The Talk is Over, on to the Next One

By the time this posts, I will have delivered a paper at one of the symposiums (symposia?) at the Society For American Archaeology's 2012 meeting in Memphis Tennessee.  Hopefully, at the time that this posts, I will be sitting in a barbecue place with a former boss of mine who is originally from Memphis enjoying some ribs.

I deeply, deeply loathe public speaking, and yet I keep agreeing to do it.  I am always concerned that I am going to come off sounding like an idiot, especially in a case like this, where my actual paper topic diverges from the symposium topic (for the record, I checked the topic with the symposium organizer before I wrote it, and she said it was fine).  The truth of the matter is that very few people will likely hear the paper (I am the last speaker in my symposium, and all of the big name speakers will already have come and gone by the point that I end up at the podium), and those who do will likely forget it after they leave - I am picking on a little-known subject in southern California archaeology, which doesn't tend to lend itself to being memorable for anyone who doesn't share my particular interests and irritants. 

So, now that I have spoken, and hopefully not made myself look too terribly foolish, I am hopefully enjoying a nice lunch, and tomorrow I catch a late flight back to California, and a 3.5 hour drive back to Fresno from the San Francisco Airport. 

And then I start on the next project.  I will be speaking to the Fresno County Archaeological Society [http://www.scahome.org/about_ca_archaeology/fresno.html#fcas] on May 7th (anyone in the Fresno area should feel free to come see the talk).  I will discuss the history of research in the Santa Ynez Valley, in Santa Barbara County, California. 

And then?  Well, hopefully then I will have nothing pressing that needs be done for a while.  I have realized recently just how stressed-out and tired I have gotten lately, and I need some time to relax, especially considering that I am going to be a father come September and that I need to be able to devote my energies to that when the time comes. 

That being said, there are a few projects that I would very much like to do - some small writing projects, and a paper that I would like to publish on an abnormally old projectile point found in Yosemite.  But I think that I need to balance my research interests against my impending family life, my job, my non-research writing interests (such as this blog), and my non-archaeology interests, and the fact of the matter is that the research is probably the thing that can be most easily minimized without impacting the overall quality of my life. 

So, we'll see.  I'd like to publish more, but I may very well decide that it's not worth the effort when compared to other things that I could be doing with my time.

Money, Don't Talk to me About Money

One of the less fun parts of my job is explaining budgets to clients. Most of the time, the client simply wants to know how much something will cost and how long it will take, and will trust us to know our business well enough to not question line items in the budget. Sometimes, however, they do want to argue, and the problem is that this usually occurs with a client who really doesn't understand what we do.

One such example comes from the first excavation that I ran. A site had been found during monitoring (where and archaeologist watches construction work to make sure no sites are damaged - it's just as exciting as it sounds, which is to say that it isn't). My boss went out to confirm that it was a site, and as per the land developer's agreement with the county, the site was to be tested for eligibility to the California Register of Historic Resources. If it was eligible, then a second excavation would be done for data recovery (the controlled and careful removal and analysis of as much of the archaeological material as is practical)*, and construction would then proceed.

So, a budget was created by my boss and sent to the client (the land developer). I was then sent to meet with the client and answer his questions. The first question: "If you're only going to dig thirty holes, how come you have a week of work scheduled? If I hired someone on my construction crew to dig thirty holes and it took them a week, I'd fire them!"

I then explained that he was unlikely that his construction crew would have reason to excavate the holes in 10-centimeter levels, run the soil through 1/8" mesh screen, and look through what was left in the screen to find artifacts. His response: "that doesn't have anything to do with how long it takes to dig a hole!"

Um, yes, yes it does. You idiot.

The discussion continued like this - he would try to compare the tasks that we had proposed in the budget to tasks that his construction crew would do, and ask why my archaeologists were going to take longer than his crew. I would explain why they would take longer (the answer to every question: we do these tasks for a different reason and actually have to look at what we're doing in a way that is unnecessary for construction), and he would insist that it should take the exact same amount of time, and so on, in circles.

Now, I can understand his concerns. Archaeologists cost money, though in this case the amount that we cost was nothing compared to the overall project budget. We also might slow things down, though we were trying to be as quick and efficient as possible. However, while I understand his worries, his insistence that archaeology should move at the same speed as construction was, frankly, absurd. Then again, I later found out that he had attempted to bribe my boss to simply not report the site, and that the bribe had been turned down, so maybe he was just pissy.

Eventually, I just pointed out that what was proposed in the budget was what was required due to the agreement he had signed with the county, and that the budget represented a worst case scenario, and we would work to be done faster than estimated, but I could make no promises. This didn't satisfy him, but the reference to his county permits did cause him to stop pestering me (maybe because of his bribery attempt).

I have since had this play out several other times - a client will insist that they know better than I do how long a task that they don't understand will take, and they will try to force my budget accordingly. It makes me grumpy.







