What are the career opportunities for anthropologists?

Question

I'm about to become an anthropology student in les than a year. I absolutely love this science and wish to make it part of my life, but I'm a bit unsure as to what I can actually do with this knowledge to get paid. If you're an anthropologist, please let me know how you stumbled upon you job. It would help loads. =D

Answer 1

They are very limited. I have a history degree (very useless except to show that I am kalij ejoomakated!).
You could become a museum curator---but after your degree in anthropology, count on having to go to yet another college to get a museology degree. (Best is to find a college that covers both and take one as a major and the other as a minor. Still, plan on a curator's position, which pays the equivalent of minimum wage.)
You could teach---count on getting a master's degree (at least) for this. Still, if you teach at a junior college (almost none of which would need an anthropology instructor/professor), you are expected to have a teacher's certificate (count on 2.5 years to get this after your B.A.. or if you work education courses into your B. A. curriculum count on 1.5 years after the B.A. to finish the teaching certificate requirements). Then count on two more years to get the master's degree necessary for junior college subject-teaching requirements. Or you could opt to get a Ph. D. in anthropology and teach at a four year college or post graduate college. (In short, IN YOUR DREAMS!)
I went the B.A.-in-history / teaching-certificate route. The teaching college made me get a second teaching field so I opted for English. (Public schools like history be taught mostly by p. e. coaches. I ended up teaching English! Ugh!)
Become a writer. No degree in anything needed. (Save all that tuition!) Or become a writer after you have your B.A. Still, you'll end up self employed as a freelance writer. Or you could take some journalism courses while getting your anthropology degree. Then go to work as a newspaper reporter and ask to cover history, sociology, anthropology and the like.
I'd recommend a basic, plain-vanilla science degree (biology or chemistry). That way, you've only lost four years instead of six to eight.
Good luck.

Answer 2

Great question! I have a degree in Anthropology and it is still the most useful field that I ever studied. In order to get a career however, I had to go back to school and get a second degree in biology and then go to Medical School and get an MD. I now have a career as a physician, but I will never forget the good old days! I spent 2 years as an archeologist in Central America, but those people were starting wars and it wasn't nearly as picturesque as you might suppose. I decided to try Physical Anthropology instead, but a BS won't get you a job in forensics. I worked with a dietitian in a hospital, but then I saw how they were treated and so I decided to go to medical school, however, the admissions committee said that Anthropology wasn't a true science and so I had to get a second degree in Biology (even though the Anthropology degree was harder than either Biology or the first two years of Medicine). I would not trade the Anthropology degree as it is the most useful degree overall, BUT if you want a career in Anthropology, it takes many years to get a doctorate and the pickings were mighty slim afterwards. Still, if you love it enough, then you should pursue whatever field makes you happy and I'm very serious about that!

Answer 3

Hi.

Start with looking at which field within Anthropology you are interested in, roughly categorized as Physical Anthropology, Archaeology, and Cultural Anthropology.

In the US the most opportunities are probably for Archaeologists, especially Historical Archaeolgists. The excavation of colonial sites, revolutionary war sites and Civil War sites alone will provide employment for qualified people for generations.

Physical Anthropologists are the branch that relates to the CSI TV shows, and overlaps with MDs.

Cultural Anthropologists are pretty much out in the cold except for academic jobs in teaching and museums. Most who are actually using their studies out in the real world are something like area specialists who use knowlewdge of languages and cultures in an area of the world to assist givernments, NGOs, and corproations in various places. For example, the US is begging for Middle East area specialists right now. Chinese area specialists may well be in demand for a while. ETC.

Answer 4

As an undergraduate, one of the first things I ever learned about anthropology is that you can use your education in almost any field. But the kicker is trying to get in and because not many companies are looking for an anthropologist specifically this can be difficult. You just have to be creative and almost have to create the job and explain why you are needed.
I myself teach and I love teaching but my real passion is educational anthropology and Human Rights.
My advice for you is to go into anthropology and try to figure out what your interests are. For example if you enjoy business you could go into marketing. A lot of companies are hiring anthropologists to do market research for them. Or you could go into consulting, which is something that I want to do. But regardless of whether you find a job in your field anthropology will always be useful to you in some way. Good luck! 2 links you may want to check out.
practicinganthropology.org
www.aaanet.org

Answer 5

Go to field school. It'll be a summer class in you college, and it'll allow you to work as an archaeologist in cultural resource management with just a bachelor's. You'll be low on the totem pole, but you'll get to play in the dirt all day and travel around the US. In the summer especially, there's plenty of work.

Answer 6

Unless you have a PhD. you are pretty much SOL.