In December ShovelBums will begin accepting new listings for the ShovelBums Comprehensive Field School Directory.  Sorry for the long delay!

Field Schools are now up.  You can:

View the field schools here

Submit your field school here

When you submit an Archaeology or Anthropology teaching position or Cultural Resource Management job to ShovelBums you reach over 13,000 professional archaeologists immediately! It is easy (well kind of), read on:

NOTE: Important information about the fee structure for posting on ShovelBums is below

TL:DR:

What you need to do first is Join the ShovelBums mailing list (it is easy and fast). To prevent spam to the list, only members are able to post. It is important to note that the mailing list is maintained on a different website than ShovelBums.org (where you are right now). For your security I use Groups.io to host the mailing list, trust me, this is a good thing. ShovelBums has facilitated the hiring of over 60,000 Archaeologists and CRM professionals in 20 years. ShovelBums will help you.

Huh R. Joe?

Long Version:

First: Join ShovelBums Mailing list to be able to submit a posting.

Joining ShovelBums allows you to send job postings from your registered account. You can join ShovelBums easily following these instructions. If you are not a member of ShovelBums your post will be rejected by the server. 

After you have joined the ShovelBums mailing list you can send your job advertisement to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

How to write a good post for ShovelBums

Use these guidelines to craft an excellent and easy to read job posting that will have ShovelBums around the world dropping their trowels and lab tools and go "Whoaaa, I need to work for this company". 

SUBJECT:

• Treat your subject as if it is a mini version of the entirety of your job posting. You want to answer as much as you can about what is in the body of your posting to draw your audience in. 
  • Who, What, When, Where, Wages(!)
    • Wages are a huge thing prospects want to see. I have heard from numerous people that if a job does not include at least a wage range they will not even spend the time to enquire because there are so many jobs out there that do. 
    • Some employers do not all posting of salaries. It is time for you to make the push up the food chain and recommend that out-dated notion be updated.
• PLEASE: Include in your subject if a position is Permanent Full-Time, Temporary Full-Time, On-Call, 1099, Etc...
• Make your subject explicitly clear:
  • Clear Subject like this:  "3 Temporary Archaeology Field Technicians, Dig or Die Inc. SW Ohio, $14/hr, $35PD, Single Occ Hotel,"
  • Bad Subject like this: "I need field techs to dig in an undisclosed place, for an uncertain amount of time, good hygiene is not required"
• It is a great idea to include as many specifics as you are able to in the subject of the message. You want people to be able to see the subject and have an idea of what the job is about. 

Body:

• Do not include any personal messages to me in the body of the message! If you need to reach me you can using Rjoe at this website Url. 
• Do not include anything in the job posting message you do not want sent out. If your email includes a .sig file that has your contact information, but you don't want that sent with, you need to remove it first. I have to assume that what comes through to the list is exactly what you want sent out.
  • I do not have a Delorean, so once a posting is out, it is out in the wild. A follow up posting can be sent to correct errors and the body of the web version of your posting can be modified (but not the subject).
• Do not send ONLY an attachment. You may include attachments, but cut and paste the text of the attachment into the body of the message. If I receive a message that is only an attachment I will send it back and ask you to do this. 
• In the body of the message please include as much detail as you can.
• If your HR Department allows it, try to make your job posting personal. This will help your applications understand WHY they would like to become part of your awesome company culture. 
• If you are allowed, PLEASE PLEASE include salary information!
• Keep your formatting simple
• If you have an attachment PLEASE include a cut and paste of it within the document. Sometimes people are in extremely remote areas with unfathomably bad connection speeds. Text downloads quickly. I will reject messages with only an attachment with a message to you and you will need to resubmit it.
• Keep your message clear & concise.
• BE SURE TO INCLUDE CONTACT INFORMATION clearly in the body of the message. 
• If your posting is a Permanent Full-Time position please include your benefits package.
• A big FYI regarding how email addresses look: Email addresses included in the message are visible to everyone who receives a copy of the original posting (May 2021 ~10,000 professionals) and to everyone member who is logged into https://groups.io/g/ShovelBums. BUT if a guest is not logged in they will only see a truncated version of the contact email after the @ sign. This is to prevent Spam harvesting bots from being able to scrape the list for emails. So consider making it clear what your domain is for receiving emails. If it is your company URL then include a sentance along the lines of if email is not visible you may contact us using this user name (Name) at our website  WeDontDigDinos.com.
  • Yes, I realize this is clunky.
  • I think of it as a first-level filtering mechanism for jobs. If someone can't figure your email out from a posting where it is partially obscured do you think they will be able to interpret the transition point of a 10YR 5/6 Sandy Silt Loam to a 10YR 4/6?

Is ShovelBums just for, er, just ShovelBums level jobs?

Nope.

The name ShovelBums, which to make a long story short is my mom's tounge-in-cheek name for my CRM buddies and I back in the 80's. ShovelBums refers just to the root level of a career in CRM or academia. Any archaeologist/CRMer in the modern generation who wants to have a broad experience and understand how the work is done, from background research, site testing, and laboratory analytics does a turn as a ShovelBum.  It is a rite of passage, and ShovelBums.org is your gateway.

