Wow, Indigo put it all out there!

The thing to remember is there are a lot of people out there with experience
and that is who you are competing against. They know it's an entry level
job, but they need to eat. In the world of museums, the more you know, the
more you can do and the more useful you are, and therefore given a choice
for the same price, clearly the more experienced and versatile person will
be chosen.

My suggestion is to broaden your horizons. Get skills in another field. Look
at the skills museums seem desperate for: fundraising, computers, project
management, strategic planning and once again, cause it's so important,
fundraising. These are skills you can get elsewhere. And they are done by
many large for-profit or non-profits which are always looking for bright,
fresh people to perform low level jobs and learn the skills. Look outside
the field, find a good job for a few years and when you look again to break
into the museum field, you will be much better armed.

Recent college graduates are, on the average, no older than their mid-20s.
That is over 40 years of a working life ahead. Taking a couple of those to
learn valuable skills in order to spend a lifetime doing a dream job seems
nothing. And who knows, maybe when you take the fork in the road you might
find it was the way you were meant to go.

Plus, I'll add, for many, the first couple years out of college are for
having fun! Do you really want to be working museum hours when all your
friends are heading out of town for a weekend or out for happy hour? And you
have to say "no, I need to stay at work to staff a lecture on the eating
habits of the western pink worm." I say, go out, get a relatively decent
paying job, learn skills and have fun! You have plenty of time to work in
museums, which although fun in their own strange way that only museum people
love, require a large investment of time and responsibility.

