I completely agree,
I've heard a lot of blither lately from friends and colleagues that tell
me that sending out a billion resumes is the way to get a job...or that you
need the right kind of skills.
That might be, but my experience also has taught me that the only good
jobs I've ever gotten have been through people I knew.
Nine times out of ten I see people without the qualifications
getting into a job because of their dad, friend or connection. They then
either screw up or work hard and learn. But to get in the door you need
that connection, and without it it's much, much harder.
And this applies in business as well as archaeology.
Cheers,
Paul
----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel H. Weiskotten" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2001 4:20 PM
Subject: Re: job solicitations
> I've just come home from a much needed trip to Disneyworld, and have a
> couple hundred messages to pour through, so if I am beating a dead horse,
> please forgive.
>
> I just spent the last 9 months going through that miserable employment
> search. I am unfortunately one of those people who has that well rounded
> and extensive background that everyone talks of as being the way to go,
> but, to tell you the truth, I think that is what has hurt me the most.
>
> There is so much more to the job search than writing up a good resume. I
> went through corporate training on how to "sell yourself" and I can't use
> any of it because it our field that behavior is consiudered rude and
> offensive. Yup, I've goofed and sent resumes to the wrong name, but I
have
> always done lots of research and made lots of contact to be sure to whom I
> was sending it, and what the job being offered was all about, and that I
> was qualified or could meet their needs.
>
> I am very aware of the more pressing things than replying to a resume but
> only about 10% of the people to whom I applied or wrote ever sent any
> response - even when they solicited me for more information. If I was
> lucky I would get asked months later if I was still looking for work.
> Lately I have had a few part-time projects simply because I was another
> name on the bottom of the list of people to contact when the regular staff
> was short.
>
> Having that rounded background (and a dual-MA in Public History and
> Archaeology) was a killer because the archaeologists simply said we have
no
> need for an historian and the historical agencies (historic house museums,
> libraries, archives, etc.) all simply said we have no need for an
> archaeologist. I will forever thank Dave Muraca at Colonial Williamsburg
> for being the only person to actually had the guts to honestly tell me
that
> I was over qualified for anything they could ever offer me (not for the
> jobs they have but for the structure of hiring and promotions). Most
> places I asked or interviewed simply dropped me and I can only assume that
> my desire for a regular lower-than-my-skill-level position was a bit
> intimidating (or I was a victim of the "gypsy" stigma of being a well
> trained person seeking work as a shovel bum - there must be something
> wrong) (I need a freaking job to put food on the table is the reason) (not
> to mention that my high title of Project Director in NY equates with a
> lowly crew chief in VA). I felt severe pity for the one interviewer who
> clearly would have been qualified to be not much more than a field tech on
> one of my major projects.
>
> By the time I was nearly 40 I had had only one job interview in my life -
> and it lead to a good job. OK, so I was jaded by the experiences of the
> first half of my life. I have always found work through connections but
> since I moved to VA I found that I could not rely on any of them because
> there were no connections between my old places and here. People here
> don't even know the fine work one of my best references in neighboring MD
> let alone anyone I worked with in NY. The best jobs I have had were
always
> obtained through word of mouth and personal connections. For years I had
a
> wonderful sequence of jobs that relied only on reputation and trusting
word
> of mouth, and I'm not just talking about archaeology but also my work in
> museums, libraries, and historical societies. That all ended when I moved
> out of my "home realm" and to that might-as-well-be-foreign land of
> Virginia. (My wife, on the other hand, can simply say "I'm a Winterthur
> Fellow" and all the rest is acceptable.)
>
> It also depends on whom you know. I don't consider my mentioning names of
> people I have worked with to be "name dropping" because I have worked with
> these people and they know me as well as I know them, but I see so many
> people doing the classic name-drop of people they met once at a meeting -
> that is clearly wrong! When I first moved to VA I did do a little name
> dropping, in the manner of "I talked with so and so" and it killed me in
> some avenues of work and research for I soon found that the names I had
> mentioned (although they are two of the finest archaeologists in VA) had
> recenly fallen out of favor with the powers that be. Right then and there
> I had a major door slammed in my face. I still hold these two guys in
high
> regards but since I do not know the politics of the situations I am forced
> to forever use their names in caution - and the names of anyone else in
VA,
> for that matter.
>
> This is not something that is restricted to archaeology. I have faced it
> with my other avenues of employment. Working in the cultural studies
> fields, non-profits, civil servant, ... literally any job where you can
> feel that you have a real impact on the quality of life and understanding
> of the world.
>
> On that note I am preparing to take my skills off to the private sector
and
> do some CAD and CAM work for someone who is going to pay me what I am
> worth, is going to make me work only 8 hours a day, will give me health
> insurance, will give me a day off with pay when the weather is nice, and
> knows that retirement benefits and investments are an important aspect of
> self-preservation. Oh, not to mention they will pay me well more than
> double what I ever dreamed of earning as a top-level archaeologist. Now I
> can think about paying off those student loans I so eagerly accumulated a
> decade ago and which have now escalated far and above the sum total of
what
> I have earned over the last 20 years of my career. And I'll finally put
> those college degress to use = as toilet paper.
>
> Dan W.
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