There are numerous people who joined ShovelBums when it was first founded who now are Principle Investigators, owners of CRM firms, and PhD's teaching at universities.

ShovelBums serves all levels of archaeology and CRM employment listings. Seriously. The name ShovelBums is just a nod to where we all begin. The reality is that a significant number of job postings are for Field Directors, Principal Investigators, Project Managers. 

ShovelBums is also beginning to branch out into posting academic positions, so be sure to let anyone you know is academia know.

What states does ShovelBums cover?

States? Oh you miss the point, I don't do anything small ;-) ShovelBums covers the entire world. 10,000+ members is a LOT of archaeologists and they won't all fit in the states!

The advantage of posting on ShovelBums is that with the massive audience of eager professionals your posting will immediately be visible to archaeologists anywhere in the world. CRM is such a small network that is likely that a ShovelBum in the southern UK will know of a buddy from field school who lives right outside of Poughkeepsie where you need that local Field Director with regional experience, ASAP.


Cost

What? I thought this was free?

Yeah, yeah, yeah....Years ago it was. But fifteen years ago when it grew from hobby size to take up a lot of time, I decided I needed to start charging for listings on ShovelBums (see below for an explanation). This also coincided with me having kids. Go figure! ;-)

The bottom line is if you are a commercial entity making a profit ShovelBums costs a minimum of $100 per job category/Academic position advertised per location (Note: This is cheap! This is 1/4 the price of a basic job on Monster.com and it is the only service that targets your exceptionally niche intended audience so quickly). But, there is always a but, the costs can vary by the type of ad you are posting. I keep my rates low by figuring that a posting is worth only a few hours loaded rate for a position you are filling. 

Note:

I define Permanent Full-Time as any position that is 40hrs a week with a minimum of a 1 year appointment. Temporary Full-Time / Seasonal / On-Call are any positions that are either for a limited period of time or for variable hours. 

Job posting fee structure (yes, it is part divination part intuition):

• If you are advertising for 5 Full-Time Archaeological Field Technicians for a permanent position from a single office, the cost would be $100. (This is just a single job category, Archaeological Field Technicians, for a single job)
• If you are advertising for 5 Full-Time Archaeological Field Technicians for a single temporary project, the cost would be $200. (This is just a single job category, Archaeological Field Technicians, for a single job)
• If you are advertising for a single Full-Time Principal Investigator the cost would only be $100 (which is stupidly cheap! I really need to rethink this one ;-)
• If you are advertising for a single Full-Time, but temporary, Principal Investigator the cost would only be $200 
• "Cattle Call", "On-Call" and "Temporary" ads (i.e. an add that reads like "We need a bunch of field people for a lot of projects in several states this summer") will be billed on a case by case basis, but it usually starts at $200. FYI Cattle Call listings can get, to borrow a term from the storied vernacular of Post-processualism, pretty whacky.  I often have to re-read these posts very carefully several times to try and divine just how many positions, in how many locations, an ad is looking for people.
  
  • In general, when you are doing a cattle call and it involves multiple states/regions/offices and it is clearly is for a number of different concurrent or overlapping projects requiring different staff I will bill accordingly. 
  • Individual On-Call/Temporary jobs are almost always billed at a minimum of $200.
  • Examples:
    • If you are advertising for 12 Seasonal Archaeological Field Technicians for a six week project in Illinois based out of one of your offices, and 3 different Temporary Archaeological Field Technicians and a Temporary Crew Chief for a concurrent separate project in Iowa, that would be $600.
    • If you are advertising for an On-Call Archaeological Monitor - That is typically $200
    • If you are advertising for Temporary Archaeological Field Technicians for the 2022 Field Season based out of one office, but working in multiple states (which implies that you have multiple concurrent projects) that would start at $300.
    • If you are advertising for Temporary Archaeological Field Technicians for the 2022 Field Season based out of multiple offices in different states/regions that usually start at $500
• These examples cannot cover ever permutation of a job posting. Seriously. Archaeologists and CRMers come up with some pretty crazy ads. LOL! I will always work with you to help you understand what my logic was on a billing and if you do not agree with my interpretation just reach out to me and I will always work it out with you. A single ShovelBums job posting covering staff to be based out of multiple offices or working concurrently/overlapping in different states can be very challenging to bill. So you can do yourself, and ShovelBums, a favor, by trying to tailor your job postings to as specific of an area as you you can.

• You can repost your ad for free within 30 days of the original posting if you need additional staff or the position is not filled. After 30 days it is treated as a new posting.

Is your company broke? Do you work for a cheap-ass administration that freaks out over using pay services?

ShovelBums is free to access, BUT if your company is in a hard spot I will never deny you the opportunity to use ShovelBums (heck, if you aren't fielding a crew, then you don't have money coming in, so you will never be able to pay!). So the deal is that you can use ShovelBums BUT when your company is back on its feet you can pay the fees like everyone else. My philosophy is that it is more important for people to know about the jobs, you and I can settle up later. Bad business philosophy, good for the profession.

