Those of you who have been here a while will recall
that I run four daily MuseNews listservs.  I simply
provide information that I've culled from "out there,"
and it is not the newsletter than Roger provides.  The
lists are small, but fairly steady.

They are:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MuseNews-Art
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MuseNews-General
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MuseNews-History
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MuseNews-Science

I think there's an interesting tie between the number
of participants, the number of articles available, and
the relationship to why so many have a hard time
finding jobs.

First membership today, including bounces, is as
follows:

Art               88
General           36
History           74
Science           25

While membership has been higher and lower, it's
fairly consistent of late.

Now, where are the news articles in order of priority?

History
Science
General
Art

I think that, if these lists represent the bias in the
job market, more of you are trying to find jobs in art
than in history, and far, far, too few of you are
looking for jobs in the sciences.  I do get lots of
news for general (zoos, botanical gardens, arboretums,
libraries, children's museums, state parks, aquaria,
etc.), and yet I don't see many candidates here who
are looking for those opportunities.

I am absolutely stunned that so few put an emphasis on
the sciences.  It never ceases to amaze me just how
few are interested there when there is so much that is
consistently being discovered.  Just the news having
to do with planetaria and observatories alone--in my
biased mind--is enough to make one curious.

Much of what I publish comes to me daily through the
http://news.google.com alerts I've established
(including galleries, archaeology, and anthropology in
addition to the topics abve).  That has turned out to
be a tremendous--free--resource with worldwide info at
one's fingertips.

As I write this, when we have discussed the concept of
transferrable job skills, have all you art majors out
there given thought to possibly altering your emphasis
or trying in another museum market other than the one
in which you had originally hoped to gain employment?
It would seem to me that many of the core skills would
be transferrable, and you might be able to curate an
exhibit in such a way that the beauty of science could
be clearly demonstrated.

Some of these thoughts could clearly be my own bias.
I've always loved science.  Required to take one to
graduate, I took two, and I wanted to take a dozen
except that--when you go to school at night--these
classes frequently just aren't available.

With the internet, however, the world is your
classroom, and there is great info at your fingertips
such that a candidate who had dedicated him/herself to
art could readily do some catch-up.  After all, you've
already acquired the most transferrable job skill of
all--the art of learning.

Just a thought.

P.S.  To the person who got their PhD and said they
were applying for jobs as directors--the one
overwhelming thought that popped in my head is that,
unless I am interpreting what you have offered
incorrectly, no matter how educated you are, you do
not start at the top, and applying for director is
probably not going to be as readily fruitful.  You
have to crawl before you can walk, and you may have to
apply for "a lesser" position until you can get some
experience under your belt.  That may mean working for
less money.

There are risks there.  If you start in one
institution and accept less, they may think it's ok to
pay you less in the next position there.  You may have
to jump institutions once you get the required
experience in order to get the pay.

P.S.S.   Hey, David H.  Spell checkers aren't going to
catch the bane of my existence--homonyms.  I have done
a couple of "their" when I meant "there" and do a
major arggggghhhh behind the scenes.


=====
Indigo Nights
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