Bethany W.

Digital heritage consultant
Happy to mentor
Happy to be contacted

About me

Bethany W.
Archaeology
Archaeology of Buildings/ Digital Heritage
Taught Postgraduate
Wentworth
2019
United States

My employment

Digital heritage consultant
Experience Heritage (self-employed)
United Kingdom
Small business (0-49 employees)
2018

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A day in the life of a Digital heritage consultant in the United Kingdom

Buildings archaeology combined with digital heritage

My career goals when I graduated

Combine buildings archaeology with digital heritage, begin my own consultancy, and go for a PhD.

My career history

Before my Masters, I was in film and have also worked in customer service and office settings.

What has helped my career to progress

Talking to people about are similar passions. The unintentional network I’ve developed just because I was nerding out with someone about our research ideas and it led to many other introductions and opportunities.

Courses taken since graduation

I’m currently working through an online course for Unity as I’d like to use gamification as an aspect for archaeological research

How my studies have helped my career

What I learned at York and the opportunities I’ve been provided there is the basis for where my career is going today. For instance, learning 3D modeling has been essential for where my career has gone.

What surprised me about my career so far

How many opportunities there seem to be just within my own York network.

Where I hope to be in 5 years

Having completed a PhD and working on a Postdoc that encorporates digital research into archaeology

My advice to international students looking for work in the UK

Look into the entrepreneur visa and speak to the career centre about it. Consider the possibility of starting your own consultancy or firm.

My advice to students considering work

Don’t balk at opportunities that don’t appear to be perfectly aligned with your dream career. Many opportunities can lead to other things and a variety of skills is always a positive thing.

My advice about working in my industry

Develop as many skills as you can, take every opportunity that you can, say yes as long as it will be a positive experience for you.

Other advice

Combing passions may seem strange but may also lead to you becoming very niche and sought after. Keep an open mind.

Contacting me

I helped out doing buildings survey in Jersey last year and would be happy to speak to people about this kind of experience.
I’m also happy to discuss digital heritage and buildings archaeology or a combination of the two.
Also, I can provide insite on being an international student and a non-traditional student, having switched careers in my 30s.
Anything, really, doesn’t hurt to ask!

What I do

Research, digital modeling and other digital project work creating visualizations for heritage groups, museums and private owners.

How I started my business

Making contacts within the University of York really helped my network grow and put me in touch with clients seeking my specific work.

What inspired me

Starting a consultancy seemed like the best option for this kind of work and would allow me the freedom to work on the kinds of projects that interest me most

Skills I use and how I developed them

I largely use programs like 3DS Max, Photoshop and Photoscan for my projects and learned digital modeling and photogrammetry during my Master’s program at the U of York

What I like most

I love the creativity mixed with research that this career provides and also the combination of computer work and field work.

What I like least

I’m just starting out so there are a lot of large learning curves for me that I have to work through.

What surprised me most

One never really knows if your dream business and the services it provides will appeal to anyone and it’s always a nice surprise to see that those skills are sought after.

Next steps...

If you like the look of Bethany ’s profile, the next steps are down to you! You can send Bethany a message to find out more about their career journey.

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