Episode 85: Class of 2024 - Brigid, MA Archaeology and Social Anthropology

Brigid Golden shares her experience of a quick turnaround from student work to her full-time graduate job. Matt and Brigid also talk about the difficulties of finding jobs that align with their degrees, with digging now taking a backseat in Brigid’s new role. Brigid is currently thriving at a local charity that works to preserve Edinburgh’s build heritage.

Multi Story Edinburgh is a student-produced podcast that features snapshots of life as a new graduate. Each episode features a different path and a different story. In this season Matt speaks to five recent graduates from the Class of 2024 about the ins and outs of post-graduation life.

Multi Story Edinburgh has been created and produced by the Alumni Relations team at the University of Edinburgh. If you are interested in telling your story, please get in touch and let’s talk!

All opinions expressed are those of the individual and do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Edinburgh.

Music
Detective Begining Adventures by KonovalovMusic. Sourced from Tribe of Noise.

Transcript

[Theme music]

Brigid  00:00

And so I kind of wanted to give myself the time to branch out slightly and just see what. You know, what helped me move my career forward? You know, because picking a master's right away might not necessarily be what would help me get to my you know, end goals.

Matt  00:19

Okay, end goals, you said it. What are they?

Brigid  00:23

I shouldn't have said it. Gosh.

Matt  00:30

I'm Matt O'Malley, your host for season six of multi story, Edinburgh, the podcast which tells the stories of our recent graduates as they begin to navigate life post graduation. These are really unique and insightful conversations for those who are going through or anticipating the plunge that is graduating. So whatever your path may be, however sure or unsure you are about your next steps, this is the place for you, and today we speak to Bridget.

Brigid  00:58

So I'm from the States originally, St Paul, Minnesota, kind of right by Canada. I like to pretend I'm Canadian, but I studied archeology and social anthropology.

Matt  01:11

And where are you at right now? What is Bridget doing?

Brigid  01:15

I've mostly just been working full time since graduating. So I work at a heritage protection charity here in Edinburgh.

Matt  01:23

Nice. And when did that job start? Was that before your graduation ceremony or after? When was it?

Brigid  01:29

So I actually started volunteering there back in, I think, probably November time. So actually, there was an email from the school of HGA right at the bottom bit a little volunteering opportunity. So I reached out to them, and I spent few months coming in a couple times a week, just doing some kind of admin work. And then few months before graduation, they offered me a job there, so I started working part time, and after graduation, I moved to full time, so kind of a nice, slow transition.

Matt  01:59

Yeah so it's felt like that. It's felt like dipping your, you've dipped your toe in during studies, and then you didn't necessarily have this period of, ah, what am I going to do? Because you're already in contact with these people?

Brigid  02:11

Yeah, exactly. It was kind of nice. It was a conversation for a few months that I, you know, might be able to get a job there. So I had the kind of backup option the whole time.

Matt  02:20

Yeah. Sounds fantastic. Remind us,It's a charity, and it it looks to conserve the heritage of Edinburgh?

Brigid  02:27

Yeah, yeah. So it's they kind of call themselves an advocacy group, or advocacy organisation, and they have a lot of conversations with the City Council and city planners and then different development groups that are working across Edinburgh, and we'll just kind of come in and assess if a development is, you know, successfully preserving Edinburgh's built heritage, or if it's destroying that. And then we'll kind of get in touch with the council and put our opinions forward.

Matt  02:59

Tell us what a bit more in detail what the job entails.

Brigid  03:03

So my job title is the outreach and development officer, and it's kind of covers a lot of different things. So I'm still doing a lot of administrative work. So we're a membership organisation. I'm handling the membership database, so getting used to excel and access and stuff like that. And then I do a lot of just outreach work. So I'm putting out newsletters, writing blogs, creating a lot of content for social media, like for just different educational purposes. And I'm also meant to be assisting our 150th anniversary event. So we're reaching our year, 150th year anniversary in 2025, we're going to be putting a lot of events on.

