Thanks to Pamela's "lament" and her buoyant personality, we have all been
reading some very informative and encouraging responses from the field. Hang
in there, Pam and others, and don't be afraid to supplement your museum work
with something in a better paid field while you stay in touch with museums
through reading, visits, volunteering and conferences. It seems pretty clear
that a glut of graduates on the market has impacted the job search process,
and when you can't be as flexible as a footloose younger single person you
will feel that impact much more heavily.But the opportunities do seem to be
out there.  Pam, you are just about the most unsinkable person I have heard
of since Molly Brown! I am in awe of your perseverance and ability to bounce
back from some pretty negative experiences, and the thoroughness of your
search for information. It sounds like you are building an impressive resume
with a variety of museum work. Not only that-- but you have learned to say
"No"! I think it took 25 years for me to smile and say "sorry, no"-- and
doesn't it lighten your step!

The best job-seeking, resume-preparing advice I ever received was to start a
"life experiences" resume as your own personal private document-- not a
scholarly C.V. but a true life list, for your own perusal. When you have
listed everything you have ever accomplished, whether as employment or
because you had to do it and did it successfully, you will be pretty
impressed with the person on that paper.  Then pick up your resume again,
and look at how you can translate job titles into accomplishments. Rewrite
your resume from the viewpoint of what you are proven capable of doing. A
waitress doesn't just hand out food-- that job requires incredible skill in
perceiving and satisfying customer needs, in multi-tasking, in stamina. An
assistant registrar doesn't just sit in a cubie and record objects, she
sifts and matches information, learns research skills, evaluates condition,
understands donor relationships, handles objects, manages a database,
confers with peers, networks with registrars across the state and through
this list across the world!  As a person gains experiences, she can rewrite
her resume for every single job application, because accumulated skills will
range so broadly from collections management to grantwriting to education to
public relations to volunteer management, on and on. Whatever the job needs,
reach into this sack of skills and polish them up. Job titles are
misleading, what is important is your level of comfort and control of
information learned in that job. Each job title should be followed by a well
written, clear line about your responsibilities and accomplishments. Think
of the application in terms of what you bring to the table, and what your
potential employer wants to have at hand.  Those of us spread along the
baby-boomer timeline accumulate too much experience, and we have to select
the most appropriate and group it under a required or useful type of
experience, and establish a cut-off date (old news is no news to that
fatigued person reading your accomplishments). I do keep a full project list
going back to ancient history, but any job I am interested in gets a
one-page, concise and pertinent resume with a note that the full project
list is available upon asking.

In closing, I sensed some misunderstanding about volunteers that may have
been in response to something I wrote. Let me state here and now that I
believe there is a special room in heaven for volunteers, who add enormous
value to every task they take on, without exception are generous, sociable
and caring people, and in return ask only that their time be respected and
to hear an occasional thank you. I believe I said that volunteering is an
excellent way to acquire training and skills, but it doesn't put dinner on
the table. I didn't say volunteering has no value-- without volunteers, this
country would grind to a halt at every level.  This is a unique aspect of
our democratic society-- when working on a citizen diplomacy project in the
Soviet Union in the 1980s, I learned that Soviet volunteers are people who
are assigned to a job that is not listed on their internal visa.  They were
not unpaid by any means, they were simply assigned to otherwise unauthorized
work by an authority. Woe be to the citizen who showed up to add their
skills after work or while on assigned holiday-- they were escorted outside
and interrogated. Imagine a life where a schoolteacher would be intimidated
if they tried to carve a duck or play a guitar or arrange museum objects for
the love of it in their free time.  I treasure museum (and all) volunteers.
I am also very fortunate to now be in a "mentor" position to a recent museum
studies graduate, who is volunteering temporarily for hands-on experience
while we raise funds for her salary. So rather than being jealous of new
graduates, I value the opportunity to be of use and to pass the knowledge
on, and besides that she's a lot of fun.

Hey Pam, I never had to work tobacco either, but when my family moved to the
west coast I sure had to cut 'cots in the Central Valley. I lasted one week,
and before my hands were damaged beyond repair I picked up my toolbox of
brushes and poster paints and walked the downtown sidewalks, offered to
paint ads on store windows for $10 each window. All it took was one merchant
willing to take the risk (I didn't even have samples, all I had ever painted
were Christmas scenes on our home windows!) and by the end of summer I had
my tuition in hand (and was getting $25 per window). Sometimes you have to
guide opportunity when it can't quite seem to find its way to you!

Micki Ryan
Museum & Archival Services

  -----Original Message-----
  From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Pamela Silvestri
  Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2005 9:30 AM
  To: [log in to unmask]
  Subject: Re: public history grad program and go where you have to go!


  John...OMG you are too much WOW hehe! I mean that in a good way, of
course!

  Volunteering isn't for everybody. And with gas prices these days...among
other things.
  There had to be a limit on how much time and effort that I am able and
willing to put in. Have to draw the line somewhere. It was hard, but I
finally learned how to say no on some things.

  Some people really aren't in the position to volunteer. Being a
single-mother, I had to take great care that I knew where my time was best
spent. So I used to bring my son with me!

  I'm not totally knocking volunteerism as you can tell - but there are a
lot of issues (there is a long-standing anti-volunteerism movement, but
let's not go there!) and I want others to be aware that there are or can be
issues when it comes to museum work. Mainly, you can work as hard as you can
but it doesn't mean that the museum is obligated to hire you, even if they
have a position available. If you are going to volunteer - have clear,
realistic goals for yourself and understand those of the organization the
you are working for.

  Many museum's have guidelines for volunteers, people do volunteer work for
different reasons and museums recognize this.

  BTW Whether you know it or not, you have described me to a 'T'! Except for
one or two things like raising millions of dollars! And with my luck, I
would do that and still be out of work!  I've been in plenty of 'ditches',
literally and figuratively. Right down through the glacial till!

  I love the museum work I am doing right now, though it's not permanent,
full-time work. Maybe I'll be able to get what I want some day, maybe not.
But I'll tell you, I did have plenty times where I had to rethink the
possibility of museum work. It occurred to me that perhaps it is just too
'exclusive' for someone like me (yeh, I'm a Red Sox fan hehe).

  Apparently a lot of us have had some real lowly jobs. And there are others
now that have to do those jobs still! And what can we do? Chock it up to
experience, integrity, learn from it.  I am also grateful that I never had
to work tobacco.

  Pam


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