Getting a Job in Cultural Resource Management: A Step-By-Step Guide

Most jobs within the cultural resource management industry are going to be temporary full time. What that means is you will usually be hired for the duration of a project and then let go. This has several implications. The first is that you will need to be proactive in lining up future work as whatever project you are on is coming to its natural conclusion. The second is that you must be diligent about accruing some savings to have at the ready should work suddenly become scarce.

You may or may not have heard horror stories from archaeologists about being out of work for months at a time. I can promise that this will not be you if you actively look for work and enjoy a good professional reputation. In the years I’ve been doing contract archaeology, the only involuntary unemployment I experienced for more than two weeks was during the depths of the Great Recession — and even that was for less than two months, which were handled by a mixture of unemployment benefits and savings.

There is always work somewhere. It’s just a matter of finding out who has it and where it is. For North America-based CRM archaeologists, there are two major job boards: ShovelBums and ArchaeologyFieldwork.com. They should be your first stop if you’re new to the business. But more useful ways to find work are detailed in just a moment.