Deb,

Boy, don't you speak the truth! Its is so true, in my history, that is for
sure. I have taken all those Admin skills at galleries, and when looking
for new work, apply them outside the art field. Many employers don't seem
to grasp that the art field, whether or not you work in a museum, gallery
or arts organization, it is STILL a business, just like theirs. And you're
right, an Admin in a law office, management company, or most other non-art
related fields does pay more. Its so sad, but the arts is a tightly
financial market.

I plan to keep sending my resume out in the hopes that someone will have
the salary I can live with and can use my skills to their fullest
potential. I appreciate your words of wisdom and experience alot. I feel a
bit better that I am not the only one feeling this way about the career
choice I made.

Nancy

----------
> From: Deb Fuller <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Getting a Position in arts administration
> Date: Friday, June 05, 1998 1:57 PM
>
> At 11:37 AM 6/5/98 -0700, you wrote:
>
> >research, I found that even though hiring organizations list
Qualifications
> >at BA and only a few years experience, they are hiring people with
Masters
> >degrees and many years of experience.  Between the two of us we make the
> >perfect candidate, education and experience, but without one or the
other
> >you will have a difficult time, I know I am.  If you are interested I
have
> >info on the most frequently requested skills, breakdown of regional
> >differences in qualifications, etc.
>
> From someone who just got finished with a job search, I can also
> sympathise.  I think a good chunk of the problem is the lack of museum
> positions and those that are available are mainly lower level admin
> positions.  Since most of the management level positions require several
> years experience in museum work, sometimes the only way to get started is
> through the admin-type positions, especially in the larger institutions.
> Thus people who want to work for these larger places like the
Smithsonian,
> start out in whatever position they can get hired for, usually an admin
> position since they are high turn-over and a good way to meet people to
> network up.  I know plenty of people with masters degrees doing admin
work
> at the Smithsonian just because it was a foot in the door.
>
> In my opinion, this is sometimes a bad practice because it means that
once
> someone has mastered all the office procedures and daily routines after a
> couple of years, they finally have enough time under their belts to work
> their way into another position.  This creates a position where someone
is
> always being trained and thus the work is never done as efficiently as
> possible.  Contrast this with the "business" admin world where the
salaries
> are much better and people usually stay on longer or move up to other
admin
> positions in the same company.  Plus in the museum world, there seems not
> to be the "market" for professional admins like there is in big business,
> especially in the smaller museums. Thus the people who do get hired as
> admins are not trained to be admins but liberal arts students who learned
> MS Word really well from writing all those research papers and have spent
a
> lot of time temping.  :)  (I fall into this category. )
>
> Unfortunately, I don't see a good way to change this since museums are
> strapped for money and can't afford to create entry-level positions for
all
> areas of museum work like education, curation and research so students
> fresh out of college can get practical museum experience without having
to
> start off as an admin.  Nor can museums afford to command a high enough
> salary to attract the professional admins who can make upwards of $40K
> working for the big companies for several years.
>
> My advice is to just keep plugging at it.  All museum positions are hard
to
> get these days no matter how much experience and education you have.
Keep
> sending out those resumes and networking around and you'll find something
> eventually.  Most people I know have job hunted around a year before they
> found something that paid a living wage.
>
> Good luck!!
>
> Deb Fuller