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Phillip Alig - Episode 72 image

Phillip Alig - Episode 72

Profiles in CRM
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70 Plays7 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.

Transcript

Podcast Introduction

00:00:00
Speaker
You are listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network. The Archaeology Podcast Network is sponsored by PCSJobs. APN listeners can post for free by going to archpodnet.com forward slash PCS. That's $50 off the normal price at www.archpodnet.com forward slash PCS.

Meet Philip Allig

00:00:18
Speaker
This is Philip Allig and you're listening to Profiles ZRN.
00:00:25
Speaker
Welcome to Profiles in CRM, Episode 72. I'm your host, Chris Webster. Profiles in CRM asks CRM professionals nine simple questions. The answer's very wildly depending on their experience and education. Because of the nature of contract archeology 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. Okay, we're here on Profiles and here's the first question. What is your name and who do you work for?
00:00:52
Speaker
My name is Philip Allick. I work for the Kansas City District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Okay. And what's the highest degree that you've earned? I have a B.A. in anthropology from the University of Texas at El Paso. Currently I'm working on a M.A. at KU.

Philip's Education and Experience

00:01:11
Speaker
Yeah. And that's good because there's probably a handful of KUs out there. How long have you been working in CRM? Almost four years.
00:01:22
Speaker
Okay, and where have you worked? What states have you worked in? Just Kansas and Missouri, a little bit in Nebraska. That's our, the USACE district is Kansas, Missouri, a little bit in Nebraska, and a little bit of Iowa. Okay. All right, and what is the position you usually have in CRM, like on CRM projects, and what is the highest position you've ever held? So, you know, field tech crew chief or whatever your organization calls it.
00:01:48
Speaker
Yeah, I've never known how to answer that because I do a lot of a lot of different things. I mean, my title is archaeologist. It was intern archaeologist before I became an archaeologist. I do do a lot of different. I do a lot of review of NEPA documents, writing National Environmental Policy Act stuff and National Historic Preservation Act actions, you know, like
00:02:15
Speaker
I do a lot of some field tech stuff. I'll go out into the field and do site monitoring and record sites out in our 18 USACE managed reservoirs here in Kansas, Missouri. I've worked a few field projects digging shovel tests here and there. But then I've also done a lot of project management for small project management kind of stuff, a lot of research, report writing, that kind of stuff.

Personal and Professional Highlights

00:02:45
Speaker
It's varied, you know, it's a lot of different things. Well, that's good. It keeps it interesting. All right, so those were kind of the setup questions. Now, here are a little more interesting and fun questions. What is the best thing that's happened to you that's related to being an archaeologist? And that can be personal or professional. So I met my wife when I, you know, in school in an anthropology class. Nice.
00:03:10
Speaker
Yeah, but you know, I really like working with the tribes too. I get to work with a lot of Native American tribes, Native American consultation stuff, and that's pretty rewarding.

Challenges in CRM

00:03:18
Speaker
What is the biggest thing that you would change that would make being a CRM archaeologist better? I think better, you know, access to data, easier, you know, easier, like interagency, inter, you know, it's,
00:03:36
Speaker
The ship was not really talk to each other. The agencies really don't talk to each other. You know, there's not really a lot of like cross communication. We're all a bunch of like isolated towers, let alone like academia and CRM talking to each other. So I think, I think some kind of a way of, you know,

Future Aspirations

00:03:56
Speaker
doing that would be really beneficial. Awesome. Okay. And what is your career goal in CRM? So when are you going to be running that office? I don't know. Honestly, right now I just want to finish my master's and then figure it out. Go from there. I kind of want to go into archeological policy, sort of, you know, maybe go try to work for the, the ACHP or, or UNESCO or something like

Advice for Undergraduates

00:04:21
Speaker
that.
00:04:21
Speaker
Okay, sweet. All right, last question. If you could give an undergrad thinking about a career in CRM one piece of advice, what would it be? Look around. There's a lot of really good, good opportunities with the federal government. We have this program called the Pathways program. If you go and use USAJobs, look it up. It's not just, it's not just archaeology. It's all federal, you know, positions, but every now and then they have these and they're
00:04:51
Speaker
They're targeted at, you know, either students or recent grads. So, you know, you've had to have graduated within two years to apply or you've had to, or, or you still need to be in school and then they, it's a part-time like intern, they're like internships, but they're paid internships.

Opportunities in Archaeology

00:05:06
Speaker
That's how I got this job. I had the really great opportunities and they're really there to support you. And, uh, uh, there's also a bunch of other like weird, like there's the veteran curation program.
00:05:19
Speaker
It's targeted at vets, but if you're interested in archaeology, it's a four-month program, and there's one in St. Louis and one in Georgia and one in Virginia. You spend the time rehabilitating all the archaeological collections, and it's run by the Corps, and it's a really good board program.

Show Credits

00:05:47
Speaker
your student or a vet, you know, go on and take a look at some of that.
00:06:15
Speaker
The show is produced by Chris Webster and Tristan Boyle and was edited by Chris Webster. 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