Matt  03:49

So I guess I see it as kind of linked to what you studied in a way, yeah. So yeah. Is that how you first got involved with this charity kind of heritage, I guess.

Brigid  03:59

Yeah, yeah. I wanted to kind of see if I could use my degree, because I think with a lot of humanities degrees, I think everyone kind of has this feeling of, you know, there's not really a clear set path forward. And, you know, the job market is kind of oversaturated. You know, there's not a lot of opportunities a lot of the time, at least not if you stick really strictly to your, you know, degree. So I knew I wanted to be kind of heritage adjacent, you know, kind of tie that in. So I kind of reached out to them, and I thought this is a good application of my skills. I have an understanding of, you know, Edinburgh's history and all of that. And it's also been really fun, because I've been able to put out some pieces about archeology in Edinburgh. We've got a meeting with the city archeologists coming up. So it's been really nice, because it's such a small organisation, I'm able to tailor my position to kind of fit with my degree as well.

Matt  04:53

So you said humanity is not necessarily having that clear path. When did you first become sort of conscious of that? And maybe take steps towards looking to apply what you've studied with the external charity or whatever.

Brigid  05:06

I think it was in third year we had a lecture in one of our archeology modules where they brought in someone from a local archeology company, and he gave us a lot of really interesting insights, but it was overall, kind of a discouraging presentation about the job market.

Matt  05:24

In the archeology field?

Brigid  05:25
Yeah, yeah. You know, a lot of stuff about it's really difficult to, you know, get good pay, find a job that is in the place that you want to be, because with archeology, you're moving around a lot.

Matt  05:36

Absolutely.

Brigid  05:37

So, you know, it was a bit discouraging, I think, and I ended up doing a short mentorship week there. And just kind of like dipping my toes into that world a bit, yeah. And I think I just realized that in to go into commercial archeology, you actually do a lot of the times, need a master's in something. And so that's when I kind of realised that, you know, this might not be my immediate first step after graduating, and then I might kind of step into something else, yeah, for a bit.

Matt  06:06

So was that more of just, yeah, not feeling like you want to do a Master's at this point?

Brigid  06:12

Yeah, I mean, a lot of it is just like, financially, a lot of people, for a lot of people, getting a master's right after graduating is not the most accessible thing. And, and I also just wanted to kind of go out and get a sense of what else I might be interested in. And because I did pick archeology slightly on a whim. And, yeah, but it was just kind of sounded cool. And, you know, it drew on a lot of things I was interested in. And so I kind of wanted to give myself the time to branch out slightly and just see what, you know, what helped me move my career forward? Yeah, because picking a master's right away might not necessarily be what would help me get to my you know, end goals.

Matt  06:51

Okay, end goals, you said it. What are they?

Brigid  06:55

I shouldn't have said it. Gosh, and I think probably working in kind of heritage outreach and community work and public archeology and stuff like that. I spent last year working with the Edinburgh archeology outreach project. So it's a society at the University of Edinburgh, great society. It's a lot of fun. We check them out. But we just kind of go to different schools, and we'd work with like, Brownie groups and Girl Guides and stuff like that, and teach them about archeology. We just do a lot of fun, like hands on activities. And I think that was really rewarding, because I got to just see how, you know, how excited these kinds of things make people. Yeah, so I want to kind of continue that in the future.

Matt  07:44

Nice, so the hands on stuff in archeology is what immediately springs to mind, digging, frankly. So does it actually involve digging? And how close are you to being Indiana Jones?

Brigid  07:58

So close this close. Well, for the archeology degree, you do have to do at least three weeks of field work, yeah. So I completed that on Arthur's Seat after my second year or before my second year, rather. Okay, so we spent a couple weeks up there digging an Iron Age Hill fort.

Matt  08:18

Oh, wow.

