Natalie W.
About me
| Natalie W. | |
| History | |
| Archaeology and History | |
| Undergraduate | |
| Goodricke | |
| 2007 | |
| United Kingdom |
My employment
| Assistant Supervisor | |
| North Pennines Archaeology Ltd. | |
| United Kingdom | |
| Library, museum and information services | |
| 2009 | |
| £7500~7500 | |
| £20000~5000 |
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A day in the life of a Assistant Supervisor in the United Kingdom
Courses taken since graduation
N/A
Where I hope to be in 5 years
I hope to be able to advance within field archaeology to gain more experience in the sector in a wide variety of settings, but also in the long term I hope to undertake a masters degree and move into heritage management.
My advice to students considering work
Use your time at unviersity wisely; if you know what you would like to do after university try to gain as much experience outside your degree course as possible. If you do not know what you want to do, try lots of different things, gaining experience in lots of different areas that you feel that you might be interested in, the experience that you gain will help you decide what you enjoy and want to do, and the experience you gain and the contacts you make might just be essential in getting you the first break that you need.
What I do
As an assistant supervisor I am still able to excavate on some projects, but I do have other responsibilities that prevent me from actually excavating. I run and manage small projects onsite, managing the running of the site day to day and supervising site staff, under the over guidence of a project manager, who is ususally office bound. I could also be working on site under a more senior staff member on larger projects, acting as an intermediate between a more senior staff member and the site staff, keeping them motivated and working to schedule and generally supervising what goes on onsite. I could also be working on my own. I do not only work on archaeological excavations, I also work on watching briefs, excavations and photographic and topographical surveys. When not out on a project I undertake post excavation work, such as (very occasionally) finds processing; digitisation and producing computerised plans and drawings; writing client reports about a site or project. I work anywhere in the country where the company send me.
Skills I use and how I developed them
My degree, and over a year working in commercial archaeology, including 6 months working for North Pennines Archaeology on a previous project.
Degree skills:
Without my degree I would not have been able to take this position. Various aspects of the archaeology aspect of my degree have been useful, although this is mainy the practical skills rather than the academic side, such as having used specific computer programmes or pieces of equipment before. The academic knowledge comes in with a knowledge and understanding of specific sites, site types, taphonomy, or knowledge of speicific topic areas such as being able to recognise types of animal bone or periods to which pottery belong. Transferable skills from both archaeology and history have been useful, such as for writing reports, analysing data etc.
Extracurricular skills:
Commercial archaeology is a completely different world to academic and research archaeology, and in one sense you need to throw a lot of what you have learnt or been used to out of the window, and get used to a whole new way of doing things, and whole new set of procedures. The academic degree is a useful background on which to base your new learning and skills and from which to advance and move forward. If you think that with a degree in archaeology you are a fully developed field archaeologist, you can think again. You need to be open to these changes, to be determined to succeed and above all work very hard to prove yourself, because you are going to be working alongside people who have vastly more experience than you do. Before university and whilst studying I took every opportunity to go on as many excavations as possible, and to try as many different aspects of archaeology as possible, excavation, topographical survey, building survey, post-ex work, museum work and so on. This was really useful in getting a taster of the different areas on offer, and working out where in the sector I wanted to be. My excavation experience as a student or volunteer was useful in getting my first position in commercial archaeology, but in this sector as in many others who you know is as important as what you know, so making contacts outside the academic setting, at local firms, museums etc is vitally important, and was how I managed to break into a difficult sector and start my career. Also, a driving licence and access to a car is essential.
What I like most
It is varied, no two days are the same, you get to try your hand at lots of different things and learn lots of new skills.
What I like least
Long distance travelling and being away from home. Time restrictions and pressure of getting the job done in what is often a very short time.
What would I change? More job security and better money
Next steps...
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