There are basically four career options for anthropology students:

1.    A Bachelors degree in Anthropology (and other majors) will qualify you for a wide variety of jobs and career paths that do not require anthropology, such as insurance, health care, and business.

2.    A Bachelors degree with emphasis on archaeology may qualify you for entry-level positions in archaeological fieldwork in the realm of cultural resource management.   

3.    Teaching and research positions in colleges and universities generally require at least a Masters and usually a Ph.D. in anthropology.

4.    A Masters degree in Anthropology can prepare you for employment as an anthropologist or closely related specialist in an applied or practicing role.

Most of the jobs in anthropology today are in Applied Anthropology.

Applied anthropologists find employment in a wide variety of settings, including business, industry, community development, education, health and medicine, law enforcement, the military, museums, archives, social services, nonprofit organizations, and government (www.practicinganthropology.org/practicing-anthro/). 

Anthropologists are employed in many branches of the federal government, including the Agency for International Development, the Foreign Service, the Department of Defense, the Census Bureau, the National Institutes of Health (including the Centers for Disease Control), the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service, and the National Park Service.  Fortunately, there is a tremendous surge in federal employment, which should accelerate as boomers retire, so it is “a great time to be searching for a federal job” (Federal Jobs: The Ultimate Guide, 3rd ed., p. 12.   Dana Morgan and Robert Goldenkoff.  Thomson/Arco, 2002).

In many cases, anthropologists compete for jobs with historians, geographers, sociologists, and political scientists, although the Department of Labor notes that anthropologists enjoy better opportunities than those other fields (Occupational Outlook Handbook 2006-07 Library Edition, Vol. 2, Department of Labor Bulletin 2600, February 2006, p. 184).  Indeed, the Princeton Review states that “those who choose to `apply’ their Anthropology education find vast opportunities to do so in government, industry, and museums” (www.princetonreview.com, accessed 10/4/2006).

Anthropology has strengths that set it apart from other fields of study:

•    It is holistic, seeking to understand and inter-relate all the dimensions of the human condition – biological, ecological, psychological, technological, economic, social, political, cultural and artistic.
•    It is inherently global and comparative
•    It is historical, understanding how things come into being and how they change over time
•    It is concerned with ethnic and cultural diversity

The Princeton Review (cited above) notes that “the interdisciplinary nature of the degree prepares students for careers in a variety of workplaces.”  In addition, the American Anthropological Association suggests that “anthropological study provides training particularly well suited to the 21st century. The economy will be increasingly international; workforces and markets, increasingly diverse; participatory management and decision making, increasingly important; communication skills, increasingly in demand” (http://www.aaanet.org/profdev/careers/careers.cfm#).


Links

Anthropology: Education for the Twenty-first Century
http://www.aaanet.org/profdev/careers/careers.cfm#

Applied Anthropology Careers
http://www.fiu.edu/~wiedmand/appliedanthronet/careersmain.htm