*Everyone seems to have a story about a construction project being stopped when an archaeological site is found. This is very, very rare, and in my experience usually indicates that the project proponent (the person or organization advocating the construction) has decided to stop the project rather than simply go through with the process of evaluation and mitigation. Sometimes there is a good reason for this, often it's just obstinacy. The truth of the matter is that there is no provision in either the National Historic Preservation Act nor the California Environmental Quality Act that requires that a project be stopped to protect and archaeological site, and stories that you hear to the contrary are invariably stories told by people who haven't bothered to do any homework and are accepting urban legends at face value.

Degrees and Career

I used to think that I would get a PhD. I wanted a career in academics, and that requires a PhD*. Then I went to graduate school. I had entered UC Santa Barbara's MA program intending to switch over to the PhD program if I thought I could handle it after the first year (the first two years for the MA and PhD students were essentially identical, except that the PhD students generally had more funding opportunities). At the end of the first year, I knew I could handle the PhD program, but I no Longer wanted a PhD. I saw how the faculty had to structure their lives because of their work demands, and decided that I didn't want to be an academic. Generally, if one is an archaeologist and one is not an academic, then one works in cultural resource management, and here I am today.

In order to be successful in academics, you have to live, breathe, eat, and drink your subject. Especially early in the career, when you're seeking tenure and trying to establish yourself as a researcher and a teacher, you can expect to take low-paying, lousy jobs and work to the exclusion of other parts of your life. There are people who thrive in this sort of setting, who do truly brilliant work and love the research enough to make the sacrifices. I'm not one of them. I like a steady paycheck, I like having numerous hobbies outside of work. I like having a personal life in which I get to spend significant amounts of time with my partner. In short, I like having the sort of life that an academic career would make difficult, at least until I was well into my career and had a tenured position.

What's more, there are damn few academic jobs. The last time I bothered to look up the statistics, some time around 2005, there was something in the neighborhood of 10 PhDs granted per job opening per years. And you weren't just competing for that job with the other nine people who had earned a degree that year, you were also competing with the nine people who hadn't gotten a job the year before, the nine the year before that, the nine before that, etc. By contrast, in the year before I had finished my MA, I had received an average of one unsolicited job offer per month, and I could expect to work an average of 40-50 hours per week at most of these jobs.

Now, you can certainly get a CRM job with a PhD, and many successful and excellent CRM archaeologists have such degrees, I have had the good fortune to work with many of them. But there are few, if any, CRM jobs that require that the job holder have a PhD. The reason for this is simple - the CRM industry was created by law and regulation, and while those regulations vary a bit from government agency to government agency, none of them require a Principle Investigator (the head-honcho archaeologist) to have a degree higher than an MA, which means that no other position within the hierarchy is required to have anything higher than an MA. In fact, it is usually assumed by CRM firms (rather unjustly, I might add) that if someone has a PhD, then it means that they want to be an academic but couldn't find a job, and so many hiring managers will pass up someone with a PhD in favor of someone with an MA.

Yeah, CRM was the career path for me, and an MA was the degree for me.

Strangely, not everyone saw it this way. My advisor, knowing the academic and CRM job markets, certainly was supportive of my decision. Brian Fagan, who's last year teaching was my first year as a grad student, was encouraging of both myself and the other fellow in the grad program looking at a CRM career. The people I knew who worked in CRM were all extremely encouraging, including those who were themselves working towards PhDs. However, a few other grad students and faculty members had a different attitude.

I have spoken with other people who have attended grad schools with both MA and PhD programs, and they have told me stories of just how obnoxious the PhD students could be towards the MA students. This was not my experience. While there were a small number of snobbish PhD students who treated us MA folks badly, the majority considered us colleagues and treated us no different from the other grad students, which was appropriate seeing as how the only real difference between the MA and PhD programs were that PhD students wrote a dissertation that was potentially longer and more complex than the standard MA thesis (I say potentially because several MA students, myself included, wrote MA theses that were longer and more complex than was required of the PhD dissertations).

No, the attitude that we encountered was one that was intended to be encouraging, and this good intention was appreciated, but which grew tiresome. Most of the PhD students wanted careers in academia, and were willing to put up with all that such a career entailed. Like many people who are passionate about something, they assume that other interested people are just as passionate as they are. In truth, us MA students differed from the PhD students not in terms of our merit but we were simply less passionate than them about our topic - we were not willing or interested in making the necessary sacrifices to have an academic career, but this was something that most of the nascent academics had a hard time understanding (though, again, there were a few who did get it). Of course, it didn't help that my department had a large number of people who were interested in Peruvian temples, and as such had a hard time grasping that there are, in fact, people who are genuinely interested in hunter-gatherer archaeology and not interested in massive temples.

