Career Compass: Anthropology
Bridging theory and practice in an extremely broad field.
You’ve likely already been asked — “what is the one thing you will do with your Anthropology degree?” This question can be so daunting. The reality is that there are many things you can do! Careers are not linear. Your career is a combination of your skills and experiences, values, and beliefs, some of which you have already developed at the U of A! Lists of career options for your degree programs are a good starting point to research occupations and identify job skills and requirements for your potential career options.
In this entry of Career Compass, we’ll be focusing on Anthropology and some of the more unconventional career options that you could choose to pursue once you’ve finished your degree!
Curious about getting involved with our Anthropology program? Take a look at admission requirements, learn more about the program, look into the Anthropology Honors option, and sign up right here!
Student Advisor
After completing your degree here at the University of Alberta you’ll have been through most of the hardships and trials that student life can throw at you. From experiencing countless exam seasons to registering for courses, or having to apply for things like student awards or deferred exams, the institutional knowledge that you’ll accumulate during your degree can prove extremely useful if you’re interested in working in post-secondary education.
As a student advisor you’ll be responsible for working with students through any trouble they’re having with their degree, responding to issues they run into with scheduling and course registrations, advising students on the best course of action for them based on their unique goals and resources, and more as required. No two students are alike and neither are their needs, and you’ll have the opportunity to get to work with the same students for many years as you set them up for success during their time at your institution.
Advisors, at least here at the University of Alberta, usually operate on 3 levels. The first level works with a broadly-defined group of students who are interested in attending the institution but need help navigating the registration processes and getting their university careers off the ground. The second level are faculty advisors, who process requests related to degrees, changes of program, deferred exams, and other faculty-level concerns that students may have during their studies. The third and final usual advisor level are department advisors who handle issues related to specific courses along with the team of professors and administrators who are part of their team. Regardless of which level interests you most, you’re guaranteed to do some real good for students during your time on the job!
Curator
Museums across Alberta, Canada, and the world always need properly trained and educated anthropologists to help them manage their collections and displays! If you’re interested in tactile work that requires you to use your hands and manage a physical space every day on the job (without going as far as conducting fieldwork) this is definitely a solid option for you.
One Canadian example crafted specifically for Anthropologists is the UBC Museum of Anthropology, where graduates could find employment organizing culturally-sensitive artifacts in a respectful and appropriate Canadian context. As long as humans and own cultures continue to exist there will always be more to discuss, display, and study in settings like this.
Depending on your unique focus of study throughout your degree you might be interested in working at any of the countless internationally-based museums and cultural institutions looking for new employees.
GIS Analyst
GIS is an acronym for Geographic Information System, and usually refers to mapping tools that allow analysts to use a spatially-accurate geographical base model to express data. You’ve probably seen countless examples of GIS at work on government websites, newspaper articles, and academic reports. What does this look like? Imagine a map of Edmonton with layers that show you all of the different locations of every coffee shop, fruit tree, elevation level, one-way street, or just about anything else you would want to collect information about. Much of this data is already public and ready for use in GIS software, check out some of the U of A’s freely available data sets or the City of Edmonton’s Open Data Portal for some examples.
Our Department of Anthropology provides students with the knowledge and perspectives required to understand humans and our material conditions throughout history and in the present, and that kind of education can be extremely valuable when it comes to gathering, interpreting, arranging, and presenting complex information using GIS tools.
GIS Analysts use their ability to chart information across time and place through GIS tools to benefit whatever group they’re working with, from private companies to government agencies, and even for advocacy purposes when trying to show the positive/negative impact of different actions or policies.
Interested in learning more about and how to use GIS tools? You can take EXERM 4274 — Fundamentals of GIS through our Faculty of Extension!
Archaeologist
Based on your path through the Anthropology program here at the U of A this might already be the most logical career choice for you! Archaeologists and biological anthropologists explore the deep history of human diversity through the archaeological record, and in practice archaeologists spend time actively uncovering, restoring, and cataloging new entries to the archaeological record.
This job might not match up to those expecting an Indiana Jones-style adventure, but it’s a crucial role when it comes to progressing all of the humanities and social sciences forward. If you like traveling, spending time in nature, handling artifacts of all kinds, and working with your hands, this really is too good of a career to pass up.
A MA in Classical Archaeology is also offered by the Department of History, Classics, and Religion here at the U of A, and offers students the chance to conduct a directed research project to expand their understanding of Archaeology as a field.
Teacher
Take the knowledge and skills you’ve gained during your degree and pursue a career as a teacher and educator! Your knowledge of human civilization, anthropological research, languages, and the evolution of ethnographic identities over time can be invaluable in a position tasked with expanding the horizons of young minds. Social Studies and English are two subject areas for middle-school and high-school teachers, but with the right credits, you can apply to become any kind of teacher you’d like!
If you’ve got a passion for working with people, never having 2 identical days at work, and continuously gaining new knowledge and perspectives, this can be an amazing career choice. As a teacher, your job is to provide students with new information in your subject area and assess their learning to ensure they properly understand the concepts presented. Sounds a bit vague, right? That’s because you get a lot of flexibility in how you present information and assess understanding, meaning you get to define what kind of teacher you want to be.
Want to follow this career path and teach in elementary/middle/high schools? The University of Alberta’s amazing Faculty of Education has Primary and Secondary Education After Degrees available for you to pursue and lets you leverage your existing education to gain an entirely new skill-set and degree after just 2 short years (practicum included).
Policy Advisor
Language, culture, history, and identity play a massive role in shaping who we are as individuals and as an entire society, and as someone trained in a field that helps you study about and recognize the importance of these phenomena you are positioned perfectly to help guide policies that tackle these exact subjects.
Whether it be a municipal, provincial, or federal government agency, or any other type of large organization with unique goals, if their work covers interactions with any of these complex social factors your skills will be in demand as a Policy Advisor or other type of consultant.
“The purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences.”
-Ruth Benedict
This type of position is an excellent opportunity to bridge what you learn about in your Anthropology program and work that lets you make tangible social change. If you’re interested in topics of social equity and inclusion, Indigenous representation and reconciliation, macro-level institutional planning, and policy-making more generally, this is definitely the type of role that you’ll want to consider. Depending on your specific interests in the field of Anthropology you can definitely find roles that cover topics that matter the most to you, especially if you’re interested in travelling to different places to do so.
In Anthropology (or any other Arts field) but aren’t sure how to gain work experience in your field of interest? Get in touch with the wonderful folks on our Arts Work Experience team!
If this list still didn’t scratch your itch for interesting careers for U of A Anthropology graduates, book a Career Advising Session with the U of A Career Centre or check out this huge list of career resources provided by the Department of Anthropology!
This article was written by Logan Bourdon from Arts Undergraduate Services, Laura Kerslake from the HUB Career Center, and Maïlys Paccoud who is an Anthropology student at the University of Alberta and currently works with Laura’s team at the HUB Career Centre.
