Reddit reviews Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble

Marilyn Johnson's Lives in Ruins might answer some of those questions. It's a fairly recent book exploring the lives of some archaeologists--both academic and professional. She sat in a class I audited as a grad student for a semester because she was interviewing one of my professors. The book will give you an idea about what archaeologists end up doing for a career.