But, again, this was at least usually an encouraging attitude. Stranger were the sorts of things that I got from family members, primarily my mother. My father granted that I had a pretty good idea of what my career required and expected that I knew what I was doing. My sisters generally got that, but occasionally would get confused and pester me about my "stopping with just a Masters degree**." My mother seems to have now accepted that I am in a line of work where an MA is the ideal degree, but from the time I started graduate school until about a year after I finished, she would routinely express her dissapointment that I wasn't earning a PhD, and kept insisting that I would be better off with a PhD than an MA even though this was demonstrably false. Her basic logic being that a PhD would open up academic jobs, and therefore give me a wider career field. Of course, as already stated, the academic job market is so terrible that opening it up only marginally widens the job search field and having a PhD often limits the willingness of CRM firms to hire a person, so having a PhD may actually reduce employment opportunities overall. It took six years of explaining this to my mother before she finally got it.

Ultimately, this seemd to be the basic pattern: people assume that a PhD is more prestigious (arguably true) and therefore will lead to greater career success (demonstrably false), and most laypeople assume that all or most archaeologists work in a research/academic setting (about as far from true as you can get and still be in the same galaxy). As a result, when people hear what I do for a living, they start addressing me as "Dr." and when I point out that I hold an MA and not a PhD, they become confused and tend to ask why I dropped out of my PhD program, never thinking that someone in my line would actually seek an MA.

So it goes.





*With the exception of teaching at community colleges, which is actually a pretty sweet gig, but for which full-time jobs are increasingly rare.

**I always found the "you only have a Masters degree" attitude to be bizarre. It's a difficult degree to get, and only a small portion of the population has it, but because people expect someone in my line of work to have a PhD (even though most of us don't), there's this weird tendency for people outside of my profession to try to shame archaeologists who have Masters degrees.

Wrapping Up

So, as stated before, I am leaving my current job to go to another one. I will still be involved in archaeology, and in fact will be doing essentially the same job, just with a different company in a different city.

It's a strange feeling. when I came to work with my current employer, I had intended to stay there for a good many years and get re-entrenched into the Monterrey Bay area, a location that I love. I had felt that I was returning home (I grew up in the Central Valley, in Stanislaus County specifically, but moved to Santa Cruz when I was 20 and adopted it as my home), and had anticipated building a life here. If the job went away - as sometimes happens, then I would find another in the area - by that time I figured that I would have enough skills and contacts to be able to find work with another company or with an agency within the general area.

I didn't anticipate what happened, or that it would happen within 3 and a half years. My company's main projects have gradually moved farther south, and the intensity of the fieldwork has increased, meaning that I spend much more time away from home than at home these days. At the same time, several family obligations have appeared which require me to be at home. So, I have given notice at one job and accepted another in Fresno.

I am genuinely excited about the company, I have worked for them int he past and they are fantastic, but it is difficult to return to the central valley 15 years after having left it. Returning to the valley after having escaped is hard - this is something that my friends from the bay area and Southern California have a hard time understanding, but those who are from the Central Valley all understand without me having to articulate it.

The Central Valley was always a decent place to live. Those of us who grew up there simply developed a bit of an inferiority complex because of all of the attention payed to the Bay Area and Los Angeles. When I was younger, it must be said that the Central Valley was a place of limited opportunities and social rigidity. But people have moved around, economic forces have changed the map, and the Central Valley is now quite different.

The valley has changed in the last 15 years, becoming a more vibrant and dynamic place than it had been during my childhood and early adulthood. I have also changed - I am more independent, less timid, and I have learned that you can make something interesting happen and that the place where your bed is located doesn't have to limit your options or life. What's more, I am returning to the Central Valley to take a career-track job that requires an advanced degree and considerable experience, not because I failed and have to head back home.

So, here we go. I am finishing up my projects this week, and packign up my apartment.

Hating Work, Time to Join a Conspiracy...

A week and a half ago, my boss informed me that a client of ours informed him that the California Energy Commission needed an Application for Certification for a powerplant by Monday the 19th.

So, what did this mean? Well, as the AFC section for archaeology had not been written yet, I had to spend my weekend and several late nights during both last week and this week writing it (and by late nights, I mean 8 am to midnight work days). Mind you, this came on the heels of having been sent out to the desert for two weeks (which also required me working through a weekend prior to going to the desert in order to finish the projects what needed finishing at that time), and as my boss had family matters to take care of last weekend, that left me to do the work. And the project is still not done. So, I get to spend this weekend in the office with my boss trying to get the damn thing done. In the end, I will have had one weekend completely to myself in the last two months.

I am very tired.

And as if that weren't enough, I discover that a friend of mine has been secretly working with the fish to regain piscatorial dominance across the planet! Check it out: http://walkingcatfish.blogspot.com/

...and as if THAT weren't enough, scroll down the page you'll notice that one of the people that she is pimping is none other than my homeboy Brian Fagan. That's right, Fagan's helping the fishy conspiracy. How could he?

