Temping rocks!!! I did it for awhile after grad school and in so many ways
it have been invaluable. As much as we say work museum people for contacts
and connections, the ones you make temping can really help you later on too.
My advice is to kiss up to the people who do the assignments, although the
truth here is if you are the average person wanting to enter the museum
field, you will be intelligent, committed and a hard worker and that will
put you ahead of most of your co-workers (I know that sounds horribly
snobbish, but sheltered as I had been, I was amazed at the people I temped
with). They will want to hold onto you and keep you happy by sending you to
the good places.
        - A good scheduler will send you to assignments that will complement
your interests. One of my assignments was redoing the file system for an
aviation association. As an aviation historian, I was in hog heaven. And the
association was happy that they had someone who actually knew the material
doing the work. Everyone happy, and as a bonus, they'll contact me every
once in a while to write a history articles for their magazine. (and
freelance work helps so much with those bills! Plus-- publication!)
        - You might get assigned to a museum. When I did, friendly staffers
would tip me off on opportunities, even put in good words for me. Also, I
got to see the museums and how they functioned to decide if I would want to
be involved in that museum (cause when the director screams at the temp for
losing a call, you know they aren't really who you want to work for.)
        - Fundraising. Here in DC especially, there's alot of fundraising
going on and they need temps, even if only to stuff envelopes. You'll get to
see how fundraising is done, and if lucky, you'll get some hands-on
experience.
        - Fundraising II. You'll be temping in big corporations. You might
only be answering phones or sorting mail, but you'll learn names and
sometimes make at least superficial connexions with decision makers. Then
when you are at a museum job, you can return to these places to find money
and they will already know you a little and you know them enough to tailor
the Ask. (amazingly enough, this works great).
        - Board members. I worked at a dot.com whose CEO was on the board of
a museum I was interested in applying to. You can bet I made sure I met him
and presented my case!
        - Legalese. You might get to temp at a law firm, which will give you
superficial knowledge of issues such as contracts, employment law and
others.  Plus, I met some lawyers who will always give me help now.
        - Social. Museums are normally not the most populated places for
social interaction with co-workers- many of us work for 2-3 people museums.
So temping is one of the last times you'll have a large co-worker pool. A
friend I met while temping tipped me off to the history job that took me out
of temping (cause you never know who knows who).


So, if you're looking-- temp while you do. You'll gain skills you never
thought you would and meet lots of interesting people. I'm constantly amazed
and how often I'll do something and realize it was a skill from temping.
It's a great option.


Pamela




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Deb Fuller [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2002 6:47 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Getting a job *without* volunteering
>
>
> --- Ehr Nine <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > What I'd like to know is how many (if any!) of you got
> > jobs *without* doing any volunteer work (including
> > unpaid internships), whether for the institution that
> > hired you or somewhere else. If you didn't have
> > volunteer experience, did you have other applicable
> > experience? Has anyone found it possible to get a job
> > without *any* experience of some sort?
>
> Like I said in my infamous list, in the museum field you are
> competing with
> people who have at least a masters degree and several years
> of experience. The
> field is just that glutted. You need to have *something* that
> gives you an edge
> over the competition.
>
> While I didn't have any volunteer experience, I have gotten
> my museum work
> through connections. Sometimes really random connections. For
> instance, I was
> at a "haunted house" halloween gig (back you scientists,
> back!! ;) at a local
> historical house. Between tours, I struck up a conversation
> with the lady
> playing the dead body in the coffin. Turns out she worked for
> the women's
> memorial at Arlington cemetery so I asked her if she had any
> positions open
> since i was temping at the time. She did and I started the
> next week. It was
> data entry but I was then able to get to work with the curator on some
> education stuff and eventually I started working with the
> exhibit design
> company that did their exhibits. All from talking to a "corpse". :)
>
> So you need some experience just ot get in, even for
> low-level positions
> because the competition is just that tough. If you are fresh
> out of school,
> look for program assistant type jobs, especially at smaller
> places. It will get
> you out and get your feet wet. While you are looking, get a
> "real" job as well
> as that will also give you experience. Temping is a good way
> to get a variety
> of experience and you never know where that will end up. Tell
> the agencies that
> you are interested in the museums and find the ones that
> place in museums as
> well. Non-profits like local public broadcasting stations are
> also great places
> to temp or to work. There's a ton of things out there to do
> and a whole
> lifetime to do it in. Don't sweat if you take a few years to
> get a job. Think
> of it as being that much closer to paying off your student loans.
>
> Deb
>
> __________________________________________________
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