What sorts of jobs are available in the field of archaeology, ancient history etc. ...?

Question

If I were to major in fields such as those, what kinds of job oppurunities would I have? Museum curator, I suppose, or teacher, but I don't want to teach. Any ideas?

Answer 1

A researcher..

=]

Answer 2

Fortunately for you, only a small percentage of the professional archaeologists employed in western societies teach.  Most of us work in cultural resource management (also known as heritage management) as full-time researchers.  There are also a few who work in museums as curators and technicians.  

Your best bet to start with is to volunteer with a local university or state archaeological society to make sure that this is what you really want. Once you've affirmed your commitment, here are some of the realities of the job market:

* 90% of professional archaeologists in the USA (and in most developed nations) work as consultants, not at colleges or universities.

* To do archaeology professionally and to make a decent living at it, you really need - minimally - an M.A. and 3 or more years of fied experience. Even with these credentials, most decent consulting firms won't take you seriously until you have paid your dues through hard part-time work for a while.

* There are very few academic jobs out there. Earning a PhD will not guarantee you a job anywhere, and can be a hindrance if you plan on going into consulting. Most firms will assume, unless you have been active as a consultant throughout grad school, that you really want a teaching job, and will be hesistant to hire you as a consultant. Also, the amount of time usually required to earn a PhD means that you will have limited time to gain field and lab experience which are appropriate aand practical for the consulting field while in grad school. Many PhDs are awarded to people with very little real experience in archaeology every year. These people have very limited prospects anywhere because there is no shortage of PhDs out there to fill the few academic positions out there and there are scads of more qualified people who have developed a longer list of experiences for consulting jobs.

Sorry if this all sounds negative. Here is the up-side. If I can do it, so can you!