Laura --

    This may be a useless suggestion, since you may have tried it already,
but have you had someone do a resume review? If you are in touch with any of
your former directors or supervisors, you might ask them to give it a
look-see and suggest how you might present yourself differently. It is also
fair (especially if you've gotten to the interview stage) to ask an
interviewer what you might do in the future to improve your chances of
getting a job you missed. I have asked on a couple of occasions and have
found the suggestions useful and the interviewers gracious in their
explanations. Certainly, you might find that the interviewers have little or
no time, but it is worth a shot. The worst they can do is say no. By the same
token, if you know what kind of job you want, find someone who has that job
and see if you can meet with them to talk about how they got there. When a
friend of mine was on the job-market, he decided what kind of museum he
wanted to work in and sent resumes and generic cover letters to every museum
that fit the bill, whether or not he knew that they were actively looking for
someone. He ended up being hired for a position he'd never even seen
advertised because the museum had his resume on file and called him.

     If you haven't already, I'd suggest finding any museum related
conferences that may be in your area and try to attend in whatever capacity
you can. Make yourself as visible as possible and try to meet as many people
as you can. A lot of jobs come up in places you wouldn't suspect.

    These are suggestions from someone who has always been on the side of the
interviewee, and never on the side of the interviewer. People who actually
are in positions to hire employees may have other suggestions, or find mine
bogus.

    I wouldn't imagine that having a Ph.D., or having a Ph.D. from a foreign
university, or living in the South, would be issues. If others disagree, I'd
be very interested to hear about it.  If having a Ph.D. makes it more
difficult to get a museum job, it would make an interesting corollary to
another thread. But since I have said my two cents for now on the gulf
between academia and museums (and because this is a different thread) I will
hold my peace on this.

    Good luck!

Cheers!
Kristen

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