I don't usually respond to this list, but since it is Christmas Eve and
I'm just kind of occupying space today until Christmas vacation, I
thought I would waste some time and offer a different perspective on the
jobs and wage thing. The point of my email is this, perhaps those of you
suffering from low paying jobs, struggling to pay the rent, with fierce
job competition in cities such as New York, Chicago, and San Francisco
need to consider relocating to parts of the country that enjoy
relatively low costs of living and, though still intense, less
competition for jobs.

To give just a little background, my education and background is in
archaeology and anthropology, and I've spent most of the last 12 years
as a professional archaeologist, but recently am involved in museum work
as I had a minor career change when we relocated for my wife's job. My
wife has an MA in museum studies and art education and has been employed
in art museums for the last several years.

My point is both my wife and I (employed in what are considered low
paying disciplines) have had relatively little trouble finding decent
jobs in our fields, and I don't think it is because we are especially
lucky — just a product of where we have lived and the fact that we
were willing to relocate. This is not to say that it was easy and didn't
take a lot of work, and I know my wife spent years as a volunteer and
working part-time while going to graduate school. The longest it has
ever taken her to find a position in an art museum after receiving her
MA is about 6 months. The pay, while not great by most standards, is
decent enough and we feel like we do OK. We bought a house, have enough
to eat, and enjoy the occasional vacation as well as other fun stuff.
Granted if we lived in New York City or San Francisco at our current
salaries, we would be close to destitute, but here we get by OK.

So again, those of you suffering with meager pay and having extreme
difficulties finding a museum job — think about relocating to a
location where the cost of living is much lower (thus you get more for
your low salary) and job competition is less (but not to be misleading
still intense). There are fine cities in this region such as Kansas
City, Omaha, Lincoln, Wichita, etc. with relatively low costs of living
and contain wonderful museums. Not to mention all of the smaller
communities that have great cultural institutions as well. I understand
that much of the southeast US also has great museums, etc. and low cost
of living — although, they might not be pleased to see such an influx
of Yankees into their country — just kidding but not necessarily
untrue :)

Happy Holidays!

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).