Student of Egypt. Salary: $20,000 or less 

You invested lots of time and possibly too much money in your Egyptology degree. You used to spend your days researching Egypt in the library. Now you're spending most of your time researching jobs that have a little bit to do with the country while tutoring children who still hope to be just like you.

Working Hieroglypher. Salary: $35,000 

You manage to secure actual employment in an Egyptology department. You work under a real professional world-traveling Egypt archaeologist, taking his notes and putting them in essay form. This puts you ahead of most of your peers, even if it only means you spend most of your time writing articles with someone else's name on them.

Egypt Specialologist. Salary: $50,000 

Thanks to picking the right specialty in grad school—good forward thinking—you land a position in a prominent research institution. Your employer grants you a dig concession, and you hire your own minions to carry your trowels and Munsell scale on your Egyptian tour.

Walking like an Egyptologist. Salary: $65,000 

You manage to find proof on an ancient Dynastic theory nobody's even considered before. Thanks to a rush to the presses you're also the first person to get it published. You're proud to be a footnote for future dissertations.

King of the Pharaoh Phinders. Salary: $80,000 

Indiana Jones walks in and asks you to check out his latest site because he knows you'll be better at interpreting what you find than he will. At least you think that's what the guy's name was. A big Egyptology school just named a scholarship after you and you've been celebrating for a week straight.