Brigid  08:19

Yeah, So that was a lot of fun.

Matt  08:20

Amazing. Yeah, was it already, it was already known, it was there. So you were doing the Yeah, literally, the groundwork, yeah, of how to discover it. Yeah, is it? Is it still there to see?

Brigid  08:32 

Yeah, it is. It's. It's difficult to see, but you can, if you go up to near the top, there's a few kind of ridges, and you can see the stones, and it's just a path, kind of all along the top there.

Matt  08:43

So in saying that you kind of picked archeology on the whim. What was your background, and did you know that you would have this enthusiasm or not?

Brigid  08:53

I think I was always just quite interested in history. And just back in school, I was, you know, really big into my history classes, and I also always really enjoyed English and writing, and I wanted to do something that would kind of bring those together, because archeology is also very heavily essay based as a degree, but at the same time, there's a lot of scientific aspects that go into it. So I got to end up doing my dis on different biomolecular methods for detecting leprosy and skeletons. So it was, it was kind of fun, because you get to just draw on so many different subject areas, and you're really not limited to to what you're doing. You know, you can be reading some kind of historical records and then finding a site, and then doing some, you know, scientific analysis on what you find. So you really get to just do a little bit of everything.

Matt  09:47

Yeah, during your studies, thinking about your path, what were your feelings about the future? Basically, when did you start thinking about it?

Brigid  09:55

Yeah, I would say I started thinking about it quite late. I think it didn't really hit me until kind of the middle of fourth year. It wasn't really on my mind at all. Yeah, what's the next step? I knew I wanted to stay in Edinburgh, and that's about it, but I started thinking about it in kind of middle, like probably December time, thinking, Okay, I need to figure out where I'm going to apply. How am I going to create a CV. Kind of all of that.

Matt  10:21

You said it was kind of a long conversation with your now colleagues before you landed this job, but you were applying to other stuff.

Brigid  10:28

Yeah, yeah, because it was quite up in the air. And given the size of this organisation, decisions take a long time, because they're run by a board of trustees, and everything has to go through them. So kind of the decision on taking on a new staff member was a slow process, so I didn't bank on that at all. So I started applying.

Matt  10:49

And what kind of stuff were you looking into?

Brigid  10:51

A lot of kind of outreach work, a few different commercial archeology jobs. So I did, I did get one in London, but it was a, like a 12 week contract, okay? And so I just didn't think that was necessarily worth it.

Matt  11:04

Worth it, yeah, yeah. So putting the feelers out with these applications, kind of giving yourself that security or just giving yourself maybe options. Did you receive things back?

Brigid  11:15

Yep. So I probably sent out, like a good 15 applications, and and some of them, I never heard anything back from yeah and a couple, you know, moved on to the next stage. A few of them were just kind of immediate things, but for the most part, the vast majority were rejections.

Matt  11:34

Ok.

Brigid  11:35

And I think partially that was because I was just applying to anything that I that I came across, even if it seemed a bit out there, yeah, I just thought I'd give it a go.

Matt  11:45

I know good for you. I speak to loads of people in the same situation, handling kind of these rejections, where you have made an effort with each one, yeah, how does, how do you how did you deal with that, and how did you feel?

Brigid  11:57

It does get discouraging. I think it's hard. It is hard to, you know, get a rejection back and just be like, Okay, back to square one. Yeah, you know, I think every time you submit an application to you think about what your life is going to be like when you get that job, and then that kind of just goes away. And I think just the most important thing was just having other things lined up, and not necessarily, you know, job offers, but just other applications that you're working on or, and I was pretty much just focused on jobs, but even if you're, you know, looking at a trip you wanted to go on, or some kind of volunteering you wanted to do, just having other things lined up, I think kind of helps take that weight of rejection off of you a little bit.

Matt  12:38

I think actually, for me, throughout my studies, I've been very conscious of degrees kind of give prescribed paths in life. And I'm like you, I studied humanities, so I know I'm conscious of that, dare I say, jealous sometimes. Is that a feeling?