I am a nice guy, I want your company to succeed. If we work together on this, we can both survive. This is not really a great business model, but my philosophy is that if I can help your firm when it is struggling and help in some small way to get it back in the black then hopefully in the future you will be able to fulfill your invoices.

• If you are a company that tis clearing over $1,000,000 a year, please consider not taking advantage of my business model. It happens. And I try to treat everyone as equals on a level playing field, but sometimes I do have to shake my head and wonder, lol. 

NOTE:

 If you are a government entity that prohibits using pay services you can still use ShovelBums. BUT I really encourage you to be sure that you can not pay, many entities actually have that option, they just don't advertise it well. Often times it just takes throwing an email out to the powers-that-be to find out. No harm, no foul ;-)

Headhunters/Recruiting Firms not affiliated with the company they want to advertise

I do not like you ;-) At all. Not you personally, recruiting person, you are just doing your job. But your employers are all almost always a major PIA to deal with and rarely pay. Sooooo. if your company is a recruiting firm you will need to pre-pay for your job posting due to previous abuses. I hate requiring that, but after 20 years you have forced this to happen. The fee structure for Headhunters/Recruiting is determined on a case-by-case basis. Please contact me for information on how to do this. email: RJoe@ This sites URL. 

Production Companies (Movie, TV, Etc...)

The only thing really good about "Producers" is that you folks make archaeologists look like philanthropists you are so cheap! Yes. I get it. You are often scoping out your "new" "great" show on a shoestring. You also are often painfully secrettive about the "content" of your show... which to often includes aliens and other nonsense (Hint: prehistoric people were amazing and fully capable of developing their own concepts, like stacking blocks on top of each other to make pyramids and charting the movements of the heavens without alien help. You can discard your racist ideologies that besmirch the incredible accomplishments of ancient cultures. But if you have a high quality show or movie you can reach out to me at email: RJoe@ This sites URL. and discuss it with me. I have helped James Cameron fill out staff for his documentaries. If your work is not some whacko POS I can probably help you too. 

Why do you charge R. Joe?

ShovelBums is my job these days (besides raising three kids). ShovelBums has over 16,500 members who have joined ShovelBums at not cost. ShovelBums has no sponsoring organizations, no outside funding, nada. That means that all of the day to day operational costs and working with 16,500+ of your peers is up to me.

The bottom line is ShovelBums is a professional service. I try to keep things very casual with ShovelBums, none of us like stuffy overly regulated things, but ShovelBums is a professional service like no other service in the world: Nothing allows your advertisement for Archaeologists and related CRM professions to reach such a vast targeted audienceimmediately. Other professional recruitment services are magnitudes of order more expensive, some even taking a base fee calculated on the annual salary of *each* position filled. 100 bucks a pop is bargain! If you accounting office does not think so, just have them drop me a note and I will be glad to discuss it with them via e-mail.



Why should I use ShovelBums?

There are anecdotal reports that using ShovelBums will increase your personal karma, restore lean muscle, and provide you with an inner peace. But there are no guarantees on that.

What I can guarantee you is that you will get a great response to your advertisement. Just do the basic math: Your advertisement is immediately sent out to 16,500+ members. Of those 15,000 members some of them will not be the right fit for your position, but it is likely they know someone who is and who is looking for work and they will forward it on to their personal network. ShovelBums also has a good penetration into universities, so there is a reasonable chance your job will be posted and distributed within academic departments in relevant areas.



Any suggestions for other resources?

Other resources? You mean, like your competition? Hey, we are all in this together! I want you to fill your position and for you to succeed. So I am happy to promote these unaffiliated resources that you can also post your job on. Note: I do not think I have updated this information in, errr, awhile.... I probably should do that during the next upgrade! So YMMV.

• Jennifer runs an excellent archaeology bulletin board with a robust job ads section on her web site http://www.archaeologyfieldwork.com/forums/index.php

• Kris has an great resource at http://archaeology.about.com/od/careersinarchaeology/Careers_in_Archaeology.htm

• Underwater Archaeology Jobs http://underwaterarchaeologyjobs.wordpress.com/

• Know of more? Drop me a note using the contact form and let me know!

Join 13000+ other professionals so you can be completely current on ShovelBums job announcements. You can learn when and where the jobs are happening, and what skills are in demand.

There are two really easy ways of joining the ShovelBums mailing list.

1 - Just send a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., respond to it, and there you go.  But....

2 - ...If you want to be able to log in to the jobs boards (that way you can see full email addresses, manage your mailing frequency, etc...) you will need to set up an account on Groups.io to manager your account. It is quite simple also, all you need to do to set that up is go to This Page.

If you have any problems joining the group please let me know using the contact form on the left (at the bottom). 

~R. Joe 

After consulting with the users of ShovelBums I am implementing a fee change effective April 5th 2011 as detailed in this message to the 15,000+ member of ShovelBums.  The new fee for posting a job will be $100 per job advertistement/job class (this is 1/4 the price of an advertisement on Monster.com).  For example: