hi all,

This is a great conversation and I'm looking forward to hearing from more folks.

I do want to mention, having served on hiring committees at a number of governmentally housed museums, that it may be important, simply because of the way that resumes may be scored, to specify skills with Microsoft Office, etc. My recommendation is that if that is specified as a required skill, then it's prudent to include it specifically in a skills list. I have seen situations in which there is a rubric with a list of all the required skills that must be scored to sort candidates, and while we may assume that all candidates have basic knowledge of general office/computer work, we cannot score someone who doesn't mention it. So, for government organizations (including university, state, municipal museums), I'd recommend keeping that line.

A category of "Museum Experience" can also serve to consolidate paid and unpaid experience in a single place, allowing other jobs to be listed elsewhere as needed. I think most of us understand that especially for entry-level positions, many folks will have relevant volunteer roles and those should be placed with paid museum work, as long as it is clear what the role was ("Volunteer Docent"). As noted by someone, if the volunteer role was intense, the number of hours per week could be relevant in helping people evaluate that experience.

The other thing I have noted with students getting started in the job search relates to interviewing. Students may need help learning how to answer questions fully, when they feel like they don't have exactly the right examples to provide. Focusing on skills, interests, and approaches you might use to address the situation, when asked "Have you done X" is much more helpful than "No, I haven't, but I would be interested in learning about that." This just takes practice and prior thought into what skills each person brings to the job and how that particular constellation of skills would be useful.

Best of luck to the students as they get rolling on a new round of applications!

Best wishes,
Eisabeth



On Wed, Mar 7, 2018 at 10:25 AM, Robert Connolly <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Dan,

Very important questions.

In a two part response, first, this past semester in my Museum Practices graduate seminar we spent one session on career development and included a project where students submitting a resume and cover letter for a real job they would apply for upon graduation.  As well, they submitted a referenced essay on why they chose (content, style) what they chose for their documents.   Here is what I learned from the drafts submitted:
  • not one of the graduate students had ever received a critique of their resume or cover letter from a museum professional.  At best, they composed their documents based on the conventional wisdom (but not direct review) of their professors.
  • As the course was online, I held a Q and A for students with a half dozen directors of museums in the Southeast.
  • As well, I held a Q and A with alums of the Museum Studies program who were successfully employed.
  • In the end, the students agreed these activities were the most valuable part of the entire seminar - and I note, I am not certain what that says about the other 14 weeks - but it does say that students appreciate the need for direction on this point.
In the second part, I base my response as someone who hired individuals for the small museum of which I was the director (until my recent retirement).  Based on that experience, and that of other museum professionals with whom I have engaged on this subject, I offer the following:
  • ultimately the resume content needs to reflect what the candidate will bring to the position the first day on the job.  
  • Experience can extend beyond formal employment to include internships, graduate assistant positions, volunteer positions as well.  The candidate needs to articulate what they actually did in the position.  For example, I had one GA who worked with the collections manager to deaccession a sizable portion of our collection and arranged the transfer or same to another facility, updated our collections management and disaster management plans, and so forth.  She performed these tasks for two years at 20 hours per week.  Three years from graduation she is now the Director of a small museum.  Obviously, her highlighting her actual GA role was key to her success.
  • In a small to medium size museum, staff typically operate with a great deal of day-to-day autonomy.  Can they demonstrate that they have completed any projects thusly?  Have they taken any leadership positions as a student?
  • Are they members of the relevant professional organizations?  Have they generated any money through grants?  Have they published anything, presented at professional meetings, won any awards?  These types of activities demonstrate to me that the candidate is proactive and will not just wait for others to initiate.
  • I had a GA who read that the "conventional wisdom" was a one page resume.  Because she was obsessed with cramming everything onto one page, she did not include a fellowship she received to attend an AAM meeting or a MUSE fellowship at the Met, and some other relevant experience.  Obviously, in this instance a one-page was too limiting.  The flip side is that some students want to list every instance of a guest lecture to a class as a presentation and a blog post as a publication and so forth to pad their resume.  
  • Although you did not ask, I personally consider the cover letter of equal importance to the resume.  Typically, applicants either write a boilerplate "to whom it may concern" or start off by simply regurgitating their resume in their cover letter - a wasted opportunity.  Rather cover letters should demonstrate why the applicant is suited for the needs of the position.  Further, the applicant has the opportunity in the cover letter to demonstrate that they have actually done some research about the vision/needs of the hiring venue and perhaps have even visited the place - a definite plus.
  • I am also of the opinion that a personal website listed on the resume can highlight the many aspects of the job candidate not included in the cover letter/resume.  This can be of tremendous benefit for the candidate who made the initial cut in review of applications and possibly give them an advantage of making the short list.  And obviously, a personal website that has not been updated in years, contains typos, poorly formatted, or unprofessional content would work to the candidates disadvantage.
  • Finally, I always, and I mean always encourage students to solicit the advice of those who hold the jobs to which they aspire.  Unfortunately, many academics are simply unfamiliar with what works and what does not work outside the halls of higher education.
Two resources:
Best wishes,

Robert Connolly  

On Wed, Mar 7, 2018 at 8:42 AM, Dan Bartlett <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Imagine you are the hiring manager for a small to mid-sized (up to 15 staff people) museum. Knowing that you will receive scores of applications for that collections or education position you are hiring, what do you want the resumes to look like?

I'm not asking what skills you're looking for, but about resume format. This relates to the advice our students receive from our placement office.

Are two pages okay if the information is all relevant (our students must adhere slavishly to one)? Would you like to see specific sections listing hard and soft skills separate from the employment history (which can then be greatly abbreviated)? Do you care about the objective statement? How important really is a GPA if the student has the degree? Students fresh out of college (undergrad or grad) often have little or no "relevant work experience" (a required section according to our placement folks) but often have many applicable hard and soft skills derived from "related activities" like volunteer activities and coursework (an optional section). Personally I think this is backwards.

What format is going to catch your attention and help you assess the applicant fastest? Again, I'm not talking about specific skills, but the types and arrangement of information on the page(s).

Our placement office pushes a very corporate model for resumes that I'm not sure serves our museum and non-profit students well. One page, really stereotypical. While "accounts receivable clerk" has a broad meaning in the business world, the responsibilities of a "visitor services associate" can be very different in museums across the street from each other.

I look forward to hearing the group's collective wisdom.

db
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Dan Bartlett
Curator of Exhibits and Education
Instructor of Museum Studies
Logan Museum of Anthropology
Beloit College


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Elisabeth A. Stone, PhD
Museum Education :: Participatory Practice :: Feminist Archaeology

Director of Education
Spurlock Museum
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Adjunct Faculty
Departments of Anthropology
University of New Mexico
New Mexico State University

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