Job skills! Certainly you would have applicable job skills for many
different environments graduating seniors. Allpy those skills to working in
some field "surrounding," if you will, the museum world. There are other
types of non-profits, for-profits out there that will give you loads of
experience that you can later demonstrate are easily worth 3-5 years of
experience. If you are in your 20s, you certainly can devote a few years to
the work-a-day world to gain the work experience needed to fulfill the
qualifications.

I also agree with Indigo Nights that you must study your feild to understand
its strengths and weaknesses...as well as your own. Now go tackle those
employers!

Laura West

-----Original Message-----
From: Indigo Nights [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, May 10, 2004 11:31 PM
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
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