the thoughtful answers and guidance they offered to the students who attended. Thanks also to all the students who participated in the forum and contributed to the stimulating discussion!
Marta, Kate and Jacq (Forum Co-Convenors)
Is having a single degree program or speciality enough to move forward in a career?
- Having a heritage graduate degree (i.e. Graduate Diploma or Certificate, Masters or PhD) gives you the basis for participating as a professional in the field regardless of what area or what field of study. Although a Bachelor Degree may get you into entry-level positions in many areas in the world, the options for jobs broaden significantly when you obtain a graduate degree.
- An archaeology graduate degree may not give you solid field training, so it will not necessarily make you employable in contract fields. If this is the case, you will generally need to seek out field experience in addition to any classroom learning.
- Focus on developing transferable skills like critical thinking, organisation, cultural competency, multi-tasking, and writing clearly.
- Your career will probably take you in places you cannot imagine right now so make sure you develop broad skills at the start that you could take in multiple directions in the future.
- Students often do not critically evaluate what they learned and skills they acquired from the educational experiences they have had – reflect on your training, your extra-curricular experiences, and list what you learned in each. Re-write your resume or CV with the goal of expressing these skills.
- Although academic fieldwork training (field school) is a romantic and slow-paced environment, be prepared to make choices about budgets, adjust speed, and address stakeholders, dilemmas, and bumps in the road.
- Having two or more areas of interest and creating a space for yourself in these areas is a good idea! It gives you more options.
How do you create opportunities for yourself to get practical experience, particularly field experience?
- Start volunteering for projects you are interested in!
- There are more and more projects using digital tools, so training in these tools can be useful and may not require travel or as much financial sacrifice as field training.
- Unfortunately, training is not often funded, so you will need to acquire skills in whatever way you can, including possibly volunteering to do some things for free.
- As a student or as a worker, tell your supervisor you are interested in learning a particular skill. They may call you when there is an opportunity for you to learn it now that they know you are interested and willing to help.
Are volunteer opportunities valuable? How do you make the most of them?
- It is critical to build your own professional network, and volunteering can be a good way to do that, as well as a way to learn about opportunities for professional development.
- Be sure to clarify how much time you are expected to volunteer and what you will be doing as a volunteer before you begin your duties.
- Meet with a mentor who can help you identify what you need out of the volunteer position you are considering, and to help you reflect on what you learned from the experience after it is complete.
- You should try to get broad experience and say yes to whatever you can, while only doing what is practical for you. The effort will have a positive outcome.
- Volunteer positions are often launching points for jobs and can count toward experience requirements in future job applications.
How do beginning archaeologists develop and advocate for themselves, build a career, when there is not a heritage job infrastructure in their region?
- Any student who is asking this question must already have an impressive grasp on careers in international heritage, beyond what most students understand, and participating in these discussions is addressing this issues by bringing it up in the professional network of WAC.
- Applying for jobs in departments or industries related to but not explicitly archaeology or heritage related is a good way to start building a career. At the same time, you can share your interests in archaeology with your employers in related fields and potentially advocate for more heritage jobs with those who have resources.
- Work slowly and intentionally and strategically to build support for your desired research and career interests.
How can students take advantage of professional networks, like the World Archaeological Congress?
- Take part in discussions about the choices we make as archaeologists, at WAC as well as online.
- Being well-informed about how archaeology works at the international level, and becoming involved with international colleagues, can be incredibly valuable.
- Consider nominating yourself for a place on one of the various WAC standing committees (including the student committee) or even as a junior regional representative if you would like to expand your peer network and make a contribution to the organisation itself. Undertaking service for organisations like WAC can be a great way to develop your networks and gain valuable transferable skills.
- Be politically aware. How does politics intersect with heritage work in your area? And if you are inclined to be involved in politics, you could consider becoming an advocate for heritage and archaeology in your region.
How can students encourage others to care about cultural resources locally?
- In order to be in the system of influence, you need to stay within your chosen career field.
- Make career decisions strategically. Choose jobs and research projects which give you opportunities to advocate for the importance of the field, support the heritage job market, and build awareness about cultural resources.
- Be an approachable archaeologist willing to talk about what that means, or even go further and do strategic outreach activities aimed at changing social and political views.
- Think entrepreneurially as an exercise. This is an industry; maybe approach the argument for valuing cultural resources from a creative angle, such as job creation. How can you “market” the values of archaeology to people?
- There are many ways to approach the field; re-evaluate your perception that one or another way is the only right way.
- Contact people who you have seen undertaking such initiatives in other places or in your own area, you could learn from their experience about how to be an effective advocate.
Key point raised during the discussions – do not confuse a career with a job
- Having an individual job is not the same as having a sense of direction or personal commitment to a particular set of issues, research questions, or methods (a career).
- You should get a job and use the money for what you really want to achieve. Take care of your well-being, but also consider that your vision for your life is part of that well-being.
- The idea of heritage as a career field is recent because people put the time and effort to make this field something worth talking about and pursuing. Almost no one has the job description “heritage professional”.
- Find mentors to help you navigate your career. Mentorship is critical, at many different levels of careers and versions of heritage careers.
How to pursue this career as a non-traditional student (being older, disAbled, or feeling left out)
- Everyone has a different path, don’t be concerned if you ended up pursuing this career somewhat “accidentally” because of your life experiences.
- Utilise your life experience to communicate more clearly, think more strategically, have confidence. Having different experiences or more years under your belt can be a great advantage.
- No one ever feels they have hit their stride!
- The main predictor of success is doing what you love and fulfils you, not your age or life path.
- How do you react to difficulties, especially as a non-traditional student? First of all, don’t underestimate the empathy of other students, even if they face different challenges than you! You probably have more in common than you realise. Second, reach out to committees, interest groups, or individual leaders in professional organisations which are relevant to you. They could help connect you to valuable resources for support.
Is it possible to work in archaeology if you get a degree in a different field?
- Getting a graduate degree in archaeology can be important because you develop key skills and resilience.
- It is all about how you present yourself when you are applying for jobs.
- Do what you love, and try to see yourself far in the future. Think through how a specific degree (a specific program of study, university, or research project) will help you achieve your aims.
- Pay attention to job listings and figure out if the jobs you would ideally like to have in the future would accept the training you are planning or already have.
Tips for writing successful grant and job applications
- All you can do is make the best application you can, tell them what they want to know, and know that the requirements can be arbitrary and are always connected to the context (sociopolitical, department personality, funding access, etc.) but you need to take them seriously regardless.
- It is very easy for committees to identify applications that will go to the “no” pile immediately. Do these things to avoid being in the “no” pile:
- If you have to write a letter, you must personalise it to the institution, job offer, or grant you are applying to
- If it is a job opportunity you are applying for, know what kind of work the department already does and how you can fit into or enhance their work
- If it is a funding opportunity, try to find out what kinds of projects or people they have funded in the past and ensure you meet the criteria
- Describe how you fulfil the criteria very specifically
- Use the language they use to describe their work and the position or opportunity
- Put your best case forward by knowing the institution you are applying to and the people who will evaluate your application, if possible.
- For funding opportunities specifically, it can be useful to seek out applications from successful candidates in the past to help you refine your own application. (Be sure to consult your academic advisors on how to ask for these – it can be considered inappropriate to ask individuals for their own funding applications.)
- If you did all the above and you did not get funding, it is not necessarily about you! It can be about the goals of the institution, formalities, the others who applied. You just need to continue working to find a good match and try to be resilient.