TransitionTimes: Trying out a career helps you discover if it's right for you. This week: archaeology.

Archaeology is booming. As well as producing fascinating information about our ancestors, such as the recent studies of the Iron Age bodies found in bogs in Co Meath and Co Offaly, the profession is being swept along on a wave of engineering and construction. An archaeological dig or survey is often required before a site can be built on, so there are now opportunities in archaeology as a business.

Of course, archaeology is also a long way from the Indiana Joneses and Lara Crofts of popular culture, but it is a fascinating area for anyone interested in the past. Eoin Halpin, chairman of the Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland, says: "As a career, it's in your face much more so than it was in the past. We certainly get a lot of interest from fourth-year students."

He says there are three strands of archaeology. "The outdoor aspect, excavation, is very interesting. It's never repetitive, and students find that part hugely fascinating." Some archaeologists are involved in piecing information together and giving us a picture of how things were in the past. Science always plays a big role in archaeology, as areas of study such as forensics give us an increasingly clear view of history.

You can enter these areas through any number of courses, from early history to science, but in order to excavate, an archaeologist must have a licence, which is given only to holders of degrees in archaeology.

Work experience may not be easy to come by. "Some digs are now on construction sites," says Halpin. "That means that anyone who works on these sites needs a Fás Safe Pass, so we have had to turn students down on that basis. If an excavation is on a site before building has started, then there is no problem."

So how would you know whether archaeology is for you? "We get people who have a basic interest in the past and in asking questions about the past. People normally have a general interest in it. I stumbled into it myself," says Halpin.

"It's a good time to become an archaeologist. It's a good time to think about it as a career. Just remember that you don't have to be out in a field, digging. There are a lot of other areas you can go into."

For more information, try visiting www.instituteofarchaeologistsofireland.ie