Wait a minute, anthropology has led me to high stress, no free time, and alot of frustration. Fish, on the other hand, do nothing but swim, eat, spawn, and plot to take over the world. Maybe Brian's on to something.

HOLD ON CLIFFIE! I'M HEADING TO THE BEACH AND JOINING YA'!

Great Place to Work

I recently came across the short piece pasted below while clearing out my email. A company I used to work for hands out these "Great Place to Work" awards every fiscal quarter. Because of some surreal experiences I had when I worked int he tech industry, these sorts of "morale boosting" programs always make me a bit leery. Nonetheless, the other archaeologist and I though it would be funny to nominate me because I was in the process of leaving for another job at the time, so I wrote the following essay for the nomination letter...


----------------------------------------------
To: The Great Place to Work Committee
From: Cultural Resources
RE: Nomination for the Great Place to Work Award



In order to explain how Matthew Armstrong is making this office a better place to work, it is necessary to describe a bit about Matthew himself. Matthew has earned both a Bachelor's degree and a Masters degree from the University of California, as well as certifications in archaeological technology and business administration from other institutions.

If you needed any, this is proof that standards are slipping throughout California.

Indeed, despite how impressive such laurels appear, Matthew's success demonstrates that even a poorly-trained monkey with a pervasive developmental disorder can now earn credentials that were once reserved for those who had more than simply a brain stem with which to think. In case you need any further evidence of this, we have trained a monkey to earn these same credentials, his name is Bobo and he is a Rhesus monkey. UCSB managed to place him in a management-track position with IBM's accounting division.

In Matthew's favor, however, unlike the monkey, he doesn't have to wear a diaper at work.

However, Matthew has other attributes that should be discussed here. On the subject of Matthew's breath, the kindest thing that can be said is that so long as he is spewing fumes from his mouth and nose, we needn't worry about having to fumigate for insects. As such, his lack of acquaintance with the toothbrush or Listerine is probably saving us money on pest control bills. Likewise, his general odor might be greatly improved had he ever heard of that most marvelous invention known as soap.

Though Matthew's tendency to drool may disgust many of his coworkers, it is likely that it has saved this company from being sued when documents were late due to Matthew's failings – after all, what client can fault a man who is clearly incapable of keeping his jaw shut for not producing a complex document on time.

Matthew's tendency to be resolved in his views and his ability to take action based on such resolve would be a great attribute if it wasn't for the fact that he is so wildly misinformed about the world in general that his actions are often incomprehensible, ridiculous, and just plain stupid. Who amongst us can forget the time that he took it upon himself to demonstrate that a tribe of 12" tall neandertals once lived in he Santa Barbara Airport, or the time that he laced an EIR section with comments such as "if appropriate mitigation measures are not taken, then resources will be irreparably damaged – those same resources that the reptilian overlords who really rule the Santa Barbara County Office of Planning and Development want to siphon off – so you'd better be paying attention to this document!"

Given this, it might be fair to ask why I am nominating Matthew for the "Great Place to Work Award." The reason is simple: he is leaving. While his leaving may not necessarily make this office a great place to work, it will make it significantly better

...and so here I am...

My name is Matthew, and I am an archaeologist. There, I've admitted my problem, now there's just eleven steps to go...



As I say, I am an archaeologist. Yep, like Indiana Jones. In fact, just like Indiana Jones, but with more sorting of gravel and less fighting of Nazis.



Okay, I'm nothing like Indiana Jones, but at least I'm younger than Harrison Ford. But I digress...



I work in what is known as "Cultural Resource Management" - basically, if you are trying to get building permits, you may be required to have a suite of environmental studies done, which may include archaeology, in order to ensure that the addition of bay windows to your home doesn't do incalculable environmental damage, or some such thing. If archaeological studies happen to be part of the conditions for your permit, I'm the guy you call to check out the land and make sure that you aren't going to be destroying anything (or if you are going to be destroying something, I'm the guy who digs it up and writes about it in an obscure report that nobody but me and a city planner will ever read).



The basic reasons why I have decided to start keeping this blog are threefold: 1) enough oddball things happen to me on the job that I thought it might entertain someone else to read the stories, and if nothing else it would at least let folks know what my job is like, as there are some odd misconceptions floating about out there; 2) I am trying to improve my writing, and knowing that other people wil be reading it makes me a bit more likely to put some effort into it, and besides, I might get constructive criticism, which is always welcome; 3) I have an ego the size of the Pacific and I want it fed by attention from strangers.



So, there you go. Some of my posts will be about archaeology, some will be about whatever the hell I feel like writing about. And my first few posts will be things that I had originally posted elsewhere, but there ya' go.