At 10:21 AM 6/9/98 -0400, you wrote:

>The great majority of the recent postings on job-seeking are from those who
>simply want to "work for a museum."  I'd feel more at ease if colleges were
>producing graduates who had some idea of "what type" of museum work they
>have in mind.  Perhaps they'd have better results in their job searches if
>they were more focused in their entry-level objective?

That's a good point. I also think that people should look at "what sort of
things can I do and am good at" as opposed to "what type of job I want."  I
hate the question, "what is your ideal job?" in interviews because my ideal
job is one where I can use a wide variety of my skills and talents in a
museum setting.  I don't have a quick answer like "my ideal job is to be
the director of education at the National Air and Space Museum."  My
background is in costume history and education. Yet I currently work as a
researcher in exhibit design and am extremely satisfied at my present job.
Why?  I use the skills that I learned in the other fields and applied it to
this one.

I think people should look at themselvs as a bunch of skills that can be
applied to many areas of museum work as opposed to work in a specific area.
 A degree in education, especially with classroom teacher experience, has a
lot more applications than just museum education.  It gives one the ability
to "educate and disseminate information to other parties" which is a very
valuable skill.  It can be used to coordinate and train volunteers, work on
an exhibit design team as a text-writer (knoweldge of reading levels and
comprehension is especially valuable), work in public programs, putting
together audio tours, etc. This skill combined with other skills like web
design, graphic design, research or public relations open up even more
fields of opportunity.  Plus as an "educator", you are taught to be
incredibly resourceful which is a skill that is highly valued in all fields
of the museum world.

In closing, I think we all can use a tip from basic job hunting which is
"look at what you can do for the museum as opposed to what the museum can
do for you."

Deb Fuller