What good job can you get from getting a degree in archaeology?

Question

What good job can you get from getting a degree in archaeology?

Answer 1

This question has been asked many times here.  You may want to look over some of the older answers.

I have been a professional archaeologist for 21 years, and, like you, became interested in the field at a very young age.

There are many different answers to your question. If you want to earn a living doing archaeology, there are two routes that your career might take - you can either be a consultant or an academic (think college professor). To do either professionally, you will need, minimally, a Masters degree, and to teach full time at a university you will need a PhD.

Neither route is more challenging, realistically (I have done both), but even with all of the credentials in the world, getting a job in the academic world is very difficult and more a matter of luck than anything else. I generally do not recommend pursuing academic archaeology to people who are not independently wealthy. But either way, you will be in college for a fairly long time and finding a job after school may be more of a challenge than your professors say.

If archaeology as a whole interests you, then you should consider learning about how it is practiced in the private sector by consultants. The job opportunities for consultants are better, the variety of projects is wider, and there is simply more money in it.

Patience and the ability to travel are key to either path. But traveling around the world and often is atypical.

Best of luck! I don't mean to sound discouraging - after all, if I have done it, so can you! And archaeology is a fun and very rewarding way of life. Be ready to work hard though, and don't expect everything to be as interesting as what you see on TV.