"Adding an anthropologist to a research team is like moving from black-and-white TV to color," says Crain. "We're able to observe shades of color that others can't see. Anthropologists understand complexity and can help devise answers that reflect that complexity." -read more in Anthropologists Go Native in the Corporate Village

"Anthropologists are nothing if not flexible in the job market, as the career pathways analysis showed." -excerpted from the 2009 MA Alumni Survey

In response to a survey by the American Anthropological Association's Committee on Practicing, Applied and Public Interest Anthropology (CoPAPIA)*, respondents provided the following responses to describe their post-graduate employment:

*Please be advised the AAA is not responsible for either these websites or the information they provide but merely supplies the information as a service to the anthropological community.

Today's anthropologists do not just work in exotic locations. Anthropologists can be found in a surprising array of fields and careers, not least of which being mother-of-the-President of the United States of America. Anthropologists can be found in corporations, all levels of government, educational institutions and non-profit associations. Anthropologists work in disaster areas, including Ground Zero in New York and the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. Check out the diversity of anthropologists in attendance at the Careers Expo at the 2012 American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting in San Francisco. Whatever their field of choice, anthropologists can change the way we view and interact with our world. There are many areas of anthropological study...

• Sociocultural Anthropology - Examines social patterns and practices across cultures
• Archaeology - Studies past people and cultures through the analysis of material remains
• Physical Anthropology - Studies animal origins and biologically determined nature of humankind
• Linguistic Anthropology - Studies the ways in which language reflects and influences social life
• Medical Anthropology - Seeks to better understand factors that influence peoples' health and well being
• Forensic Anthropology - Analyzes skeletal, decomposed, or otherwise unidentified human remains to aid in detection of crime
• Business Anthropology - Applies anthropological theories and methods to identify and solve business problems
• Visual Anthropology - Uses images for the description, analysis, communication and interpretation of behavior
• Environmental Anthropology - Examines how people interact with, respond to, and bring about changes in the environment 
• Museum Anthropology - Studies the history of museums, their role in society, and changes in this role

This link from Elgin Community College offers a useful breakdown of the fields in which anthropologists are often employed, as well as the skill sets required for each career. 

Check out some of the stories below and learn more about the life-altering work of anthropologists.  

• Business Anthropology Unlocks Opportunities  
• Anthropologists dig into business
• Anthropologists Go Native in the Corporate Village
• Obama picks Korean-American physician-anthropologist as World Bank President
• Intel Research: Genevieve Bell - The Social Life of Cell Phones
• What Makes Genevieve Bell Curious? 
• Grant McCracken: Chief Culture Officer
• Dr. Farmer's Remedy
• Innovation in Asthma Research: Using Ethnography to Study a Global Health Problem (1 of 3)
• On the money: Laura Barton meets Gillian Tett, Assistant Editor at the Financial Times
• R&D 2.0: Fewer Engineers, More Anthropologists
• Ethnographic Research: A Key to Strategy
• Olson's anthropologists bring meaning to marketing
• Breakthrough market discoveries often hide in latent form
• MIRROR, MIRROR: The Anthropologist of Dressing Rooms

There are many great reasons why studying anthropology should be considered by undergraduate and master's students. First, the material is intellectually exciting. Additionally, anthropology prepares students for excellent jobs and opens doors to various career paths. To learn more about careers in anthropology, please continue reading about Career Paths and Education.

Additional Career Resources:

• Career ideas

Versatile PhD - The Versatile PhD mission is to help humanities and social science (and STEM as of July 2013) graduate students identify and prepare for possible non-academic careers. We want them to be informed about academic employment realities, educated about non-academic career options, and supported towards a wide range of careers, so that in the end, they have choices. 

icould: Inspiration for your career - Use our Career Wizard to find jobs that may suit you.

• Portfolio development 

Academic & Professional Resource Documents - Centre for Comparative Literature University of Toronto

The Professor Is In  - Getting Your Through Graduate School, The Job Market and Tenure…

Ask the Headhunter - Breaking Ranks & Rules: How academics can avoid 5 fatal mistakes in the job hunt

• Moral support

Survival Blog for Scientists - Professional scientists write about their scientific life. Contributors are scientists in various stages of their career: from junior to senior. The aim is to supply scientists with tips on how to survive in science.

Get a Life, PhD - Succeed in Academia and Have a Life Too