How To Become A Project Archivist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a project archivist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a project archivist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $23.92 an hour? That's $49,751 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 12% and produce 4,200 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreProject ArchivistUS Average

Salary

3.9

Avg. Salary $49,751

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

4.2

Growth Rate 12%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.21%

Asian 5.07%

Black or African American 5.23%

Hispanic or Latino 7.25%

Unknown 4.17%

White 77.07%

Gender

female 62.72%

male 37.28%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress Level

4.2

Stress level is moderate

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

9.2

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

10.0

Work Life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a project archivist

Explore project archivist education requirements

Most common project archivist degrees

Bachelor's

54.0 %

Master's

41.7 %

Associate

2.5 %

Start to develop specific project archivist skills

Skills	Percentages
Student Assistants	16.03%
DACS	12.92%
Cataloging	10.29%
Access Database	9.86%
Marc	9.86%

Complete relevant project archivist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New project archivists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a project archivist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real project archivist resumes.

Research project archivist duties and responsibilities

Manage the cataloging and archiving of license consumer products.
Create EAD finding aids for every manuscript collection.
Organize and labele each image for scanning and digitizing.
Describe media materials in xml-encode finding aid using local and national cataloging standards.

Prepare your project archivist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your project archivist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a project archivist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Project Archivist Resume templates

Build a professional Project Archivist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Project Archivist resume.

Apply for project archivist jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a project archivist job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do project archivists rate their job?