Pamela


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Indigo Nights [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 12:31 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: experience for entry level positions
>
> Deb hit the nail on the head in this one.  I want to
> take it a step further and drive it in.  What I'm
> about to say may not, on its face, seem nice, but it
> may be the kindest advice you'll get in the long run.
> What I'm about to say, after having read this and
> several other threads, combined with the recurrence of
> this thread regularly, and the work I'm doing in
> support of those who want to find jobs in the museums
> field, is going to hit on several branches.  Like it
> as not, it also has to hit a little on politics.  I'll
> try not to gore anyone's sacred cow too hard, but
> somebody needs to step up here and tell you that the
> emperor is stark raving naked.
>
> First, if you are a museum who cannot afford to hire
> individuals, stop taking in interns.  Whoa!  That may
> seem absurd on its face.  But if you aren't going to
> have positions out there for these folks to get jobs
> in the long run, and all you're doing is stemming the
> drain in your institution by using free or dirt-cheap
> labor to avoid filling a position with someone who is
> paid a living wage, you're doing no one any favors.
>
> All you are doing is further perpetuating to these
> individuals the false sense of hope that there's a job
> for them at the end of the rainbow.  They're working
> their backsides off getting education and
> proselytyzing those skills in the hope that someone
> out there is going to see how wonderful they are and
> hire them.  But if you don't have the money to pay
> them and will only backfill with another intern, don't
> rationalize that you're doing greater good for the
> museum field and those wanting interns.  You are
> creating a false sense of "job security."
>
> Secondly, all you colleges out there, quit churning
> out so many college grads with museum studies degrees.
>  Oh, no!  Another sacred cow speared.  Be realistic.
> What percentage of the students you're pushing through
> are really going to find a job that will hire them
> much less pay them a wage upon which they can live?
> Pushing students through museum studies when the
> economy and jobs were better was a good thing;
> someday, hopefully, it will be a good thing again.
> But right this moment, it's like saying "Hey, kid, do
> you want a lollipop?" only the lolly never appears and
> the kid sits there frustrated and starving.
>
> I've said it before here many times, I'll say it
> again.  The economy bites!  Over the last few years,
> countless jobs in the for-profit sector have just
> evaporated and been shipped offshore.  That means your
> donors and patrons don't have the ducats to support
> you.  It's time to wake up and smell the coffee that
> the job market in the museum world is funneling into a
> narrow tube, and the prospects of that funnel
> inverting in the other direction are slim today and
> for the near future.
>
> We've cut the income tax, inflated the cost of living
> (got gas?), invested in an ungodly expensive war
> machine that gobbles more and more dollars every day,
> and have an aging population expecting to get the
> bubble gum out of the Social Security and Medicare
> machines they've been paying for all these years.
> Cities, counties, and states are all running into
> extreme financial duress, and they don't have the
> money to support your jobs today.  If a dilemma
> presents itself to support a museum or pay for first
> responders or health and human service organizations,
> the latter usually prevail.
>
> Donors aren't giving.  Read things like the California
> Arts Council to know that donor funds are drying
> up--some part of which is because the tax breaks
> aren't there to act as an incentive.  Contrary to what
> you may be thinking, it's usually only those who are
> about to bite the big one who will their assets to an
> institution for the magnanimity of it all.  More often
> than not, donors do it for the tax incentives.  Call a
> donor and ask them to give when they've already given
> a chunk down the line, and their line becomes "My
> accountant says I can't give anymore because I've
> already reached my tax limits."
>
> Due to the bloated economy, the high cost of health
> care and prescriptions, the fact that people are
> living longer, and requirements of Social Security
> itself, people are working longer.  There is a costly
> learning curve applied to all new employees, but those
> who have more experience take a shorter time to come
> up to speed and therefore cost the employer less to
> train.  Until the new kid is up-to-speed, (s)he's
> often a real drain on an institution because they are
> paying for someone who cannot yet produce and training
> them using someone who can, thereby reducing during
> training the value of the output of the trainer.  The
> sooner a person can be trained, the less costly it is.
>  Given the choice of Eager Ernestine or Tried-and-True
> Ted, Ted will get the job, assuming he doesn't demand
> too much in salary and out price himself.  Those are
> hard facts, but true.
>
> We have a good old story of supply-side economics.
> There aren't enough (in this case, museum) jobs to
> meet the demand of applicants, and the employers can
> do what they will.  Bluntly, it's just your poor, dumb
> luck that you chose to go into this field at this time
> when the market up ended.  That's life.  In a perfect
> world, that education would be put to good work, and
> I'm sorry that this has happened to you, but spit
> happens!
>
> Be honest.  Did you choose a career that felt good and
> applied yourself, or did you do your market research
> before you ever set upon this career path?  If you
> didn't shame on you, and you're getting what you
> deserved.  You went into this with visions of
> butterflies and rainbows, and you blew it.  For all
> that intelligence and education, if you didn't find
> out what the job market in the museum world was really
> like and what it paid, were you really that
> smart--better still, did your professors do you any
> favors to encourage you to get that degree?  Be
> honest.  Did they really?  The one good thing about it
> is you may well have transferrable job skills that can
> be applied to another profession, at least for now,
> and at least give yourself a break that you did get a
> degree because you are light years ahead of those who
> didn't.
>
> Now, about you museums out there that are struggling
> to get by and using these interns.  Those artifacts
> you're protecting and preserving are greater than the
> institution in which you work.  Unless you're in a
> historic building of great import, it may be time to
> consider consolidating with another institution in the
> area.  Part of the problem experienced in the
> nonprofit sector is that far too many want their own.
> It was great when they could.  But there are O&M
> expenses attached to running any institution, and you
> may be wise to suck it up and find ways to create
> synergies with an organization.
>
> I know.  That sucks, right?  Well, if you don't, you
> may just find yourself, for today, in this economy,
> during these times, until they get better (dear lord,
> please make them), you both may fail.  You may be
> saving at least half the jobs by so doing.
>
> As I'm writing this, I remember the query of the
> person who is an attorney and wanted to get a job in
> the museum world.  You might consider getting on the
> board of a museum if you can.  They can always use
> qualified legal help, and it may be a way to segue.
>
> I don't want to seem so harsh or doom and gloom, but
> Little Suzy Sunshine won't cut it.  If your best
> friend won't tell you, somebody must.  Like Jesse
> Jackson said, "I am somebody."
>
> As for me, I still put in hours upon hours trying to
> help close to 1,000 of you find a job in this field
> every day.  In the very, very recent past, jobs have
> gone up a bit, and I post internships (only a few)
> just about every day on
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MuseJobs.  But think
> about it.  If I can find a hundred jobs, and I, alone,
> have 1,000 candidates, what does that tell you about
> the job market?
>
> Oh, I know.  These thoughts are controversial.  If,
> however, you are honest with yourselves and the state
> of events today, you'll find merit in some of what
> I've said.  There's no time to play Scarlett O'Hara.
> It's time to think about one's options and do what can
> be done to mitigate the damage, and I don't see a lot
> of calls for that here.
>
> Time and again we get another batch of newly
> graduated, newly frustrated job applicants.  It's
> about time we were honest with them and ourselves
> about their prospects.
>
> Stepping down off the soapbox now (no I'm not going to
> wash my mouth out with soap for these sacreligious
> thoughts, LOL).  No scud missiles, please.
>
>
>
>
>
> --- Deb Fuller <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > With there being a glut of museum people out there
> > and more getting churned out
> > each year in the various master's programs, 3-5
> > years of experience is a
> > screen-out factor, not a requirement for the job.
> > Yes, most of the jobs
> > advertised could be done by people with undergrad
> > degrees, let alone people
> > with masters degrees. But why take a greenhorn fresh
> > out of school when there
> > are tons of experienced professionals out there who
> > are applying for the job?
>
>
>
> =====
> Indigo Nights
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Looking for a Job?  Try Got Links?, Your One-Stop Portal
> http://victorian.fortunecity.com/stanmer/414
>
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