Brigid  12:55

Oh, absolutely, yeah. When I talk to, you know, my friends that have done STEM degrees, and it's just so much more clear in a lot of ways. And that's also speaking from the outside. So maybe the grass is always greener, but I think, you know, you see a lot of those kind of degrees. They have a lot of, you know, industrial placements and things set up through the uni, yeah, to kind of give them a taste of what it's like to work in their field.

Matt  13:19

Yeah and experience.

Brigid  13:22 

Yeah. And I think, like, a lot of the time, the humanities don't quite get those opportunities, just, you know, they're just not there.

Matt  13:28

No.

Brigid  13:28

And, and so it's hard not to feel a bit like lost sometimes without that guidance.

Matt  13:35

Yeah. I mean, personally, I think it's, it shows a lot of self drive and motivation and strength on the end of us, the poor humanities students you know, actively seek out those opportunities or that experience that you might not know what it will lead to, but it will go somewhere, and then if you don't like it, you don't like it. Yeah, that's, that's a feeling that I have, and I think it's good to talk about, or like to share it with the similar position?

Brigid  14:02

Yea, I think it also it prepares you to really analyse, kind of your skills and what you could bring forward to a job, because you do have to be a bit more open minded about what you might go into. And I think there's also a lot of value in that, you know, you're just kind of spending a lot of time thinking about, like, what kind of transferable skills do I have? What else am I interested in? Yeah, you know, you're not necessarily pigeonholed into a path which is, you know, has its benefits and downsides.

Matt  14:30

Yeah. What would you value in a dream job? It doesn't necessarily have to be highest earning whatever. What are you What do you hold as important things?

Brigid  14:39

I always get a lot of just kind of fulfillment from knowing that I'm providing some kind of value to someone and helping in some kind of way, yeah, and so I think that's really important to me, and that's kind of why like outreach work, yeah. And it's kind of something that I'm hoping to get into, just because I think it's nice to be able to see that your work is, you know, doing something to kind of improve someone else's life, even if it's just teaching them about something fun and giving them a chance to, you know, dig around in some dirt, you know.

Matt  15:12

What about a final message to your fellow graduates, or anything you'd like to say to them?

Brigid  15:18

I think enjoy this time. I think throughout uni, everyone's kind of eager to get out a little bit, you know, everyone's pushing towards the next deadline. And then I think there is that tendency to get really caught up in, you know, what's next. It's really scary. Everything's kind of pulled out from under you. But it's also good thing to just kind of enjoy that and enjoy the fact that you can do whatever you want now, and everything's kind of open to you.

Voiceover -Matt  15:50

Of course, I couldn't just let my graduates go without them telling me their favorite spots and things to do in Edinburgh.

Brigid  15:58

I've really been enjoying kind of heading out towards Leith and walking around by the canal, just kind of visiting the coffee shops out that way.

Matt  16:07

Coffee shops in Edinburgh?

Brigid  16:09

Shocking. And I think that's a really nice area to just go hang out in Stockbridge as well. Yeah, it's just a nice spot.

Matt  16:19 

So yeah, Leith. I think that's the area to explore for new students. And what about an archeological site?

Brigid  16:29

There's a, there's like, a medieval hospital, okay, about like, 30 minutes south of here, yeah, and which is quite an interesting site to go kind of poke around at, yeah, got the names.

Matt  16:40

Yea the name escapes. That's fine. I'll look it up and put it Yeah, that's great. So I got my weekend sorted out now.

[Theme music]

Matt  16:19

So we've reached the end of this story, but fear not we have more to tell. To hear our other graduates from the class of 24 head to our website www.ed.ac.uk/alumni/new-graduates. Or just search Multi Story Edinburgh, wherever you get your podcasts. But for now, that's goodbye from me, and I'll catch you in our next story.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai