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Michael Tomiak - Episode 48
63 Plays10 years ago
Profiles in CRM features short interviews with CRM professionals from all experience levels and educational levels. I ask a standard list of questions and see how each person answers them based on their experience.
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
You
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
are listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network. Hi, this is Michael Tomiec and you're listening to Profiles in CRM.
00:00:12
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Welcome to Profiles in CRM, Episode 48. I'm your host, Chris Webster. Profiles in CRM asks CRM professionals nine simple questions. The answer is very wildly depending on their experience and education. Because of the nature of contract archaeology and how small this field really is, some people choose not to reveal their name or the company they work for. Stay to the end of the show to hear how you can have a chance to answer these same questions.
Guest Introduction: Michael Tomiec
00:00:33
Speaker
Alright, we're here on Profiles and here's the first question. What is your name and who do you work for?
00:00:37
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Hi, I'm Michael Tomiak. I work in archaeological consulting for an architectural and engineering firm based in London, UK. OK. And what's the highest degree you've earned? I own a, or at least obtained, a master's degree in cultural heritage management and GIS. OK. I think you can say you own it. I mean, you own a master's degree, you own it.
Career in CRM
00:01:03
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Right. How long have you been working in CRM?
00:01:06
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Roughly probably about five years in total. I tend to include my graduate degree and my undergraduate degree as part of that because it is working, although maybe not paid. It's still being involved in the area in the field. Absolutely. Yeah. All right. And where have you worked?
00:01:26
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I've worked all over the place actually, quite a diverse background. I've worked with CRM firms in both the UK and the USA. Currently, as I said, I'm working in consultancy for archaeology in the UK, but I've also done lots of research and geophysical surveying methods out in the States and how that can be applied and how it is being applied currently in current and modern archaeology.
00:01:54
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Nice. Where did you work in the United States? I worked for a geophysical consultancy firm doing archaeological geophysics, specifically magnetometry, bits of ground, plant raising radar, and then helping them create some mapping elements and some cartography to help some reports that are right another time.
00:02:18
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All right, so what is the position you usually have when you're with a firm, and what is the highest position you've ever had?
00:02:25
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It's a good question. Yeah, the highest position is probably one of just consultancy. I haven't had the pleasure of managing any teams or anything. I've done quite a bit of data operations and experience, data operations, data management in some of my past roles, which did require the dispersion of work.
Best Experience in CRM
00:02:52
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But I wouldn't say I was necessarily the manager of the team, maybe just the team lead, I think. What is the best thing that's happened to you that's related to being an archaeologist? And this can be personal or professional.
00:03:02
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The best thing, possibly unearthing some Roman burials up in York in the north east of England, the finding of the burials actually went on to require the architects to redesign the foundations of the building so they could preserve in situ rather than destroy or have to excavate out the burials and I thought that
00:03:34
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That was a good feeling in the end. That's really cool they were able to do that. Yeah, it's not often you're able to persuade the developers or any of the clients to spend that additional money to alter their designs, but that's exactly what a lot of time observations do.
Improving CRM Work
00:03:52
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Yeah, there you go. All right, what is the biggest thing you would change that would make being a CRM or contract archeologist better?
00:03:59
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I'm very keen on knowledge sharing and information. I think everyone has their unique specialties and their idiosyncrasies with what areas they work in and what they like to work in and not only the multidisciplinary approach but really sharing those knowledge of specific skills and technical information such as in the last
00:04:25
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examples, practices and experience because everyone doesn't realistically have the time to go and take a degree or a course in a specific software and you're never really going to experiment it with anything new unless you have to for your work. So if you're at your work and there's
Future of Geophysical Survey Methods in CRM
00:04:50
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sets, I think that's really vital because sometimes it takes the back seat in especially consultancy work. What is your career goal in CRM? That's a good question as well. Career goal, first and foremost, always just to have something intentionally
00:05:15
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As a career goal, I think I would like to definitely see some of the new techniques I've been researching and investigating of the geophysical survey methods applied more widely with more confidence and with some more research going into that to be able to apply those.
00:05:35
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sort of the use of it in current CRM.
Advice for Undergraduates
00:05:39
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As a kind of career goal, I guess, to be involved with that and to contribute to knowledge from on that perspective. All right, last question. If you could give an undergrad thinking about CRM one piece of advice, what would it be?
00:05:55
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That's something which I could have done with as well. Lots of advice is always helpful as an undergrad. I remember thinking when I was, I actually did my undergrad at Nottingham University in the UK and I barely knew what archaeology was much going into on undergrad. I'd done history for A level, which is just exams that you do when you're 18 and you leave high school here. Archaeology isn't really a separate degree. So you kind of go into it new and then you're coming out thinking, well, this is a really interesting subject. I love it.
00:06:25
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you know, get paid for it, how can I make a profession out of it? And I think one of the main things I learned was firstly to be proactive, to really make contacts, get out of there, get a wide experience. And because that's ultimately where a lot of work is coming from, it is from consultants, small consultancies, you know, one to three baby people, unless you get involved in one of the bigger CRM firms, you know,
00:06:54
Speaker
So to make this context and then also to kind of get a unique skill which you can offer that perhaps maybe the companies aren't, isn't the going thing to have or they currently have in their skill set. For example, about five years ago, the use of geographic information systems in archaeology was still fairly new, or at least not widespread yet.
00:07:23
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the companies were often looking for data, people with data experience, data handling, management, organization, that kind of thing.
Conclusion and Participation Details
00:07:32
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So I really, with my graduate degree, I ended up looking to acquire not only more further archaeological education, but also GIS to make that aspect of me
00:07:53
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Show notes for this and all episodes can be found on the Archaeology Podcast Network website at www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com forward slash profiles. At that page, you'll also find a form that you can fill out so you can be interviewed on the show. Interviews take less than 30 minutes and you don't need any special equipment. Thanks for listening and I'll see you in the field.
00:08:19
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This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com Contact us at chrisatarchaeologypodcastnetwork.com