Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Careers in Anthropology...Hmmm...

I often find myself still wondering, what do I want to be when I grow up? This is ridiculous, because I am 32 years old, have succeeded and failed at many career endeavours, and still fatasize about taking my beat up old six string on stage in front of millions of adoring fans. This is all well and good, except that I only play 6 songs, and I sing like a South American Tree Frog baking away in the sun. Every class I attend, I try to visualize where a career in that field might be. Cultural Anthropology is no different. Is there a call for this kind of work? Are there jobs in this field, outside of teaching? What is the money like? Will the Trobrian Islanders,( who have, almost certainly by this point grown tired of the various ethnographers and researchers who customarily seek them out) accept me with open arms as I go to write yet another dissertation on them?
So I did a little checking, and one survey in particular caught my eye. It was conducted by UC Berkley in 2007. 34% of those surveyed were working (not necesarily in their chosen field). 26% were looking for work. 19% were continuing with post graduate studies, and 21% were pursuing other activities (probably doing late night blogs in a shameless attempt to escalate their GPAs.) Anthropology students were just as likely to be employed in education or non profit work as they were in other indeavours. The average annual salary reported for these graduates was $34,000. That figure is well above the national poverty line, as long as you don't plan on having more than two kids!
Though I find this subject enthralling, and feel that a career in this field would be not only challenging but also rewarding, I will stick with my aspirations at becoming a rock star, because that's just how I roll.

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