Re: Thoughts, pleaseI have just landed my first job in the museum field, and one of the ways I got it was by first taking a job in the shop in the museum, then I got to know people and get some insight. Sorry to say, but I think it is a field where who you know is important. People drop names when jobs come up. It is a close knit community, fortunately not just through museums though, galleries and other art action committees seem to run into each other, so just get out there and volunteer, and make yourself useful in anyway possible, what may seem demeaning to you may simply be seen by others as paying your dues and make it known that you are willing to do what ever the organization you want to work for needs.   
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jim Lyons 
  To: [log in to unmask] 
  Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2001 1:21 AM
  Subject: Re: Thoughts, please




  Paula Morton wrote:
    Hello, I am new to this list, being a newly graduated History major.  Anyway,
    I was wondering something.  The job that I have now is actually at a museum,
    but basically I am a glorified desk clerk.  I answer phones and give tours.  
    Now, how valuable is this experience in getting a job?   I have an
    opportunity to get another such job, and I wasn't sure if it would be worth
    it to take it, or to just volunteer instead, and get a higher paying job out
    of the sector.  at the first job I had an opportunity to do some cataloging
    and help with a few school programs, but I don't know about this one.  so
  what so you think?  I'd appreciate the help.


  =============


  Sept 5, 2001


  Paula,


  A year ago someone wrote asking the group a question not too different from yours.  I'm repeating my answer to him in hopes a part of it may prove helpful.


  -Jim Lyons


  =============


  >>I am finishing my masters thesis in October. Recently, I applied for a
  >job
  >>at a museum and did not even get an interview. I would like to know if anyone has advice on how to get my foot in the door. Over and over again
  >I
  >>have heard that you have to know somebody. However, I do not want to get
  >a
  >>job this way. Does anyone have advice? Thank you
  >>Christian Trabue
  >>[log in to unmask]

  ===========

  "...>There is a regular check list of suggestions on this list which has
  >included:

  >1) volunteering in your local museum to get personally known and build experience..."

  (From Roger Smith)

  ===========

  Sept 7, 2000

  Christian,

  I believe Roger has given you some good ideas, of which I only copied the one above.

  I heartily second the suggestion you volunteer at a museum where you are considering applying for a paid position. There are several reasons:

  1) You will meet and get to know the people you will be working with, and

  2) They will get to know you as well. If you are pleasant and competent it will be noticed.

  3) After a while you may find that, egads, you wouldn't work there if they paid you :-). You may not like the people, the work, or some little thing you don't know yet even exists. You may even discover that the museum field is not for you. It happened to me once (not in the museum field), much to my surprise.

  4) You will know the ins and outs of the place and hopefully will be able to learn something about the workings of several departments. Perhaps one dept. will appeal to you more than the others. (Granted, a job in that dept. may not open up, but if you're in another job in the museum when one does, maybe you can transfer into it.)

  5) When you say you don't want a job just because you know someone, I think you're saying you don't want the job because you're the bosses son (or some such). Right? Volunteering is another way to know someone - a highly honorable way. The director will know you and your work. Obviously I can't speak for anyone else, but if I was the director and had a job opening, the first place I'd look would be to the people I knew both as a person and as a worker. Of course you have to make it known that if a position opens up, you would like to be considered for the job. It wouldn't do at all for them to think you loved working the midnight to 8am shift at Sleezie's Fast Foods.

  Here's another suggestion. Look around for some project that no one there can do, and learn how to do it well. You may become a very highly valued member of the volunteer staff. And you can bet it will look good in the director's eyes.

  For example, now that I'm retired I volunteer at two museums, the Moffett Field Museum and the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto, Calif. Because in my previous profession - 25 years as a full-time dealer in historical newspapers - I have done a fair amount of deacidification and encapsulation work at Moffett Field, as well a setting up a rather extensive display of old newspapers dealing with dirigibles and flight. At the moment I'm the only one there able to do those things.

  In addition, Moffett Field had an old and incomplete dogtag-making machine that no one could work. I restored it from the parts of an old typewriter and taught myself how to work it. Then I hunted all over creation trying to find a supply of dogtag blanks. But it paid off. At the 1999 Air Show at Moffett myself and two other volunteers I trained made (and sold at a good profit for the Museum) over 400 dogtags.

  And, at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto, Calif., earlier this year we had a .50-caliber machine-gun on display and someone messed with it. I was the only one around who knew how to put it together again. It was a little thing, perhaps, but little things add up.

  So volunteer and make your self highly valuable to the museum. All else being equal, I'd say you would have a whale of an advantage over someone else applying for the job you want.

  Hope this has been of some help.

  -Jim
  -- 
  -Jim Lyons

  [log in to unmask]
  http://www.jimlyons.com