Like Steve, I also managed to get my current job (my first one out of grad school) through networking at conferences.  

I knew I wanted to work with Southern history, so I attended the Southeastern Museums Conference (www.semcdirect.net) while working on my MA in Museum Studies at GWU.  The first year I was introduced to the deputy director of a museum I had previously interned at (never met him during the internship), and we chatted during a long bus ride to an evening activity.  At the next year's conference, I approached him to say hello and he introduced me to a friend of his who works as an independent curator.  She and I chatted over lunch, and I gave her my resume.  A couple months later she e-mailed to offer me some part-time contract work.  It wasn't ideal, but I hadn't gotten a full-time offer yet, and it beat waitressing.  I guess I proved my worth, because a few months later she offered me a full-time position.  

What I found most interesting was a conversation we had a few weeks after I started the contract work, when she asked me to tell her about myself.  Apparently she had lost/thrown away my resume right after the conference, so she really didn't know what my qualifications were---she just remembered which grad school I was attending.  I'm sure that's not typical, but I guess the point is that a face-to-face conversation with a potential employer (or someone who knows a potential employer), even if it's just a chat over lunch, can be incredibly valuable in the job search.

I highly recommend the regional/state conferences or other medium-small groups.  The one time I went to AAM (in Dallas), it was so big that I felt overwhelmed and ended up only talking to people I already knew.  Sign up for the evening activities, breakfasts and luncheons (even if they cost a little extra)---that was where I really met and got to know people.  

One more note---try to get some sort of proof of your writing skills for your resume.  If your graduate program doesn't include a thesis, try to get published, apply for a writing contest/award, etc.  I feel that's probably the biggest 'hole' in my resume right now.  

Hope some of this is useful to the current job-hunters...

---Margo


Margo Edwards
Curator of Exhibits
Avient Museum Services
E: [log in to unmask]
P: 404.633.8861
F: 404.636.5089


-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Yalowitz <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Jan 7, 2005 11:31 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Misguided applicants-a new angle
P.S. I'm in my current position because of a conversation I had with a colleague over pasta and salad at a conference's evening event. If I hadn't met the person in the conference circuit I wouldn't have known that they were hiring and I likely wouldn't be typing this email right now.

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